Normally an NFL team gets the benefit of the doubt when they ship out a player. It usually means the guy couldn’t cut it on their roster. Odds are he wouldn’t on another. Look at the long list of names the Chicago Bears traded over the years and there is plenty of truth to that statement. Unfortunately this franchise is far from batting 1.000 on this front. In fact they have some rather dubious dark spots on their record.
Moment where they inexplicably dealt a really good talent for one reason or another, then inevitably watched him ascend with his new team. A bitter pill to swallow both for them and the city of Chicago. How deep does the list of mistakes go?
Deeper than anybody would care to admit. Here is a list of names they gave away, often for peanut. Try not to weep, at least for the first few slides.
Bill Brown
Nobody remembers Bill Brown these days. Likely because the Bears were fortunate enough to land Gale Sayers a few years after trading him. Then again considering he was a fullback, the Bears would then have had two Pro Bowlers in the same backfield. That would’ve been something to rival the Packers of the 1960s with Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor. Instead George Halas chose to trade Brown after just one year to the upstart Minnesota Vikings.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
It was a move they would rue for the next 13 years. From 1962 through 1974, Brown went to four Pro Bowls. He produced over 1,000 yards from scrimmage in four seasons and scored 77 touchdowns. Minnesota made the playoffs six times during that stretch. The Bears only once. That included three trips to the Super Bowl. He only missed two games in his career as well. Sayers, for all his greatness, missed almost entire seasons.
