A few days prior to the Super Bowl, ESPN ran a 30 for 30 on the 1985 Chicago Bears, one of the most popular (and best) teams in NFL history.

For quite some time, I thought the Bears were a flash in the pan considering they got bumped in the ’86 and ’87 playoffs by Jay Schroeder and Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins.

However, after doing some viewing, I’m starting soften on my stance a bit. In the days following Super Bowl 50 and Denver’s tremendous defensive performance, folks are starting to wonder if we watched one of the greatest defenses ever.

Maybe, maybe not.

However, I can say this. I’ll take the ’85 Bears over them any day of the week and 70 times on Sunday.

Let’s visit a few clips.

First, Mike Ditka faces his mentor Tom Landry as the Bears mutilate the Cowboys, 44-0. This included the utter destruction of Danny White, who had to leave the game in a neck brace:

Next, the 13-1 Bears headed to the Meadowlands to face the playoff-bound New York Jets. The highlight might be John Madden saying during the pregame lead-in that basically the Bears were going to win the Super Bowl and the only people who were going to screw that up were the Bears themselves:

One week later, the Bears wrapped up the season by annihilating the Lions to finish the regular season 15-1.

Here is Wilbur Marshall nearly removing Joe Ferguson from Earth:

Of course, the Bears followed this up by allowing 10 points in three playoff games and winning Super Bowl XX.

The only weird thing with the ’85 Bears was Ditka’s fetish for getting William Perry, a defensive tackle, in the game as a fullback. That was weird.

Nonetheless, they are arguably the greatest team ever.