A View from Two Benches by Doug Feldmann

Author:Doug Feldmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cornell University Press

The second loss to the Lions dropped the Bears to a 3–6 record, the same mark at which the team found itself at the end of the strike-shortened 1982 campaign. Team spirits were dampened even further on Monday, October 31, when it was learned that George Halas, the architect of not only the franchise but the entire NFL, had died at the age of 88. The players donned “GSH” patches on their jerseys for the remainder of the season, as everyone in the organization seemed to approach his or her job with more vigor and a sudden rejuvenation was felt across the entire Bears family. “The sense of history gave us a renewed pride for what we’re playing for,” Bob noticed.

One who would not enjoy the new surge, however, was Bob Parsons—the man who had punted the often-stale Chicago offense out of trouble for so many years, but who in 1983 was suffering through the worst season of his career. After struggling against the Packers during a 31–28 loss at Green Bay on December 4, Parsons found himself ranking last in the NFL with a 36.9-yard average. Joining Skladany in the ranks of unemployed punters, Parsons was purged from the roster by Ditka the following day with a team record of 884 punts to his credit.

Despite the one tense moment between them before Thomas’s game-winning field goal at New York in 1977, Parsons truly valued the friendship he and Bob enjoyed—a relationship that also developed into one of the longest kicker-punter tandems in NFL history. “Bobby’s a great guy with a great sense of humor, but he also took his job very seriously,” Parsons noted in 2017. “As kickers, everyone blames us for everything that goes wrong, but Bob always took it well—which is part of what made him a good teammate. I often teased him in saying that he didn’t look like a football player, and I was always on him about something else, if not that. But he always took it—and with that great intelligence and sense of humor he has, he always got me back.”20

For the season finale in a Packers rematch at Soldier Field on December 18, the 35,807 who braved the elements would sit through the coldest Bears game ever played in Chicago, with the temperature at the opening kickoff sitting at a mere three degrees and the wind chill factor at minus fifteen. Under the exceptionally bitter conditions, Thomas decided that, as much as possible, he would place himself near the portable heaters that accompanied the bench area. “I kept trying to get near the heater all day, but all those other guys are bigger than I am,” he complained of his teammates.21 One of them was McMichael—who quickly took Bob’s warm seat once Thomas got up and then refused to relinquish it when Bob returned.

Late in the fourth quarter, Green Bay held a 21–20 advantage. On the Bears’ sideline, Thomas turned to the Bears’ quarterback and offered a confidence boost to McMahon, the team’s new leader under center.

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