Windy City Gridiron
On this day of love, let’s talk about the players we LOVE to hate
Happy Valentine’s Day, Bears fans! While you men are running to Walgreens today to grab the last of the candy scraps and buy a dilapidated bouquet from Jewel, let’s look back at some of the players that we Chicago Bears fans don’t think too fondly of.
Most are for their performances on the field, but some are for a variety of other reasons. Either way, on this day of love, let’s look at the players that all of us fans just love to hate.
Is this one universal, or just my family? I had just turned 8 when the Miami Dolphins beat the ‘85 Bears on Monday Night Football. My father held a grudge against that team, and specifically Dan Marino, for years. Marino is one of the 10 greatest quarterbacks of all time and had a hell of a career, but after you ruined the Bears' perfect season, it serves you right that you never won a Super Bowl.
Plus, if it wasn’t for Marino, Ray Finkle would never have gone crazy and kidnapped Snowflake. The man is a menace.
The 2001 Chicago Bears were a lot of fun. Between the James Allen Hail Mary, the Mike Brown pick-sixes, and the 13-3 record, it was a season of joy for so many of us. The Bears had a home game in the Divisional Round against the Philadelphia Eagles, and had they won that game, they would have been one win away from a Super Bowl.
But Hugh Douglas changed all that. Douglas took a cheap shot on Bears QB Jim Miller that knocked him out of the game and forced the Bears to play Shane Matthews. I won’t pretend that Jim Miller is Patrick Mahomes, but the offense always ran better with Miller on the field. The Bears' offense completely stalled in the second half, and Donovan McNabb and the Eagles took control and won the game.
A couple of years later, Douglas and the Eagles lost the Super Bowl to Tom Brady by three points. Maybe if Douglas had recorded just one statistic in the game, the Eagles could have won.
Wrong sport, don’t care. If you are a fan of the Chicago Bears and old enough to remember the late 80s/early 90s Chicago Bulls/Detroit Pistons rivalry, Laimbeer should be on any list. The Detroit fans would call him hard-nosed. The rest of the league would use the more apt adjective: dirty.
Laimbeer didn’t just throw a cheap elbow; he would physically assault opponents. He would knock Michael Jordan when he was in the air. Nothing Laimbeer did on the court was done with class.
I’ll always enjoy that the Beastie Boys immortalized his weak style of play with the song “Tough Guy.” Don’t know it? Here’s a sample of the lyrics, “Butcher...
