SUPER BOWL XX : CHICAGO BEARS vs. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS : JAY HILGENBERG : A Good Center Is Worth His Weight in Gold, and the Bears Feel Very Fortunate to Have One

You probably could make a pretty good TV show out of them. “The Hilgenbergs,” the family that does everything backward.

Look, they’re facing the wrong way at the breakfast table. Dad reads the newspaper and puts it back on the porch. Mom chills the coffee and cooks the juice. Junior gives his food to the dog and keeps the scraps.

Aw, just kidding. It’s just that when a couple of members of the Hilgenberg clan made up their minds to become professional football players, they elected not to become quarterbacks, flinging the ball far upfield, or running backs, diving across the goal line, or even tacklers, hurling themselves at whichever player had possession of the ball.

Instead, they became centers.

Not quite following in the Super Bowl footsteps of their uncle, Wally, who played linebacker for the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings, All-Pro selection Jay Hilgenberg of the Chicago Bears and his very capable younger brother, Joel Hilgenberg of the New Orleans Saints, have established a family tradition of squatting over footballs at the line of scrimmage and snapping them back through their legs.

Jay already has the jokes down pat. “We’re the only family I know that when we play catch at a picnic, everybody’s got their backs turned to each other,” he said.

Joel got credit for that line in a national sports magazine earlier in the season, but Jay actually said it first. Soon it might have to be emblazoned on the Hilgenberg family’s coat of arms. The family that snaps together, stays together. Or something like that.

So how come these Hilgenberg boys became centers? What attraction does that position hold for them? Never mind more glamorous positions. Why not even guards or tackles?

“Beats me,” Jay said. “I’d like to believe that I was like any other kid when I was 7 or 8--dreaming of throwing touchdown passes or making 90-yard runs. I don’t know how the heck I ended up shoving the football between my legs.”

Yes, he does. He discovered that he was good at it. He also reminded himself that halfbacks are a dime a dozen, but a good center is hard to find.

“If I’m going hunting for a running back, I can look through a hundred films and find a hundred good ones,” Bear Coach Mike Ditka recently said. “But finding a center is like finding gold. Jay’s been gold for us.”

Even so, it took people an awful long time to dig Jay Hilgenberg. He had done good work at center at the University of Iowa, making the All-Big Ten team twice and excelling in a Hula Bowl game, but he did not find work easily in the National Football League, no matter what demand existed for centers. Wally Hilgenberg even reportedly recommended his nephew to the Vikings when Jay became a free agent in 1981, but they were not interested.

The Bears signed him in May of that year and invited him to camp. Reporters noted his presence and what a nice, hard-working fellow he seemed to be, but they made it clear in their stories that Hilgenberg would not be on the Chicago roster when the final trims were made.

“I didn’t honestly expect to make it myself,” Jay said.

He did, though, and that started a string of 57 consecutive games he has played for the Bears. Not until Oct. 30, 1983, did Hilgenberg actually get a start at center, but the coaches kept him around before then because they liked his hustle, his hard work and mostly his kick-snapping, which tends to be flawless.

“This guy’s one of the best you’ll ever see snapping on kicks,” Ditka said.

Hilgenberg started all 16 games for the Bears during the 1984 season and was given a game ball after Walter Payton had broken Jim Brown’s all-time NFL rushing record. Payton and other running backs are great admirers of Hilgenberg’s blocking ability. “He’s bullish out there,” Payton said of the Bear center, mixing his stock-market metaphors for a moment.

Ditka and Ed Hughes, the offensive coordinator, say Hilgenberg’s specialty is “influence” blocking. He is a master of misdirection. If a running play is designed to go to the right, Hilgenberg often goes left. His man goes with him almost every time. He takes tacklers out of the play without touching them.

Joel Hilgenberg of the Saints went to Chicago to give his brother moral support during a playoff game and later got into a funny, brotherly discussion with him, picking the other team to win, whereupon Jay threatened to give Joel a couple of tickets in the Bob Uecker section the next time his brother wanted free seats for a game.

Later, sincerely, Joel said: “I’m really proud of what my brother has accomplished with the Bears. A few years ago, it didn’t look like anybody was even going to sign him. Now he’s one of the top centers in the game. A Pro Bowler. I’m just trying to keep up with the guy.”

Not often do even the NFL’s top centers get recognition, and it is significant that Hilgenberg has been able to be a center of attention at all for the Bears this season, seeing as how the team has had so many colorful heroes and stars.

“When Walter reeled off all those 100-yard rushing games in a row, I think people started to stand up and take notice,” Hilgenberg said. “And I think it’s fair to say that the Bear offensive line hasn’t let our quarterback get flattened very often, either. I’m grateful that people have noticed me, but it’s not just the middle of the line that’s been solid. The left and right sides of the line have been stone walls, too.”

After the 24-0 victory over the Rams had put the Bears into the Super Bowl, Hilgenberg was as much a media favorite in the locker room as many of the better known Bears.

A guy mentioned that.

“Well, I didn’t get in this business to get publicity,” Hilgenberg said. “But I’m human. It’s nice to be noticed. We’re important parts of the team. We deserve to get our fair share of the glory.

“Hey, centers are people, too.”

OK, OK. No need to snap at a guy.