Disorder in Motion: Here’s a Page From Bears’ Playbook

It was a fairly normal week for the Chicago Bears, all things considered.

The head coach said he didn’t think he would “ever” sign a new contract, then agreed to stay three more years. The starting safety for more than a decade was demoted to special teams even though he’s having a fine training camp. The coach blamed William Perry’s wife for The Fridge’s inability to lose weight. And a family squabble contesting control of the team went into the courts and prompted the wife of the late George Halas Jr. to have his body exhumed to determine whether foul play was involved in his death eight years ago.

“I’d call it an average week,” second-year running back Neal Anderson said. “I can’t wait to wake up in the morning and come to work. It’s so much fun. It’s never boring around here. If nothing’s happening, something must be wrong. It must be another team.”

There are other issues: the on-going quarterback derby--with Jim McMahon’s struggle to return to the starting lineup--and Ditka’s latest warning that several players who helped the team win a Super Bowl only 19 months ago could find themselves cut before the regular season opens in Chicago Sept. 14 against the defending NFL champion New York Giants.

The Halas-McCaskey family feud may be the messiest of the Bears subplots.

In a Chicago courtroom, a Cook County judge denied a bid by two grandchildren of team founder George Halas Sr. to overturn his 1981 reorganization of the club, which gave control of the franchise to the McCaskey family.

Two Halas grandchildren, Stephen and Christine, and their mother Therese (divorced wife of the late Halas Jr.) could still collect millions of dollars in damages, but the court decision seems to eliminate any possibility they will have a hand in running the club, even though the grandchildren own approximately 20% of Bears’ stock.

The onfield doings are a lot less complicated, but just as intriguing. Unhappy with the production of his punters, Ditka grabbed the ball himself and demonstrated to incumbent Maury Buford and newly acquired Bryan Wagner just how he wanted it done. If that didn’t improve results, Ditka shouted, he would bring Ray Guy out of retirement.

Winning a Super Bowl and compiling a 50-23 record (.685 winning percentage) as head coach of the Bears hardly has tempered Ditka’s passion or potential rage. Perry’s weight, for example, makes him very unhappy.

Ditka has done about everything to motivate Perry, the third-year defensive tackle from Clemson, to lose weight. He even said Perry would not regain his role as the goal-line “fatback” until he gets below 320 pounds. As is, the Bears are fining Perry for every pound over 320, and the fine doubles every week.

“That’s what the Bear playbook says,” Ditka said. “Of course, I wrote the rules of the playbook. What is it now, $25 a pound? When it gets up to about $13,200 a pound, you’ll know he’s pretty silly.”

When someone asked if Ditka had made Perry understand why he needs to lose the weight, Ditka shot back, “Why doesn’t his wife understand the importance? Somebody’s got to help him and she’s the logical choice. He doesn’t eat here; he eats there. Or between here and there, I guess.”

When Ditka isn’t tutoring the punters or administering fines, he’s tending to his four quarterbacks, down from five since Steve Fuller was placed on injured reserve following a shoulder operation.

The reason many people think the Bears are Super Bowl-bound is that they’ve won 23 straight games when McMahon has started at quarterback. The big problem is McMahon has started only 28 of 48 regular season games the last three years.

For the longest time after surgery (Dec. 12, 1986) on the rotator cuff of his throwing arm, McMahon, Dr. Frank Jobe and some members of the Bears staff thought McMahon was ahead of schedule and would be able to start the season against the Giants. But he missed the first three exhibition games, has thrown off and on in practice, and hasn’t participated in any full-contact drills.

Without McMahon, Chicago’s offense is helter-skelter. Everybody familiar with his injury insists that his arm is OK, but the muscles in his back get tired. McMahon will be re-examined by Jobe.

Ditka said he will not go through another season living week-to-week on the notion that McMahon will be healthy. “We learned last year that you can’t wish him back,” Ditka said.

With McMahon likely to go on injured reserve for the first four weeks and Fuller out, Ditka has to choose between third-year man Mike Tomczak, who still throws into heavy coverage too often; Doug Flutie, who is 5 feet 9 and still sailing passes, and rookie Jim Harbaugh, who may be great for the future but currently is a little green.

Asked if he had a good idea of who would start the season, Ditka said only half-jokingly, “It’s hard to say; I don’t know. If you watch them, you’ll be just as confused as I am. . . . Trying to play three guys and get one ready for the opener is difficult.”

The quarterback competition hasn’t really been the vicious, back-biting soap opera some believe. Flutie pointed out that Tomczak came several steps onto the field to help straighten him out on a call from the sideline that Flutie didn’t hear. And McMahon, throughout the exhibition season, has been outwardly supportive to all of his healthy competitors.

Said Flutie: “After one series, I was kicking myself for not throwing the ball well, and Jim came over and said, ‘Don’t worry about it, don’t press. You’re getting it done.’ We’re fighting for a job. But we’re not fighting each other. We answer questions for each other, and that’s been going on since day one, although a lot of people don’t want to believe it. Nobody’s been a jerk about this thing.”

The assumption has been that all three quarterbacks would make the team until McMahon is ready. But Ditka said he may keep only two. One thing for sure: Harbaugh, the first-round draftee from Michigan, stays. The Bears fell in love with him at first sight during minicamp.

As much as Ditka is revered here in Chicago, he has a chance to become the real heavy in the coming days. He has taken Gary Fencik, the former all-pro safety, from the starting lineup in favor of another former all-pro, Todd Bell. And Matt Suhey, the starting fullback the last six years, also could find himself on the outs.

In a footrace among the Bears running backs--including Thomas Sanders, Calvin Thomas and Anderson--starters Walter Payton and Suhey are almost certainly the slowest. Anderson, a speedy halfback from Florida, may well replace Suhey.

“There’s a definite possibility that I’ll have to cut some football players who have made a major contribution here for quite a while,” Ditka said. “It’s not fun, but it’s part of life.”

Negotiating his own new three-year deal was also just part of life for Ditka. It is reported here that he is making more than $300,000 a year, but less than $500,000, which is far less than some of the NFL’s coaching elite.

The theory is that Ditka is in a unique position, that his business deals and endorsements here, in this climate of Bears fanaticism, will boost his yearly earnings to $1 million or so. Ditka said he is happy to have the contract out of the way and is ready to concentrate on the season.

The defense, which has allowed the fewest points of any team in the league each of the last two seasons, appears as sturdy as always. The first team defense didn’t allow a touchdown in the first two exhibition games. Bell and Dave Duerson give Chicago perhaps the best safety pair in the game. Fencik and Shaun Gayle, who would start for about 20 other NFL teams, are now nickel backs and special-teamers. The linebackers and linemen seem as rambunctious as ever.

But Ditka, as always, is cautious. The Bears gave up two careless touchdowns in a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, and the offense will be unsettled as long as McMahon is out of action.

“There’s a lot of work to do here before we get to the world champions,” Ditka said. “I hope we understand that. As much as people are saying it, we are not invincible.”