I was a kid for the 1985 Bears and I have never gotten over them. They recorded a rap video before the playoffs, the Super Bowl Shuffle, and then went out and made it look modest. Super Bowl XX, January 1986, New England beaten 46-10, a defense so violent it felt unfair. They handed the ball to a three-hundred-pound lineman named William Perry and let him score. You do that when you are not just winning, you are enjoying it.

One ring, one near miss

Chicago has two Super Bowl trips and one trophy. The win is XX, the high-water mark of a team people still argue is the best ever assembled. The loss is Super Bowl XLI in February 2007, a rainy night in Miami against Peyton Manning’s Colts, 29-17. Devin Hester took the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, the only player ever to do it on the first play of a Super Bowl, and then the weather and the Colts took over.

Why I am soft on the Bears

Because that 1985 team made me love this sport before I understood what it would cost me. Bears fans, you have one of the great rings and one of the great teams, and the rest of the franchise has spent forty years trying to find a quarterback to match the defense. I get the ache. The first one was worth it.