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The Rise & Self-Destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History: The Chicago Bears and Super Bowl XX
This book is the story of one of the greatest football teams in the history of the the '85 Bears. They were, for a brief, magical moment, a band of eccentrics who went from nobodies to rock stars and cult figures—they took America on a wild ride in the middle of one of the wildest times in history. The Rise and Self-Destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History reveals all the stories from that year, like how Walter Payton ended up hiding in a storage closet and why the team collapsed under the weight of its own greatness.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 27, 2022
There are many convincing arguments that the 1985 Chicago Bears were the best team in NFL history. The statistics on their dominance are amazing. Pat Summerall and John Madden, two of the most knowledgeable football followers, both firmly believed it. During that season, they were the most popular topic for discussion, both on and off the field.
For a short time, William “The Refrigerator” Perry was the most well-known person in the sports world. Weighing somewhere around 350 pounds and a defensive tackle, he was surprisingly agile and was used as a running back and pass receiver on offense. Yet, the incredible fame and massive number of endorsements by some of the players and the head coach Mike Ditka proved to be a cancer on the cohesion of the team. There are still many questions regarding how good a coach Mike Ditka really was. To this day there are debates as to whether the 1985 Bears succeeded in spite of or because of him.
All of these issues make this a fascinating book. It shows how fleeting even the highest levels of success can be. Yet, it must be kept in mind that the Bears were still very good in later years. Their record in 1986 was 14 and 2, in 1987 it was 11 and 4 and in 1988 it was 12 and 4. All good enough to get into the playoffs, where they went down to defeat.
All teams have internal machinations that can be either positive or negative. In this case, many of them were negative. As Mullen states very clearly, jealousies over the amount of media coverage, the amount being earned by endorsements and some very foolish statements and moves by management kept the Bears from doing what they were perfectly capable of doing, winning another Super Bowl. As is made clear in this book, the team did largely self-destruct, although it was incremental rather than dramatic.
For a short time, William “The Refrigerator” Perry was the most well-known person in the sports world. Weighing somewhere around 350 pounds and a defensive tackle, he was surprisingly agile and was used as a running back and pass receiver on offense. Yet, the incredible fame and massive number of endorsements by some of the players and the head coach Mike Ditka proved to be a cancer on the cohesion of the team. There are still many questions regarding how good a coach Mike Ditka really was. To this day there are debates as to whether the 1985 Bears succeeded in spite of or because of him.
All of these issues make this a fascinating book. It shows how fleeting even the highest levels of success can be. Yet, it must be kept in mind that the Bears were still very good in later years. Their record in 1986 was 14 and 2, in 1987 it was 11 and 4 and in 1988 it was 12 and 4. All good enough to get into the playoffs, where they went down to defeat.
All teams have internal machinations that can be either positive or negative. In this case, many of them were negative. As Mullen states very clearly, jealousies over the amount of media coverage, the amount being earned by endorsements and some very foolish statements and moves by management kept the Bears from doing what they were perfectly capable of doing, winning another Super Bowl. As is made clear in this book, the team did largely self-destruct, although it was incremental rather than dramatic.
December 31, 2023
If you like football, this is a great book to read. My mom is a Bears fan who grew up in Chicago, and she lived with my dad near Chicago at the time this happened. As a Bears fan, I had heard a lot about this team and their story, but Mullin did a great job providing extra context and bringing the story to life. There will probably never be another team like the 85 Bears, and this book helps you relive their story.
August 6, 2023
This was an interesting look at the Chicago bears. It gave you behind the look at how they were. How they guys interacted and how the team got to the Super Bowl that year.
April 14, 2014
Da Bears! Da Monsters of the Midway! The most dominant football team ever.
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May 16, 2017Book Review
By: Jimmy LaSusa
The book The Rise and Self-Destruction of The Greatest Football Team in History is a book about the 1985 Chicago Bears. I liked this book because I am a sports fan. Also because football is one of my favorite sports and I follow it closely. The book goes into great detail about what happened during the 1985 Chicago Bears season and it gives you stories from players that you probably haven't heard before. That being said I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars because it gave me insight into my favorite football team.
I think that the author does a good job of bringing multiple perspectives from different players into the story while reading and not just focus on one player. The in text quotes really help create a deeper understanding of what a player or coach is feeling like for example on page 186 John Mullin explains what happened between players in the locker rooms it states “That angered Hampton. In the meeting room, Hampton pointed right at McMahon.‘McMahon, what the f*** is your deal? Here you say you can play but you won’t come out and practice or do any of the things you're supposed to do. Then you throw everybody under the bus and say you can play.’” I think that the author did a really good job of showing the audience about how it frustrated the players that he was hurt and didn’t practice but would play in games rather than just saying the players were upset. Using the actual quote in this situation helped understand that this is their livelihood and players will get mad if you’re not fully committed.
While I enjoyed the player dialogue other readers like Wiley Moore from amazon didn’t like the quotes as much by the players. He states “The pages are littered with quotes from the players and other personnel that may or may not be related to one of the topics in the general area of the quote. However, the author never indicates where you should stop reading and jump to the quote, so the reader is constantly being interrupted. It's an unbelievably annoying style that I've fortunately never encountered before.” I agree with this statement. The author has quotes from players and coaches from the Chicago off to the side in boxes frequently but he never specifically tells you when to read them which makes picking the right time to stop and read it difficult. A good example of this on page 148 where in one of the boxes off to the side it states “‘I’m convinced that McCaskey privately wanted McMahon to screw up and be guilty, because those two didn’t like each other’ -Les Grobstein”. This is an example of a good quote that shows in depth the relationship between the two players that he was talking about on that page but if you don’t stop to read it you miss out on information that could help deepen your understanding of the players relationship.
Brian Smith from amazon was also negative about the book because he thinks he didn’t learned anything. He states “While there were a few of interesting behind-the-scenes stories, the book is dissatisfying in terms of being long on common knowledge about the team and short on inside information”. I would disagree with that statement because being the big Chicago Bears that I am I found a lot of new information about the team and thought that a lot of the information in this book went deeper than just looking at stats and scores of games. Such as understanding player personalities and how most players personalities differ from how i thought.
Overall I would say this book is a good read for sports fan who want to know what it’s like around a NFL team and even more interesting to Bears fans who want to know more about their favorite team. I rated it a 4 out of 5 because I like to read about sports and having it be about my favorite football that I wasn’t alive to watch made it interesting.
Works Cited
Moore, Wilcy. "Robot Check." Robot Check. Amazon, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.
Smith, Brian “The Rise & Self-Destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History:” The Chicago Bears and Super Bowl XX: John Mullin, John Madden: Amazon.com: Books
Mullin, John. The Rise and Self-destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History: The Chicago Bears and Super Bowl XX. Chicago: Triumph, 2005. Print.
By: Jimmy LaSusa
The book The Rise and Self-Destruction of The Greatest Football Team in History is a book about the 1985 Chicago Bears. I liked this book because I am a sports fan. Also because football is one of my favorite sports and I follow it closely. The book goes into great detail about what happened during the 1985 Chicago Bears season and it gives you stories from players that you probably haven't heard before. That being said I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars because it gave me insight into my favorite football team.
I think that the author does a good job of bringing multiple perspectives from different players into the story while reading and not just focus on one player. The in text quotes really help create a deeper understanding of what a player or coach is feeling like for example on page 186 John Mullin explains what happened between players in the locker rooms it states “That angered Hampton. In the meeting room, Hampton pointed right at McMahon.‘McMahon, what the f*** is your deal? Here you say you can play but you won’t come out and practice or do any of the things you're supposed to do. Then you throw everybody under the bus and say you can play.’” I think that the author did a really good job of showing the audience about how it frustrated the players that he was hurt and didn’t practice but would play in games rather than just saying the players were upset. Using the actual quote in this situation helped understand that this is their livelihood and players will get mad if you’re not fully committed.
While I enjoyed the player dialogue other readers like Wiley Moore from amazon didn’t like the quotes as much by the players. He states “The pages are littered with quotes from the players and other personnel that may or may not be related to one of the topics in the general area of the quote. However, the author never indicates where you should stop reading and jump to the quote, so the reader is constantly being interrupted. It's an unbelievably annoying style that I've fortunately never encountered before.” I agree with this statement. The author has quotes from players and coaches from the Chicago off to the side in boxes frequently but he never specifically tells you when to read them which makes picking the right time to stop and read it difficult. A good example of this on page 148 where in one of the boxes off to the side it states “‘I’m convinced that McCaskey privately wanted McMahon to screw up and be guilty, because those two didn’t like each other’ -Les Grobstein”. This is an example of a good quote that shows in depth the relationship between the two players that he was talking about on that page but if you don’t stop to read it you miss out on information that could help deepen your understanding of the players relationship.
Brian Smith from amazon was also negative about the book because he thinks he didn’t learned anything. He states “While there were a few of interesting behind-the-scenes stories, the book is dissatisfying in terms of being long on common knowledge about the team and short on inside information”. I would disagree with that statement because being the big Chicago Bears that I am I found a lot of new information about the team and thought that a lot of the information in this book went deeper than just looking at stats and scores of games. Such as understanding player personalities and how most players personalities differ from how i thought.
Overall I would say this book is a good read for sports fan who want to know what it’s like around a NFL team and even more interesting to Bears fans who want to know more about their favorite team. I rated it a 4 out of 5 because I like to read about sports and having it be about my favorite football that I wasn’t alive to watch made it interesting.
Works Cited
Moore, Wilcy. "Robot Check." Robot Check. Amazon, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.
Smith, Brian “The Rise & Self-Destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History:” The Chicago Bears and Super Bowl XX: John Mullin, John Madden: Amazon.com: Books
Mullin, John. The Rise and Self-destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History: The Chicago Bears and Super Bowl XX. Chicago: Triumph, 2005. Print.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews