Second City Syndrome Incarnate: ’85 Bears
By JoshMogerman in News on Nov 6, 2010 6:39PM
Yes, it’s the 25th anniversary of the Bears’ 1985 Superbowl victory. And yes, that might have been the greatest team in NFL history. And, sure, while this is a Bears town, football glory has all but disappeared since Walter, the Fridge, Samurai Mike and the Punky QB left the stage. But really, why the breathless anticipation every time two of these geezers are in a room together? Can’t this city move on?
Clearly, the answer is “no.” Witness the exciting revelation that Buddy Ryan and Mike Ditka were hugging out their issues after apparently NOT exchanging punches a quarter century ago in New Orleans. Hurray! A feel good story, though not exactly the fresh news we normally focus on in this town.
Don’t get us wrong. We won’t forget the exhilaration of that season and we retain treasured memories of the team’s exploits.
But perhaps there is something else going on in all of this? Second City Syndrome: that historic malady that drives us to overcompensate and reflexively tag Chicago as a “world class city,” worthy of comparison with our bigger coastal metropolitan rivals. (Which is stupid, as everyone knows the city’s status, but our uncontrollable instinct to repeatedly tag ourselves as “world class” probably undermines that reality in the minds of folks elsewhere.) With the news that the Sears...errr...Willis Tower will no longer be the tallest building in America, many Chicagoans are likely to slump back into that comfortable creeping feeling of our historic inferiority complex. Without our big building to show off the City's dominance, the media is looking for something else to calm the Syndrome and the ’85 Bears likely offer some comfort. After all, the team was everything this city still is and wants to be: brash, hip, dominating, exciting, and beloved. They also reflected our town’s desperation for attention with the Super Bowl Shuffle (released before the Super Bowl, you will remember).
Let’s remember them on the anniversary. But then, Bear down Chicago, it is time to move on, even if that means suffering through the dying gasps of the Lovie era. If this is indeed the greatest sports town in America (and one of the greatest cities in the world) surely we can find something more fresh to obsess about besides the golden glory season? Or not.