Doug Buffone by Doug Buffone

Doug Buffone by Doug Buffone

Author:Doug Buffone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2015-07-20T00:00:00+00:00


17. Can’t Win for Losin’

Coppock: Hey, gang, have I mentioned yet that losing, you know, can be a bitch?

You need to adopt that thought as we continue our journey through the life and times of Doug Buffone.

Here’s your primer, a handful of games in which the Bears played so pathetically awful that you would’ve sworn guys were wearing thumbtacks instead of football cleats and shoulder pads made out of shag carpeting.

Example: The worst double-dip, single-season nightmare versus their most hated ancient rival? In 1962, Lombardi and the Pack walloped the Bears 49–0 up north. However, the Bears did show dramatic improvement when the two clubs met in a rematch later that year at Cubs Park.

They lost to Green Bay 38–7. I’d swear that game was actually tied 7–7 before the Pack decided to bring out its A-game.

Buffone: Oh, please!

Coppock: Here’s another one. Worst indoor loss in a temperature controlled environment? The 1977 Bears lost to the Houston Oilers in the Astrodome 47–0.

Remarkably, that Bears team somehow made the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.

Most miserable swan dive at home in the postseason in so-called, “Bear Weather?” Ditka and friends were blown out of Soldier Field by Joe Montana and the 49ers in the 1988 NFC title game 28–3. If common sense had prevailed, the Little League slaughter rule would have been invoked at halftime. The wind chill at game time was 2 degrees above zero. The wind chill was nuts. It had to be 30-below in the lakefront mausoleum. Fortunately, the Honey Bears had been retired by Virginia McCaskey three years earlier. The poor babes would have collapsed from frostbite—or maybe from the boredom of the Bears offense.

Hey, Buffone, feel free to join the party. Let’s talk about 1969, a year that tested the mettle of anybody who held cherished Bears season tickets. It was the worst year in the storied history of the franchise.

Buffone: People think they know how tough losing is, but they really don’t. Think about the crap we went through in 1969. I don’t know if we drank more booze, but we sure as hell didn’t drink any less.

We were outta the damn race by the third week. Jim Dooley was our coach and people ask me, “Did Dooley ever get any advice from Halas about how he was coaching the team?”

And, knowing Dooley, I tell ’em George probably said, “Avoid the race track.”

Coppock: I remember Dooley was ragged about what Ed Stone from the old Chicago Today was writing about the club.

So what did he do?

Jim, a guy I really liked, banned Stoney from the dressing room. Ed told me he had to interview Butkus outdoors in November in 25-degree weather.

Buffone: I don’t accept excuses and the problem in ’69 was that we had guys who did lie down. They took the easy way out. They just played for the paycheck.

But I also know this: Our fans knew the guys who were putting out, playing hard, and they were behind us.

You think Butkus would lie down?

Christ, he got madder as the weeks went along.



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