Legacy Panel - Quarterbacks

players and Bears history. Mitchell Trubisky and Jim McMahon meeting for the first time. Right, we need to get these guys microphones though. That's the first order of the business. Big Tom there, Well, a lot of us have not seen Jim at this time in the morning. You know, he was a late arrival to late arrival to the locker room. But I'm inspired to see him here early this morning. Well, why don't you hand him a mic

so we could talk. We need two mics up here, so why don't you hand him a mic until he can get one air. So Jim, welcome, welcome, always, good to see it. It's great to be back here in Chicago. I lived lived here for twenty eight years, so it's us. It's part of my life, big part of my life. All my kids were raised here, born and raised, and my oldest son still lives here. That was my granddaughter. Know you saw me carting her in here earlier. But great to be back and looking forward to the rest

of the day. Thank you guys. And Mitch obviously you're a Chicago Bears quarterback. You know about Jim McMahon. I do. I know a lot about Jim Now what you learn all kinds of stuff, swapping good stories last night. Just excited to learn from him and hear everything he's got to say and uh, just what it takes to play a quarterback in the city of Chicago and and be successful at it. So it's it's been nice talking to him and getting to know him and his family. Let's

start this way before we get to start. This is to be successful here, you got to start wearing a headband, all right, and some sunglasses. Stop one now you're ready to go, Kevin here, This that's how you go. Things will start to change for you now. It's it's a great question to start though, because what is it like Jim and what you've learned Mitch to be the quarterback of the Chicago Bears. Well, for the most part, it's

it's a thankless job. He goes a lot of times all you're doing is handing off to guys like Walter Payton, which is not a bad thing. But I think Mitch's is in a good spot because this offense here showcases his talents. And I would have loved to play in an offense like this where you got so many things going on and so many options. But you know, I think it'd be a lot of fun to play in

that offense. Jim, when you came out of college, you had seventy two nca passing records and it was great coaching. But so when you came to the NFL, was it like a I'm not a step backwards, with all due respect to what the NFL was about, then it was a big step backwards, big step backwards, because I was used to throwing the ball thirty five forty times a game,

and it took me about six years here to do that. Well, Mitch, for you, was it a big advancement forward when you got a chance to work with Matt Naggie and all the offensive coaches that you have and the amount of times you threw the ball in college to you know, having a six touchdown pass game and the whole continuous development of this offense. Yeah, so my first year I could relate to the offense Jim used to run, just

run heavy offense, pound pound the rock. And then second year, obviously being in the shotgun, a lot more open it up in the past game, a lot more options out of the shotgun downfield throws. And you've kind of seen how the offense has evolved from year one from year two to me and just been able to get better and improve my game at MS skills and it's going to continue to open up and just continue to evolve.

But uh, it's been fun to see. And I really wish I could have watched Jim play in the offense like ours and uh and just tear it up and throw the ball down the field and use that arm. You know you think about you know, you guys are unique because Jim was drafted before I came to the Bears and then miss drafting the position you were in. Man, there's a lot of attachment to hope when you guys get drafted by the Chicago Bears in the position you have. Jim, it was a lot of years before there was a

successful quarterback, and Mitch. You know the circumstance here. Both of you guys get drafted with all the hope in the world. You know you're in the end. NBA, you get drafted first, you may never see the court. Baseball, you get drafted you they may never see the field. You guys are drafted where you're drafted, you bring a lot of hope that's attached to that position. Is that

motivating or is that pressure for both of you guys? Yeah, I think it's motivating because obviously it's a dream come true to get drafted as high as you do, and then you know you're gonna start because they take you that high and you're gonna be put in eventually. So you just prepare yourself as much as possible and then when the opportunity comes, you just try to make the

most of it. But it's amazing that I think it gives you a lot of confidence as a player that you see a team that when they pick you that high, that they believe in your abilities, they believe in who you are as a person, and they just want to see you go out there, play your game and do

the best you possibly can. But I think the two things I learned in Chicago is that you got you just gotta play with a lot of confidence, and then you gotta have thick skin, and you just gotta continue to give it all, improve your game, put your heart and to this, uh into practices and and love the fans and win games and they'll love you back. Yea, when you got drafted, you know, you know you're talking about George Hallis and the whole crew that you were

drafted by. Yeah, I had to. I had to deal with mister Hollis when I first came here, and uh I felt like I was lucky because I didn't have a guy like John Elway or Dan Marino to sit behind. I had Bob Avellini and Vince Evans where the qbs when I got here, and uh so there was pressure not only for me to play, but I put a lot of pressure on myself. I felt that I was a better quarterback even as a rookie. And uh I think I started the third game that year, and and

and pretty much after that. But it took a while. Um it took a while for them to understand who I was a coach. Dick and I we fought quite a bit um, but I think he finally understood that I was trying to win ball games. I wasn't doing things to make him mad. I mean, you were in those huddle a lot, and uh, he was sending in plays that even knew wouldn't work. So it wasn't It wasn't me trying to upset him. It was just me trying to win games. And we had different philosophy on

how to do that. And I kept telling him, Look, we don't need to run into a brick wall on the all day long. You know, Walter Walter was a hell of a receiver too. We could have used him a lot more out of the backfield, which I tried wanted to do for years. But we finally started getting into that about eighty four and eighty five, and then things started rolling. When you look at that, when you

look at that picture, is that a promotion picture? Because you look like a little kid that's trying on one of those tops uniforms that you used to buy all in one package. Yeah, it looks like I was a fan just getting a picture right there. Yeah, I was. I was pretty young. They're bad haircutting everything. But yeah, that was that was interesting. Golf carts back then. That's pretty sweet. Well, Mitch, Mitch probably didn't have a guy when he got drafted tell him that he was too small,

that he should go to Canada. That's what mister Hollis told me. That the weird part of it though, because they bring you in, they show your loving they tell you, well, you know, you're not exactly what we'd like you to be at the quarterback position. But you know, that had to be tough to hear. I couldn't hear words you just said. All right, I said, it had to be pretty tough to hear that right from Oh yeah, I mean I just I was just drafted the fifth player

and taking in the first round. And then I get here to Chicago four hours later and I got out of a limo with a beer that kind of caused a stink, but um, you know, yeah, I waited for mister Alice for about an hour and then he finally I finally got to meet him, and he the first thing he said was you're you're too small. You don't see very well. You got a bad arm. He said, maybe you should go to Canada, and I said, well, why the hell did you draft me? Old guy? You know,

I said, who's in her scouting department? And so they were. They were knocking me down from day one. So it wasn't it wasn't a whole lot of fun that in that first meeting. But the history you put together was significant. So what you did and and I think the underrated aspect of you is the fact that you are a winner. You your emotions on the field told that story right. Oh, this this is an emotional game. You gotta play the game with with a lot of passion, a lot of fire.

And uh, I've always had that, you know, when I'm competing, I feel that I'm the best and then and I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna prove it to you one way or the other. So and that's that's the way I played my whole career. And here's how he did it, ladies and gentlemen, right here, Jim McMahon. The biking game is the one that everybody talks about. Oh, that's the championship game there. Huh yeah, that's the NFC Championship against

the Rams. Obviously, that's what I used to could run is that when you got your butt bruise on that No, that was later in the game. You know, Jim, there are many men any pictures of you with Walter, just the two of you, and you always got your arm around him. You're whispering something there. I found a bunch of these during the course of his research. Could you explain your relationship with Walter on the field and off the field. He was a great teammate. You know, he

did his job. He never said a word, never said give me the ball. He told me my first start in my rookie year. I changed the play early in the game that hadn't It wasn't in the game plan that week. But it's a play that you run a thousand times in training camp. You should know the play because I got up there. It was third and I think it was third and nine, and everybody knows we're

gonna run sweep with Walter on third and long. So they had nine guys on this side of the field, and I just changed it to a simple off tackle play to the other side. And my left guard grabbed me after the play and said, you got any more surprises for me? This isn't even a game plan. I said, well, just keep your ears open because I'm not running into a brick wall. And Walter grabbed me right after that to keep doing what you're doing. He said, you're making

us better. And he goes, I don't want to run into that either, So I guess he wasn't used to guys, you know, changing plays and and and rather than run into a brick we're all run the other way. It's not that difficult to do. All quarterbacks have that urge a little bit or maybe you're not there yet. Yeah, I don't think I'm there yet. I'm not gonna change Coach Nage's plays. Um he calls. He calls pretty good plays, and uh, Coachnege thinks exactly like I think me and

Jim do you think you think like a quarterback? If there's nine guys on the left side, you gonta run the ball over there? You you go where the defense and you take what the defenses give you. Um, where it's open, you check it down, take a shot when you can, but take what the defense gives you and try to keep him off balance and uh, keep him guessing. Match in the highlight. You just saw McMahon the Super

Bowl the first play to start the second half. Jim came into the huddle and said, look at you guys, if you show me a good run fate, this is gonna be a big play. And you saw the result. It was a big play to Willie Golf. Now you go to the line of scrimmage, you got more than one play call. Is that predictability happen for you or is it more predictability according to what the defense shows you?

I think it's more what the defense shows us. We have a lot of options within each play that we go to a line of scrimmage and we have a bass play, but it could change a route, protection and scheme based on what the defense has showing us. And we have a quick quick adjustment that the line of scrimmage that what they give us, and we go into a play and then they show us something else. Then we change it really quick and we say, okay, this is gonna work based on what the defense has given us.

We just change it, roll with it and execute it, and everyone does our jobs and then we're clicking. Mitch the moment you got drafted, explain to everybody how you felt the circumstances surround it, and just the whole process of the recruitment of Mitch Traubiski by Ryan Pace and his staff. Yeah, it was crazy. I actually got a pretty good story. I gotta thank Jim for helping me get to Chicago. So throughout the draft process, I was

meeting with um different teams. I didn't know who's gonna draft me, obviously, and the Chicago Bears came to North Carolina and we kind of had a secret dinner because they didn't want anybody to know that they were interested in picking me. I had no idea they were interested. So we we go out to dinner with the coaches, Ryan Pace and the staff, and uh, I made a dinner reservation at one of the nice restaurants in Chapel Hill, and I made the reservation under James McMahon, the last

Super Bowl quarterback for Chicago Bears. And so I think Ryan Pace and the staff they really liked that. I know I did. And and uh, oh, coach Dico, what's up? What are you doing? You should have let Jim throw the ball more? And am right. So yeah, I had to thank Jim for that. And that was one of the cool stories that I got that I used his name as a reservation and uh, it just so happened I get to play for the same franchise that he did,

and I just know when I got picked. The draft was in Philadelphia and it was like it was kind of a whirldwind because the team forgot to call me and I just heard my name, Roger Goodellson, my name was on stage, and it was just I knew it was a dream come true. And I just I really knew it. I was in the right spot and in Chicago has really been home since that moment. It's vitally important for a player to feel at home because you

don't know where you're gonna go. You really don't. You want to go certain places, I'm sure in your mind's eye and then your heart of hearts and Jim you may have felt the same way. But it has to feel right for you to thrive. And as we said last night, you came in at a time when they needed some a new quote of paint they needed. It's it's a brand new transition. It's a ground floor and

you're building from there. Yeah. Absolutely, you come into an organization and me coming out of college, I only had one mindset that we were gonna win I didn't know when, but I knew at one point we were going to be successful. We're gonna thrive being here in Chicago playing for the Bears, and that was the like in my mind, that was the only option. And at first it wasn't happening. We were struggling a little bit, going through some adversity,

and you know that's gonna happen. But you just have that mindset that this adversity, these losing games, it's not gonna last. Hard work, dedication, and perseverances are the things that get you through that. And a year later, we we we flipped the script and we start winning games. Had a pretty good season and we're just trying to

build off that going forward. But you just got to continue to have that mindset that you're gonna come in here and thrive and get the Chicago Bears organization back to where it needs to be in that's winning football games. I've said this many times Jim and Tie Mitch last year and I always refer to this, but he did an interview with a gentleman before the season, before training camp started, and he basically set the tone for the entire season. It was a very convicted passionate explanation of

what he envisions for the Chicago Bears. He didn't say it was gonna happen in twenty eighteen, but it certainly was a big step in that direction with a twelve points season in the playoffs. But he sees that picture right there. I found this picture to be quite revealing because it's the super Bowl trophy that those two guys helped win, and it's like you're peering into the future there.

It's what you want, It's what every player wants. Is that what you're feeling right there when you walk in as a brand new draft pick looking at that, Yeah, it's pretty surreal looking at that. You walk into the Bears facility and you see all the history and you just feel very lucky to be a part of it. And looking at that trophy, I mean, that's what every

kid dreams of. And just me being goal oriented and shooting as high as possible, you think attaining that is definitely it's within reachs if we just continue to work, continue stick to the plan, believing each other, and just keep working. But that's the goal that we're going after this year. And the other cool thing about the picture I think is the quote in the back from George Hollis,

nobody who ever gave his best regretted it. And I think if you do that and any aspect of life, whatever you do, do with everything you possibly have, and you won't have any regrets. So that's what we're doing. And I think if you do that, then you get a little closer to that trophy. You know, Hey, Jim, we see that picture of Mitch. We saw that picture of you sitting with Allie and Dick. You guys both

up like you're eleven years old. How do you get the patience between when you get drafted in your first start and do you do you guys both remember your first start, because I think anybody that gets drafted in the NFL, I'm drafted here to be a start or I'm gonna be a leader. What took that time in between you and your first start? Well, like I said, like I said earlier, I didn't have the you know, Hall of famers in front of me, so I felt that I should be playing right away. But after going

through training camp, I wasn't ready week one. I knew that, and the coach, Dicka knew that. I believe Bob Babbolini started the first game. I think Vince Evans started the second game, and I started the second half of the second game. And then my first start was against the Detroit Lions, and that's something I'll never forget. We had to go I think we had to go to the length of the field to kick a field goal to win that game. But we did win it. But my first I think the first throw I'd had was I

threw a pick six to the strong safety. So I didn't have a real good start, but Dicka stayed with me, and I think he knew that he knew that I knew what I was doing, or I wish he would have told me that, because he thought I was doing everything to make him mad. But I think he finally understood I got the game. I mean, coming from the

office that I came to fuming college. I mean, I was so used to seeing pretty much anything on the defensive side of the ball, so nothing really surprised me in the pros, and I think he finally realized that

I actually didn't know what I was doing. Mitch, how about you in between getting here in your first start, impatient or was it the time that you needed to grow I mean, I think as a competitor, I wanted to start from day one, but I believe I started a week five against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night football, which is a very memorable start. I mean, as a kid, you dreamed to play on Monday night football, and to go against the Minnesota Vikings at home at Soldier Field

was absolutely incredible. We came up short, but I threw my first touchdown a tipped pass to Zach Miller, so that worked out. But I think it was a little tougher for my development coming in because I mean, all through a training camp and even leading up to that week, I was taking reps with a third and second team, just preparing leading up to that point, and all of a sudden, for the first time, I'm about to play a game with the starters, and the first time I'm

getting reps with them was that week. So I thought it could have helped just getting reps with them more early on from the beginning. But the more reps, I feel like I get better, which each and every single rep coming in the game, coming in practice, and being out there going against the starters, especially going against our defense. They just prepare so well weekend and week out, and it's it's a continual journey just trying to keep him better.

You know, there's nothing can be as more humbling as watching tape with all of your peers after you play a game, especially when your first start. Jim, we used to sitting there and Dick would run the projector and he would take it easy on nobody. How was difficult to you in that film session? And how And I'm gonna ask Mitch you the same thing. How was that first film session after being the quarterback and with your peers? How was it for you? Jim? Well, as you know,

was always pretty volatile. So um, I don't really remember the first couple of sessions. I just do. I remember the sound of the projector used to make because we could sleep during that and make a lot of noise. But now they have this video tape. Everything's quiet. You can't sleep anymore, so you actually hear them yelling at you. But I don't really remember. I know he got on me a couple of times for certain things, but for the most part, he didn't. He didn't really jump my

button in the film sessions. Yeah, no one's safe in meetings. Nobody's sleeping and uh, it's at first you're watching film as a quarterback and you're just listening to what coach says. But after year one, after you two, now being in this offense, I know exactly what everyone's supposed to do. I'm able to be more vocal, tell the receivers what I'm looking for, how I want them to run their routes and where where they need to be within the timing. And it really just helps get everyone on the same

page that I'm able to coach them. But same time, also take criticism from coach and I want him to coach me hard. If I do something wrong, I want him to call me out in front of the group, make sure they know that I messed up or I did it right, or make sure that they messed up or when they did it right. So it's just constant communication and there's no hard feelings in the film room. We're all here for one goal and that's to get better.

So if coaches talking to you, listen, correct it, you write your note, You're you're make sure you're taking notes throughout the whole time, writing things down and getting better. And we got a lot of brilliant coaches and they're also they're not just coaches, they're really good teachers. So they know how to say things in a way that hits everyone's brain. If you don't understand the first time, they can say it in a different way to make sure everybody gets it. And everyone's on the same page.

And there's no egos. It's not who I know more than you, you know more than me. It's just let's figure out what's what works for this offense, where we can be at our best, where we can keep rolling, and we're in this together, so let's make sure everyone's on the same page, and let's just go and get better. By the way, there's a yep, give a hand, Give

m a hand. You guys have the ability to write down questions, and we'll take your questions up here and read them to these guys and about the final ten minutes of our seminar here today, and I hope you're enjoying the conversation, and we're gonna have a whole day of it here at our event. And check out this entire facility. It's wrought with bears, history in the building

and great venue to have this event. So or you appreciate you guys, being here today when I was going through this stuff and Tom and I were trying to put together a plan for this Jim, it's hard to capture somebody's career in fifty minutes and yours just starting.

But whether it was your own idea of how you wanted to be perceived or the reality of it all going through some of the mag you are on a lot of magazine covers, so you had to poster the Mad Mac poster, Rolling Stone, the rock and Roll quarterback, the Mecadic Dude, a Maverick. Did you embrace all that? Did you? Did you feel that was reality or did or was it just how you were perceived by the outside. I didn't. I didn't make up any I didn't make

up the punky QB lyrics. I didn't make up the A lot of the things that I saw in the media. I did stuff due to make myself laugh and to make my teammates laugh, and to have a good time, because, uh, you know, you go through these things. You get to work at eight in the morning every day, you get home at six, and you're with these guys all day long, and a lot of it's boring, So you got to try to have a little bit of fun. And that's

what I try to do. Whether whether they took that I'm being a maverick or I'm being a crazy whatever, I didn't care. It didn't It wasn't going to affect my on the field play. And that's what I told these guys. So you could do whatever you know, act however you want, but on Sunday, you gotta play, and if you do that, everything kind of everything else fades away. Here's one thing. It did spill over to us because us as our offensive line, we all got add to

shoot contracts. We all got Honda scooters for not for a good price, and we all got a lot of Revo sunglasses. All because of the popularity that Jim created for those companies. He was able to spill it over to the teammates. So it was never a one man show. It was being a part of the Bears team and how it's spilled over to everybody. And I think we

all were super appreciative of it. But as Jim said, when it came to Sunday, you know, all that stuff was just the extras and it was about winning games. Here's the end result of that. So just going through all the statistical analysis of your career, there was a stretch that when you were the starting quarterback, you won twenty nine to thirty one games. During one stretch you had a one point loss tooth point loss at Denver and the other one in Minnesota. I mean, you hit

your stride. If do you ever think about the fact that if only it could have just beat that injury bug a little bit, I mean, your record as a starting quarterback was already great, it would have been spectacular. Well. I mean I was playing hurt when I first when I first got here, I mean in nineteen eighty four, I played with a broken throwing hand for the four or five weeks, and people asked me why I couldn't

throw a spiral. I couldn't feel the ball. You know, they shoot my hand this bone here, they shoot it all around the bone, and they'd hit a nerve, so I'd be numbed to my elbow. So balls will be going like this. I mean, they're still getting in the vicinity, but they weren't pretty. And I played with that until I injured my kidney later in the season, and that

ended that in nineteen eighty four for me. But the following year I missed I think four or five games that year because of my shoulder was was was starting to get bad. And then, if I'm not mistaken it, did you regret playing through that particular injury. I think you were quarded as saying that's the one injury you regret well in nineteen eighty six, Yes, because after the first ball game I should not have played. My shoulder

was gone. I had no labor. My arm was coming in out of the socket every time I moved it, and I kept telling them that. I kept telling the coach, the trainers and the doctors, and they kept saying there was nothing wrong. So I kept trying to play with it. You know, they kept shooting it every week, and I you know, once it's numb, you know, you never know where the hell the ball is going to go. But I won the six starts that I had that year, But I should have never been playing. That's the one

I really regret. But you know, I kept trying. And the following year I missed the first half the season. I was still recovering from my shoulder surgery. My arm. They told me it would take me two years to play again. I was playing in ten months. So the rehab was three times a day, and to try to get this thing back into shape was was tough. I mean every time i'd throw a ball, if I was trying to throw it, if I'd look at you and

throw the ball, the ball would go that way. So I had to retrain all the muscles and everything, and it was it was tough. But I wouldn't have played after that. Maybe that would have I could have stayed here in my whole career after that, because I kept getting questioned, not only from Dikka, but some other teammates had mentioned some things, and I'm like, and here, I just played three years with a broken hand, and I

was actually playing two minutes with a torn kidney. So why they were questioning whether or not I was hurt was beyond me. Well, I think maybe that's stars with Mitch. Do you know why Jim wear sunglasses. He had an injury to his eye when he was younger. He stuck himself in the eye with a turkey fork when he was a kid. And wasn't your brother that said, Hey, don't say anything to mom. Oh she's gonna be mad at us. No, I said, don't say anything to mom,

because yeah, it was it was. It was after school one day and my brothers and I were playing Cowboys and Indians. We didn't have Xbox and all that back in the day, so I had a gun holster tied to my knee and I couldn't get the knot out, so I wouldn't got a fork, and I was sitting

there with a fork like this and went boom. And that just proves the hands quicker than the eye, because two prongs with dead center and just kind of shredded my eyeball and I pulled it out right away, and it hurt like hell, believe me, but I'm sitting there whimpering. I went and clean the fork so my mom wouldn't get mad, and I told her about two hours later what happened, and she freaked out. And we only had

one car at the time. My dad was at work, so I sat there probably about six hours before I went to the hospital. And then I got there later that evening. The doctor wanted to operate wide away because it hit tore my eye, and he said, now I can't do it because I had just eaten something and they're not going to pump a six year old stomach to do an operation. So I had to wait till the morning. I just remember my dad all night talking to the doctor saying, just please save his eye. He

didn't want me to have a glass eye. So, you know, this whole my whole career, this was my blind side. I didn't see anything over here. I could see this guy behind me, but not right here. And but I learned. I grew up with it. How'd you do that? Oh?

I just I learned from it. I mean this happened when I was six, So I grew up not you know, having good depth, good depth perception or being able to see from this side, but just something I learned to deal with and never really they considered it a handicap. All right, let's throw some missed Trabisky highlights on the screen and see what this young man has done in a very short period of time. I mean, the growth comes every day, so it's that's expected, right for you.

But if you could just kind of capture what eighteen did for you, Yeah, eighteen, he's the heck of a player. I mean, the one thing that pops out, no, no, oh, this eighteen season My bad eighteen. Taylor Gabriel shout out Taylor Gabriel specific, more specific questions will help. Twenty eighteen,

it was incredible. I mean, obviously you have gang coach Nagy and the staff he brought, the new offense, just learning so much from them, Um, but it really started with just like an attitude in a mindset that we were gonna turn it around and we're gonna win games. It started in the locker room. It really started out at practice, just our my and say we're going to compete every day and it didn't matter who lined up against us. We're we're gonna give him our best and

we're gonna come out of victorious. And learned a lot about UM defenses, just how how different they defend our offense. We got a lot of different weapons on the outside now, so it's really hard to just key on one guy when you got so much talent around you. And if we just if everyone exec continue to spread the ball around, I think we're gonna be really tough offensive stop. But for me, uh and I know, I think Jim roll Gree the most important guys in the offensive, the offensive

line in the center, the guys up front. They helped take care of the quarterback, keep the guys off us, and open up holes in the run game and and and give us time to throw the ball. So I mean, if there's a claim pocket, um, we're gonna find someone to open and we're gonna put it in the right spot. And if they create holes, that just keeps the defense honest in the past game as well. So it all starts up front. And we were just a really tight

knit group. And I think that's what's going to separate us from everyone else, how tight we are as teammates. It didn't get lost on me when you're at the White Sox game the other days with the whole offensive line out there throwing out the first pitch. You hung with them. Your relationship with the offensive line was legendary. They loved you, you loved them. Is that critical? Is that critical to have that symbiotic relationship off the field as well as on the field. Well, I think it is.

I think they'll they'll understand you better. Um, you know, we got to we did our things. Every Thursday night, we go out and it was whoever's turned to buy. They'd picked the restaurant. And then we had just started out basically just the old lineman and myself and by the end of the year, We've had probably thirty guys at dinner on Thursday night because they heard up much fun we were having, and Dick I heard about it too. So Friday morning practice was always pretty tough. You know.

One thing Jim's relationship with the offensive line. So we get our uniform on, we had all go on the back and then we had tightened up our sleeves and put them away. So one day Jim comes before a game, he goes, hey, do that to me. Now we got mcmahnon there. He's got his sleeves rolled up like he's

an offensive lineman. And it is the different relationships. When you see Cody Whitehair escort Mitch in to the end zone on his run, you know, it is that camaraderie that develops in the hard times of the games, but in the good times on the practice field and Mitch. It's a continuous development, especially when you have these guys like Cody and Kyle and Charles Leno and stuff and Bobby Massy. I've been around for a long time in

the development of James Daniels. Yeah, it's awesome. And I think the first thing I had to do coming in here of just being a younger guys just earned the respect one with my work ethic and then too, I think just who I am as a person, and it's all about being authentic and genuine and developed real relationship with them that go beyond football. Just hanging out with them off the field, getting into them and their family, and just really becoming brothers not just on the field,

but for life outside the field. And I think that it just translates to the success on the field that you're gonna no matter what happens, if if everything is going really well or if it's not going to well throughout the game, you're gonna stick with the guys right next to you and you're just gonna go out there have fun and make plays happen. And and uh, I think I just developed a relationship to in my alignment

that it's all love. It's it truly is. We are truly are the family, and they want to protect me and I want to and I'm gonna do everything I possibly can on the field or off the field to make sure that they know that I have their back as well. Are there. We can't we can't do anything as quarterbacks or or receivers or running backs without these guys and it's it's feudal to think anything differently. Games games are won and loss with the offensive line, and

our guys didn't get enough credit. These guys led the league and rushing three straight years, which had never been done and I don't think it's been done since. And everybody knew we were going to run the ball. And that's that's a tribute to the five guys up front, because even though there's eight men in the box, we still got it done. And that's these guys were pretty damn good. Yeah, like I said, we can't do anything

without him. If you we have one guy that doesn't do his job, you're gonna get You're gonna get smacked. So five guys in cohesion along with the tight ending backs, I mean they they went and lose ball games. It's never gonna change. Did you play the quarterback with an offensive lineman's mentality? And do you find yourself doing that at times? Mitch in games as well? So I just I played the game the only way I knew how, whether that be a lineman or what. But I wasn't

afraid of contact. I've always been one of the smaller guys on every team I've ever played on. So I was never afraid of of getting hit or getting hurt. That's just that's just part of the game. But I don't think I put myself above them. I was part of them, and that's why I think, why why we were successful. Yeah, I think I've learned. I mean, I hear from you guys too, Like I gotta slide, I gotta get down. But as a competitor, you want to

you want to get those yards. You want to do Everyone else on the field, especially alignment, they're sacrificing their bodies for the betterment of the team. And when you get a chance to carry the ball or pick up extra yardage, as a competitor, you want to do that. Um. But you just got to continue to keep the big picture in mind. And for me, that's staying healthy, getting

down and playing the next play. Um. And no one when the journeys over, especially when the guy when you're carrying the ball, the defenders, they're they're coming to take you out of the game. They're trying to take your head off and and uh and make sure to that you know that they know that you're out there. And

uh So it's it's a learning process. But at the same time, like Jim said, we're going to play the game the way we know how, and that's just balls to the wall, picking up extra yardage, keeping plays alive, and doing what I need to do for my team

to make sure that we're successful. And with emotion, which you definitely play with emotion when you when when you guys had a successful play highlight after highlight, you got an ear to ear grin and you're wired up and at last touchdown to run you sew on the video against Detroit. I've talked to you about that particular play. It's like you got on the end zone. You had this primal scream. It was almost a symbolic thing for you just in a short period of time. You know,

people there were doubters. There were doubters about you being selected that high, and I think that that lives within you, doesn't it. Yeah, I do have I don't always show it all the time, but I do play this game with emotion, and I think it helps for me to stay even killed throughout the game so that I'm able to be focused. And sometimes my receivers know when I'm playing with two Mitch emotions because there like Mitchell, you

gotta take some off the ball. It's coming into hot you're hurting, you're hurting our hands just like put a little touch on it so we could catch it. And uh so you don't always got to come out that fired up. So for me, it's just saying even even killed. So I'm focused, locked in, but everyone once a while, you just gotta let it out. And that was like throughout the season we were being doubted and we're in

a tough spot. We just continue to win games. And after that touchdown and I just wanted to to show how far it up I was, and and that's what it was. But there's always a time and place for showing your emotion. And I think my teammates know, especially at practice throughout the games, what you say to them the huddle, how you say things um and they can see it in your eyes at the end of game. You can't see my eyes right now because I got

these nice sunglasses on. But when you when you step into the huddle, when you're on the sidelines, when you're a locker room, your your teammates can look you in the eyes and they know what you're about. They know that you're ready to go. They know that you're confident, locked in and there's really no doubts about what's gonna happen on the field. Um by looking your eyes and knowing how confident that you are that the job's gonna

get done. So it's all a mindset, it's all attitude and sometimes you just gotta let it out and and we we feel the fans energy as well, so the emotion doesn't stop on the field. You feel it coming from the stands trickling down and as a player, you just want to you just want to go crazy and make big plays. Hey, Jim, So after touchdowns, most of us would get aheadbut from you. And that was our way of celebrating when you look at the allowing you

to celebrate any way you want to. Nowadays in the NFL, would you have changed that celebration or was the headbut fitting of our time? No, I would have changed any because that was basically all spontaneous. You know. Now these guys are they're practicing all week for their touchdown dance, it seems like. So it was just one of those things, Hey, let's let's go, let's go get another one. And I know a couple of us actually try to knock each other out. I know Becker tried to get me a

few times. I remember my headbutted you one time and you didn't have your chin strap on, and your helmet came down and hit the top of your nose, and it was kind of something. Okay, I got to make sure that the quarterback. I'll always be strapped up after your score, that's for sure. Tell us a story. How you feel about this? Man? Oh man, I can tell you the funniest story. The first time I ever snapped

the ball to Jim wasn't unbelieved. So I literally drive from the USFL game on a Saturday night straight through to Platteville, Wisconsin on a Monday morning. And so back then, the rookies and the quarterbacks would come in a week early for camp, and I thought I was going to play center, and so I come out to practice faux pads and I got a waste belt on. It's called a fat belt at the time, and so but I didn't have any shorts ms of sweater. I'm a sweater. I'm a sweater. So I get down and I'm gonna

snap the ball. And so I snapped the ball, but it hits my sweat and as the splattered everywhere, it's it's splattered all throughout Jim's face and he threw the ball down and he goes, do you have shorts on? And I go, no, mister McMahon, and he goes. Ray Early was our equipment manager at the time, and he was, Ray, get over here, get in some shorts, put them on, and don't ever come out like that again. So that was my first experience of My head stunk for a

week after that. So and I was just there for a week because Jay was not in camp yet, and so everybody you know, Jay had just come off of a Pro Bowl season and he was a center. But I was just trying to figure out what my role was going to be on this team. But I will never forget that as long as I live. It never happened again. I don't think I ever wore that belt out to practice again. And you know, it kind of understood the relationship that the center better have with the quarterback.

Do you have anything like that any stories with your offensive line in your early days here an NFL player? No, Thank god, My centers aren't big sweaters, So that's kinda I got a better I got a better one than the Tommy story. I was playing for the Chargers in nineteen eighty nine after I left Chicago, and this one game, I get a rookie center and he's also on the kickoff return team, so we get the opening kickoff. I think we get the ball about the twenty yard line.

I go into the huddle and we didn't have the shotgun formation in San Diego that the coach didn't believe in the shotgun. So the center grabbed me and he says, hey, if your hands starts to smells, because I just craped my pants. Two story, folks, two story. So I burned the time out before the game starts. I called time out. I'm walking over the sideline and coach handing the head coach,

he's all, what are you doing? What I said, this is exactly why we need the shotgun, I said, your boy just crapped his pants and I'm not sticking my hand in there until he cleans it out. So he had to leave the game for a little while and freshen up. And but that's how centers will do you. Sometimes you gotta watch out for them. A hand did stink for a month after that game. I think We're eighties something percent in shotgun last year, so which was like third in the league. So I was pretty happy

about that. Imagine. Indeed, I think another underrated quality that you had that you would have actually thrived in this era of football as well and in this system, is your mobility. You were you. You were mobile, you were athletic. Let's show one of the great catches you're gonna see by a quarterback in the National Football League. You remember this one, big Jim, It'll become It's just that the highlight toss twenty nine, throwback toss twenty nine throwback. Here

we go, break it down. Pay attention. I make a good block at the end, wipes out two guys here one, two, Tommy. This is one of the greatest catches of all What a beauty. Oh, I made it look harder than it was. Look how small Jim's next to van Horn. That's the biggest human I've ever seen. And this is a true story. Keith van Horn was so big that I never stood next to him for the national anthem because I didn't want the guy across the line looking at me, going, man,

look how small that guy is. And you know he's you know six seven and a half and he put his helmet on. He's up the six nine. So you know, you look at Keith put his arms around, Jim around Jim like a little kid. Mitch put your reporters had on or just your inquisitive self. Do you have any

questions for Jim McMahon, Yeah, I got a question. I think for me growing up, my favorite player was Walter Payton and us The first ever book I read in elementary school was a biography on the life of Walter Payton. So I just wanna know if you have what was it like playing with him and what was your favorite characteristic about Walter. Walter was a great teammate, but I mean he was, like I said earlier, he never never said give me the ball, was never a selfish player.

He always did his job and uh, and he did it professionally when he when he got in the end zone, he just flipped the ball to the referee. There was never any you know, dancing around or nothing like that. He just he was just a true professional and uh, one of the biggest pranksters we've ever had on the team. I mean he was always lighting the m eights and he put him on a tape, and he'd like tape

it to the Hollis Hall racquetball court. You had to walk by the racquetball court on your way out to practice, and those things would be blazing up for about two or three minutes. He'd already be out of practice, and as guys were walking out, you hear there's big boom that scared the hell out of everybody. And hey, you gotta tell him about in the Miami Dolphins game when Walter had the streak of eight or nine hundred yard

games and this is the only game we lost. Mitch. Yeah, So we're playing playing Miami at Monday night and Mike decides, I'm not going to play that night. For summer, I missed I guess one one day of practice that week, so we said you're not playing. I'm like, okay, you know, we're having fun in Miami. I don't really want to care. I don't really care. We're already in the playoffs. We're twelve and oh, we're already got a home field. The band is sewn up. So my job that night was

to make sure Walter got his hundred yards. I was keeping track kind of in my head how many yards he had, and about six minutes to go in the game, Mike decides to put me in. We're down fourteen points, and I get in the huddle and I said, look, boys, we're already in the playoffs. I said, this game doesn't mean a damn thing. I said, let's get this man the record that he deserves. And to a man, they said, yeah,

let's do it. So Dick Kay had given me a running play, so when I got up to the line of scrimmage, he knew I didn't call the running play. He's already mad, and I give it to Walter. You get He bust in there for like fifteen yards because they're they're dropping, They're rushing three dropping eight. So I forgot. We had one time out left, though, so he burns

the time out. I have to go talk to him now, and he's all in my face and I said, look, we have nothing in our pass game that gets us that many yards for number one, and I said number two. I said, Walter only needs about ten yards for his record right now, And he had no clue what I was talking about. He was so mad at me, and it finally kicked in. He goes, oh, yeah, yeah, okay, we're gonna we're gonna get him his record, but first we're gonna do this. So he gives me another pass play.

I go in the huddle. I said, boys, and really gonna hit the fan now. But I said, we're running this thing again, and they said, let's do it. So I come up to the line. I look over now, and now he knows I didn't call that play. So he threw his clipboard and he went to throw his headset, but his headset stuck to his waist, so it kind of bounced off and hit him back and the chest.

I mean, while I'm running the play, watching Walter run right, he got another ten or fifteen yards, I said, all right, now, let's try to win the game. But he did end up getting his record. I was happy to see him do that because he deserved that at the time, and we didn't need to win anyway. It would have been great to go undefeated, have an undefeated season, and you know, do all that, but I think that was more important

than that we did. We did what we set out to do, that was winning championship, and so I was I was glad that we got both those accomplice. With Jimmy start today year eleven. And oh and the Pro Bowl. You can't get better than that, plus the championship, So take us to Super Bowl Sunday. Well, I was having a great week up until I think it was Thursday morning. We'd been there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. We had no curfew, so it was it was a good week in New Orleans.

Thursday morning, I got woken up by some of my rate fans screaming and yelling at me, saying they're gonna kill me and all this and that, and I had no idea what they were talking about. I go down to the team breakfast that morning. Jerry Venisi r Olgm come up to me and said, oh, you really did it this time. Still had no clue what was going on. Then Dicka came up to me in the breakfast line. He says, did you really say that? And I said, say what? Mike? I said, Jerry's mad at me. Some

fans woke me up this morning. What did I do now? And then he told me what had happened? I said, and you believe that? I said, you actually believe I got up at six am to do a damn radio interview or somebody, I said, I didn't get home till five o'clock. I'm not getting up there. So I was getting death threats from Thursday on. So Sunday was almost a blur to me. I was I'd seen Black Sunday and all those crazy movies where fan wants to shoot you, he'll shoot you. So I was more worried about getting

out of New Orleans alive than the game. You are honest to God, look me in the eye. Worried about that? Oh yeah, I was dead. It scared the hell out of me because and we practiced at the Old Saints Facility, which there was an apartment complex right behind that facility overlooked the whole field, and nobody would stand by me a practice. I had to wear a different uniform. I think Jim watched too much move, too many movies, and too much television. Holy smoke, Now you don't. I don't

put it past these crazy fans. Many'll they'll do anything they can. But they also had a helicopter flying over practice, and you moon the helicopter. Oh. I kept getting questions about my ask because I got in the NFC Championship game.

The one time I did slide that year, I got drilled in my hip, and this side of my hip is about this big and I I really if it wasn't for that acupuncturist, I would have never played that game because my hip, I couldn't move, I couldn't walk, And so that was where was I going with that? But we were talking about we are talking about you and the radio interview and then yeah, so they kept asking me all week about my ass or my butt, you know, so I said I got tired of it.

So the helicopter was buzzing us while we were doing calisthenic, so I just I kind of dropped troal and showed him what hurt. Hey, Mitch, you know last year, October thirty first is a Halloween game and they you come in in a kind of a dipka costume. You know that a man likes to have fun, right, I know you it's kind of gutsy though, because you know there's not you know, nowadays they got a camera on your

entrance everybody sees in the stadium. They play it on all the sports shows they talk about on the radio. Do you enjoy kind of putting that type of magnifying glass or that fun pressure on yourself? Yeah? You know, um, it's a little different walking in the stadiums now. You get out of your car, there's immediately a camera right in your face. You gotta wake up, brush your teeth through your hair in the morning, make sure you don't just come in at five am from the night before.

But this was just one of those things that it was Halloween. I want to do something fun. I mean the rich history of the Bears. Everyone knows the the iconic Mike Dicka sweater and the sweater vests. And I had everything but the sweater vests. So I asked our qui manager, Tony Medlin, if he had anything in the back, and he picked out this sweater for me and I

just threw it all together. And those are actually my mom's sunglasses, so she was wearing those that week and I was like, Yo, those are like the same exact ones that Mike Dicka used to wear. Can I use those for this week? And she said absolutely. So I came in and it all came together, so I'll be a lot of people got a kick out of it, and I had a lot of fun doing it. But uh, you just gotta make sure you win that day or else. The costume is for nothing. Well, who I all the quarterbacks?

You guys usually have pretty cool hats on when you travel on the road. Who's the instigator of the hat wearing? It's my idea, Yeah, I'm the hats And then whatever one quarterback does, the rest of the quarterbacks have to do. So we do. We do everything as a group. Mitch, to this point, in your opinion, what's been the most significant moment and development in your NFL career? I would say there's really it's it's hard to pinpoint one moment.

I would just say the continual, the continual grind and just keeping keeping it in perspective that I'm truly living out a childhood dream of mine, especially playing in the great city of Chicago, and just the opportunity that we had to have ahead of us to be a part of history and to make our own history history and just trying to leave a legacy behind um and carry

on the great legacy which is the Chicago Bears. So I'm just very excited for what's ahead and uh and continue to get better and see what's in store for the season. Let me pull a quote from Mitch last year before the season began, he was asked by this reporter that I referred to earlier. Imagining the twenty eighteen Bears sweeping the city the way the eighty five Bears did, Tribiski rubs his chin. He says, it'd be iconic, it'd be legendary, it'd be everything you dream of. I think

we all share that dream. You dreamed big ever since you were a little kid, and you're realizing these dreams like you dream you wanted this. How does that resonate with you, that your dreams are becoming reality. It's I think it's just a crazy thing that I'm able to do what I do on a daily basis, wake up, go to the city facility, play football as a as a job, and just keep in mind that it was

the same game that I was playing growing up. It's it's a dream come true, and you just got to make sure every day that you're making the most opportunity,

which which I think I am. Just continue to get better, have fun it is a game, and continue respecting to love the game because it's given me so much, and it's it's really a privilege um to play in Chicago, to continue this players game, It's truly a blessing and Um, you just got to keep that in mind, that we're blessed to be able to do what we do on a daily basis, go to work, play football, have fun, um and play with such amazing people and developed relationships

that'll that will last a lifetime. And last night getting to see Jim with all his teammates and seeing bears from the sixties and in fifties and all the Hall of famers, it truly is relationships that last a lifetime, and last night was it was a great example of that. So it's we're just very privileged to be able to do what we do. Gm ordinamate last night mean you, I mean, I think guys, and I've out whenever I've done interviews with guys, I always tell them and Tom

does two that ten, fifteen, twenty years from now. You appreciate the relationships and the moments and the locker room and the weekly dinners that you had more than anything. But you need that time away from the game to really understand what it all meant. And I I heard from guys last night. They were from every decade, just moved by last night being in that room altogether. No, it was it was great to see the old guys

and the young guys altogether. This town has always been a Bear town and it's always going to be a Bear town. And these fans, I think this is a hard work in town. These fans appreciate hard working players, and they know who plays hard and who doesn't. And if you play hard for Chicago, they'll love you. And if you play hard and win, they'll love you forever. And that's the way it's been so far. So thank you,

you know, on that that same question. You know, Mitch's trying to achieve everything that you were being able to achieve. You talk about this event, it's got people from all fifty states and seven different countries. Jim, every time they refer to you, they refer to you as the super Bowl winning quarterback at the eighty five Bears. Does that carry you around the country? And like, is that what

people want to talk about? First? In your life? That in the Super Bowl shuffle that just won't go away? You know, that's that's a thing. I don't know what it is about that damn song, but everybody kind of you know, we did that to feed the homeless on Thanksgiving and Christmas. That was our idea when all that started, but then it just it just took it on a life of its own. But you know, this city has been great. Like I said, I lived here for twenty

eight years. I love the fans here. I love coming back, especially this time of year where it's not freezing, and my oldest son still lives here in town. So it's it's always special to come back here and be a part of this team and our guys. I mean, it was just like we had just left the locker room the other day. I mean, the stories to come around and the friendships. That's that's the thing that we miss,

is just hanging out with each other. All right, we only have two minutes to go, but I gotta I gotta bring this up because you have really dedicated yourself to um be in there for the military, and you were in a rock a few years back. Tell us that story, because I only recently heard about it. What an incredible experience for you to see what's going on in war over there was was amazing. All the good things that was happening over there never got reported here.

All the infrastructure that we provided. Um, you know, I was there when they hung Sadam. They wouldn't let us go to the hanging, but we were pretty close. We stayed, actually stayed in one of his palaces that night. But just to see what the what our men and women go through during times of war was amazing and it was I was supposed to go back to Afghanistan the following year, but that got nicked. They said, you made it once, you're not going to go back. But it

was an incredible experience. I've always got to do a lot of great stuff with the military, and it's just without the sacrifices that they made, we couldn't be sitting up here doing what we do. So I appreciate them and I'll continue to do that work. Any final thoughts time they I think everybody here is looking to the looking to the future, but learning from the past. And I think that's the great thing about this event last night.

Having a chance to go in that room and you talk about the generations of players from eighty nine years old up into the guys that you know, the twenty year olds from last year's team. It's just been a great opportunity for us to learn new stuff about the Bears, and in preparation for this event, it is all the different stuff you're able to learn about the history of Chicago Bears about you know one thing that the word that always comes up about the Bears and George Hallis

is toughness. And I think you go back and you look at every one of those guys that have made their name with the Bears, it's because they are tough people. Three tough guys right up here as well. Thank you so much, Jim McMahon, Thank you guys for coming out. Go Bears. Mitchell Traubisky Bears quarterbacks. Give my nice hand. Everybody