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Steve McMichael 'transcended every era' in NFL on way to Pro Football Hall of Fame
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- Steve McMichael 'transcended every era' in NFL on way to Pro Football Hall of Fame
Steve Doerschuk studied the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2024 from an Ohio perspective. Defensive tackle Steve McMichael played 13 of his 15 NFL seasons (1980-94) with the Chicago Bears.
Who committed the bigger blunder in the 1980 NFL draft?
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Was it the Browns, for taking linebacker Cliff Odom at No. 72 overall when future Hall of Fame dedender Steve McMichael was right under their nose?
Or was it the Patriots , who grabbed McMichael at No. 73 and cut him after one season?
Odom actually had a respectable career, just not with Cleveland . After getting spot duty with the 1980 "Kardiac Kids," the Browns cut him in 1981. He went on to play 112 games for the Colts and 47 for the Dolphins.
Bears defensive tackle Steve McMichael on the field prior to Super Bowl XX when Chicago routed the New England Patriots 46-10 at the Superdome, Jan 26, 1986, in New Orleans.
The Patriots likewise cut McMichael in 1981. Then he spent 191 games front and center on one of history's most durable defensive machines, in Chicago.
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Coincidentally, McMichael and Odom made their NFL debuts against each other in the 1980 season opener, a 34-17 Patriots win over the Browns.
McMichael didn't face Cleveland again until the 1986 opener, when the Bears, coming off a Super Bowl win, beat the Browns 41-31.
It was the last golden era for both franchises.
From 1985-89, the Browns reached the playoffs all five years and played in three AFC Championship Games.
From 1984-91, the Bears made the postseason seven times and reached NFC Championship Game three times.
McMichael was a monster on a 1985 team routinely mentioned in "greatest-defenses-in-NFL-history" debates. The lineup included fellow Hall of Famers Mike Singletary, Richard Dent and Dan Hampton and produced a 46-10 Super Bowl mugging of New England .
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That year's media darling and a star of the famous "Super Bowl Shuffle" video was the other defensive tackle— rookie William "The Refigerator" Perry was an oddly shaped character bearing 350 pounds.
McMichael had his own big personality and was what some would call a rough character.
A 2005 Chicago Tribune article said the Patriots cut him because he was "a bad influence for his off-field carousing."
His stepfather, an oil executive, was shot and killed by a former employee when Steve was a Texas Longhorns freshman, the Tribune said.
He met his second wife Misty when he was a pro wrestler and she was a dancer, the article reported, quoting Misty using his nickname while observing, "Mongo can be a dumbass. But Stephen is one of the smartest people I've ever known."
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The Bears had acquired rough characters before.
Browns coaching legend Paul Brown drafted 6-foot-8 defensive lineman Doug Atkins in 1953. Atkins caroused his way out of Brown's good graces and landed with the Bears in 1955. He gave Chicago 12 seasons and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1982, just as McMichael was digging into The Windy City.
Neill Armstrong, McMichael's first Bears head coach, was replaced by Mike Ditka, who had been a blood-and-guts Chicago tight end.
"Steve transcended every era," Ditka told the Tribune years later. "He could have played in the '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s. What he had, he gave to me all of it."
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McMichael grew up in southern-tip-of-Texas oil country in the town of Freer. He earned varsity letters in football, basketball, track, tennis, golf and his favorite sport, baseball.
He was a rugged catcher scouted by Cincinnati . He grew to 6-2, 260 pounds. Reds icon Johnny Bench was seen as a big catcher at 6-1, 197.
McMichael opted to focus on major-college football, at Texas. He played for the Longhorns in 1977 when they would have been national champions had they not lost to Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl.
His college nickname was "Bam Bam" — Dick Ambrose played linebacker in Cleveland under that monicker at the same time.
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McMichael's nicknames with the Bears were "Mongo," after a character portrayed by Hall of Famer Alex Karras in "Blazing Saddles," and "Ming," after the "Ming the Merciless" character from the ancient "Flash Gordon" film series.
It all fit McMichael's violent playing style and personal flair.
The Chicago Sun-Times called him "the most outlandish character on a Bear team that was full of them."
This carried on to life after football. He was the celebrity singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at a 2001 Cubs game when he berated the home-plate umpire in front of an open mic. The ump had him ejected from The Friendly Confines.
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McMichael's enshrinement comes under gut-wrenching conditions. He is bed-ridden with ALS, with which he was diagnosed in 2021.
Initial plans to get the 66-year-old McMichael to Canton for the enshrinement were canceled.
"The Hall of Fame is going to make a special exception to where they bring the bust and the jacket here to the house," Misty McMichael said in June. "That way he's not surrounded by a bunch of germs and stuff. It's just way too risky for him in his condition."
Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2024 enshrinee Steve McMichael is represented by daughter, Macy (left), and wife, Misty McMichael, during unveiling of a case with his personal memorabilia inside the Hall main lobby, Friday, May 24, 2024.
McMichael's last year with the Bears was 1993. He played a final season, 1994, with Green Bay .
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"For 13 years, I helped the Bears beat the Packers every year," he told the Tribune in 2019. "I whipped their ass, right? So the last year, I went up there on my last leg and I wasn't any good any more. So I stole their money and whipped their ass again!"
His Bears persona helped him build a following as a pro wrestler.
The schtick got thick. After one late-1990s pay-per-view match, WCW tough guy "Goldberg" was presented with "Mongo's" Super Bowl ring by McMichael's then-wife, Debra. Bill Goldberg had been a defensive tackle with the Rams and Falcons.
McMichael was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010 as part of a class that included Ohio State linebacker Chris Spielman.
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At the enshrinement, McMichael said:
"I miss being in the locker room. When you come to things like this you get it back.
"I don't care what team a guy played on, or what year he played, the locker room has always been the same: fun sarcastic humor. You're messing with your buddies. The brotherhood of football."
McMichael was known for calling every male he talked to "brother."
One time when asked why he wasn't in the Hall of Fame, he responded, "Not enough Super Bowls, brother."
In the epic 1985 postseason, the Bears outscored the Giants , Rams and Patriots 91-10.
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The offense wasn't good enough to make a dynasty. In playoff losses that ended the 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1990 seasons, all at Soldier Field, the Bears scored a combined 36 points.
Spirits were high in 1991 when the record reached 9-2. The beginning of the end was a 16-13 home loss to Miami .
Cliff Odom, the 72nd pick of the 1980 draft, was a Dolphins starter that day. McMichael, the 73rd pick in '80, sacked Dan Marino in the loss.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2024 (from left) of Dwight Freeney, Randy Gradishar, Devin Hester, Andre Johnson, Misty McMichael (representing husband Steve McMichael), Julius Peppers and Patrick Willis unveil the class banner at the Hall, Friday, May 24, 2024.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Steve McMichael in Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2024
