"The Shuffle" Documentary on The 1985 Bears Season Of Pure Dominance, And The Rap Song They Recorded, Is Tremendous

I'm just wrapping up watching this right now (It's at the part about the Super Bowl, and I am all too familiar with how that one ends), and I had to blog it because I don't think it got the hype in the lead-up that it deserved. I remember hearing about this a couple of months ago on social media, but that was it. I had no idea this dropped tonight until a couple of old-school, southside Chicago cop friends texted our group chat, raving about it. 

And before I get into teasing this thing like your date on prom night, let me just say that while watching, I had an epiphany. No wonder Bears fans are so traumatized. They went from having the most dominant, feared and ferocious team of all time to being an annual doormat for 40 years.

HBO did this 40-minute documentary on the '85 Bears, and the Super Bowl shuffle, which was essentially a novelty rap song from the 80s, and I watched it like it was Game 7 of the Finals. That is the power of the ’85 Bears. 

But this was cool because, besides focusing on Buddy Ryan's insane defense- the likes of which this league has never seen before or since, it focused in on "The Shuffle", and is basically a behind-the-scenes time capsule of the most ridiculous, arrogant, accidentally perfect crossover of football and pop culture that has ever existed.  

If you somehow have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, the Bears made a full music video talking about winning the Super Bowl before they actually won the Super Bowl. 

Not after the parade. 

Not after receiving their rings. 

They cut this thing in early December 1985, right after their only loss of the year to Marino and the Dolphins.

The doc hits that sweet spot of “this is so cringe” and “I cannot look away.” 

And in true HBO fashion (they really are the best), it delivers all the studio nerd details- the old Chicago club where they shot it, the sound engineer, the players remembering how tired and pissed off they were after losing in Miami, and still dragging themselves in because they had already promised they would do it.

And as we all know, it worked. 

The ’85 Bears finished 15-1, then SHUT OUT both the Giants and Rams in the playoffs, then destroyed the Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. 

That defense gave up 12.4 points a game, which is a sick joke compared to what passes for “top 5 defense” now.

The whole team talked like they were unbeatable, danced like they were in a high school talent show, and then actually backed it up. And this was their quarterback.

And by all accounts, “The Super Bowl Shuffle” was a legit hit. 

The song actually fucking charted on Billboard. 

It also got a Grammy nomination, and sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and the video itself went platinum. 

All while being performed by guys who, (outside of Willie Gault), mostly rapped like your friend from middle school who thought he was black after three Miller Lites at a wedding.

The whole thing also had a great story behind it. The entire project came together as a charity project, and more than $300,000 in profits went to the Chicago Community Trust to help families with food, clothing, and shelter. (BIg money today, even bigger in 1985)

As Walter Payton famously rapped “we’re not doing this because we’re greedy, the Bears are doing it to feed the needy."

p.s. - did everybody back then have one of these cabinet TVs? Things were fucking monsters. Weighed like 500 lbs. So classy though.