Jim McMahon was as much a reason the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl in 1985 as anybody else. Sure the defense and Walter Payton did most of the heavy lifting, but it was McMahon’s leadership and quality play in the postseason that pushed them over the top. It was a year that had many thinking he could be the best quarterback the Bears would ever have. Unfortunately, that would not prove to be the case.
For all the great things about McMahon, he was not perfect. Most people know about his long-documented health issues. He’d been sidelined by a number of different injuries since entering the league in 1982 including a lacerated kidney. He had a reckless style of play that too often hurt the team more than helped it. Then there was the mentality of the man himself. McMahon was known for being a rebel. Someone who didn’t respond well to authority.
Head coach Mike Ditka always had problems with him and it would seem matters only got worse after McMahon had tasted the peak of success. One of the biggest dangers faced by pro athletes is losing one’s edge after high achievement. The quarterback had just gone to a Pro Bowl and won a championship in ’85. Such things can often lead to complacency.
Dan Pompei of The Athletic, who has covered the team since back in those days, explained how this affected McMahon and laid the groundwork for the Bears’ slow demise.
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“I remember showing up for the first practice of training camp in Platteville, Wis. in 1986 and seeing Jim McMahon’s belly hanging over his uniform pants. That belly told the world football wasn’t as important to McMahon as some other things. McMahon was a tone-setter on a great team, and his paunch sent a message that reverberated.”
Jim McMahon was never truly the same after the Super Bowl
McMahon himself would likely dispute such a claim, but it’s hard to argue with the results that followed. From 1982 to ’85, he had 44 TD passes with 33 interceptions and an 82.7 passer rating. Following that win in New Orleans over the Patriots, his final three years in Chicago saw him throw 23 touchdowns and 23 interceptions with a 74.6 rating. The 1986 season was a perfect window into McMahon’s decline as a quality passer.
McMahon played six games that year. Between the first and 12th games, he missed six starts due to injury. During that time he started out with five touchdowns passes to just three interceptions before throwing six-straight interceptions without a TD in the final three games. Then he suffered the infamous dirty hit from Packers defensive end Charles Martin that knocked him out for the season. Still, the decline was already apparent by then.
Chicago still went 14-2 but without the steady hand he’d had under center the previous year, they were bounced in the first round by Washington. McMahon wasn’t able to return until the sixth game of the following season and he only made six total starts. He tried to return for the playoffs but threw three interceptions and was nowhere near as effective as he’d once been.
It makes one wonder if he’d taken better care of himself and had a more consistent work ethic, would Jim McMahon had avoided a lot of the injuries that defined his later Bears career? Certainly makes one wonder.
