Da Bears earned a bad rap

With the hindsight of 22 years, the 1985 Chicago Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” music video looks a bit campy, not to mention grainy.

But the rap song and its popularity -- it reportedly sold more than 50,000 copies -- is still a source of pride for at least one of the players, free safety Gary Fencik.

The Bears recorded the song in a year they finished 15-1, charged through the playoffs and then routed the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.

Fencik recently said at a banquet that the players initially weren’t wild about the idea, which was proposed by wide receiver Willie Gault, the Post-Tribune in Gary, Ind., reported.

And when they did decide to record it, the video was shot shortly after a 38-24 loss to Miami, the Bears’ only defeat.

“Then it took off and we thought, ‘This is stupid. We’re going to jinx ourselves,’ ” Fencik recalled.

It didn’t happen. The Bears, already a colorful bunch, grew even more popular.

And what would have happened if the Bears had lost to the Patriots?

“We would have looked like jerks,” Fencik said.

Trivia time

The team Chicago beat in Super Bowl XX is sometimes dubbed one of the “BBB” Patriots teams -- “before Belichick and Brady.” Who was New England’s coach in 1985?

Hold the mayo

One of the best-selling sandwiches at the Pickles and Chips deli in Towson, Md., is “The Brian Billick,” named after the man who coached the Baltimore Ravens in 2007.

But the NFL team fired Billick on Dec. 31, leaving deli owner Brian Snyder in a bit of, yes, a pickle.

He decided to let his customers decide and they continue to order the sandwich, a pastrami-corned beef combo with mustard that comes with homemade chips and a pickle.

“It’s going to stay on the menu,” Snyder told WJZ-TV in Baltimore.

Customer Geoff Hunt concurred. “I think we should keep the name,” he said. “He won a Super Bowl for us [in 2001], so why not keep the name?”

No thanks

Fresh from winning the “Dancing With the Stars” television contest, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves recommended some other potential candidates to the show.

Among them: fellow IndyCar Series driver Danica Patrick.

Patrick, 25, already is the most glamorous driver in the series, but she said “no way” when asked about competing on the show, the Indianapolis Star reported.

The ebullient Castroneves, who won with partner Julianne Hough, “smiles all the time, he plays to the camera,” Patrick said.

“I’m a little too serious,” she said. “People at home would be going, ‘What’s wrong [with her]?’ ”

Winner’s share

There’s nothing like winning a national title to help fill the coffers.

Only days after beating Ohio State for the Bowl Championship Series football title, Louisiana State announced plans to raise the price of tickets by $5 a game, along with price hikes for season-ticket holders.

Tickets for Southeastern Conference games would rise to $50 from $45, and nonconference-game seats would climb to $45 from $40, under a proposal announced by LSU’s athletic department. Student-ticket prices would not change.

Season-ticket holders who for the 2007 season paid fees toward LSU’s so-called “Tradition Fund” would also face higher prices beginning this year, and those costs would steadily rise through 2010, in some cases doubling or nearly doubling.

But LSU’s athletic department said it needed the extra cash to cover increased operating expenses -- such as coaches’ salaries, travel costs and utilities -- and to build a new hall for the marching band.

Two-wheel wonder

Ricky Carmichael, the 15-time supercross and motocross champion who retired after last year to race stock cars, said James Stewart clearly is his heir apparent.

Stewart, 22, won his first AMA Supercross title last year -- and 13 of the series’ 16 races -- and is the favorite to repeat in 2008.

“This could be the easiest year for him” to win the championship again, Carmichael said before the season opener at Angel Stadium recently.

Not only is Stewart a year older, Carmichael said, “he just has that much of an advantage over everybody.”

Except when he falls. Stewart crashed on the first lap at the Anaheim race and Australian Chad Reed rode to victory. The series returns to Anaheim next Saturday night.

Trivia answer

Former NFL receiver Raymond Berry, who coached the Patriots from 1984 to 1989.

And finally

Guard Willie Green is feeling the weight of the Philadelphia 76ers’ 14-23 season so far, which includes a 7-12 record on the road.

“I forgot what [hotel] room I was in a couple of times,” he said. “It’s been a little tough.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com