Mongo

Steve McMichael died yesterday at the age of 67, and, man, does that turn 40 years into smoke. Wasn't it just yesterday Mongo was kicking tush and taking names for the best defense in the history of the NFL?

Could it be just a nanosecond ago that Richard Dent, Mike Singletary, Otis Wilson and the rest of the gang were looking across the line of scrimmage at the poor sap calling signals for the other team, and saying (per the movie) "Let's give him to Mongo"?

Of course it was.

Of course it wasn't, because Steve McMichael is dead, and the Chicago Bears' fabled "46" defense is just a page in a history book, its various pieces all pushing 70 or more.

But with Mongo gone now, it seems like the perfect time to turn back to that page.

Kids who think they saw suffocating defense as played by Ray Lewis and the 2000 Ravens, or the Legion of Boom in Seattle, or even the Eagles D that squashed the Chiefs in the most recent Super Bowl, never saw nothin' 'like the Bears 46. In  1985, Buddy Ryan's all-out hell's-comin'-with-me scheme didn't just suffocate opponents; it demoralized them. In a lot of games it had people beat before Mongo 'n' them ever stepped foot on the field.

Some numbers: In the Bears' 15-1 march to the W in Super Bowl XX, they gave up just 12.4 points and 258.4 yards per game. Throw out the one loss -- a 38-24 Monday night loss to the Dolphins that was an aberration if ever there was one -- and in 15 games, the Bears surrendered just 160 points.

That's 10.6 points per, if you do the math. A touchdown and a field goal in an era when everyone was throwing it all over the lot thanks to the 49ers' much-imitated ball-control passing game.

And McMichael?

One of the biggest ducks in the Bears' kick-ass puddle.

That season he had eight sacks, third on the team behind Richard Dent's 17 and Otis Wilson's 10.5. By the time he hung 'em up after 15 seasons, he had 95 sacks. Of those, he racked up 92.5 in 13 seasons for the Bears.

All these years later, that's still second on the Bears' all-time list.

He also never missed a start, or hardly ever. Between 1981 and 1994, he played in 207 games; his 191 consecutive games for the Bears remains the franchise record.

Which might or might not explain why he stayed in the fight so long after being diagnosed with ALS in 2021.

Four years is a long time to go toe-to-toe with such a vile killer, but Mongo did it. Lived long enough to be inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame last August; he was bedridden and unable to speak by then, but he watched on TV as his wife Misty unveiled his HOF bust and delivered his induction speech.

And in the room around him?

His teammates, of course. His fellow 46ers. No doubt, to this day, still looking for the poor sap calling signals for the other team.

And no doubt, on that day more than ever, wishing they could give him to Mongo.