January 26, 1986: The Super Bowl Shuffle

January 26, 1986, 40 years ago: Super Bowl XX is played at the Superdome in New Orleans. It was meant to be a coronation for the Chicago Bears, who had put together one of the greatest seasons in NFL history. All they had to do was outscore the New England Patriots for 60 minutes.

Just 1 minute and 19 seconds into the game, the Patriots took the lead. That wasn't in the script.

*

Let's go back to early 1982. George Halas, the 86-year-old founding owner of the Bears, fired head coach Neill Armstrong, no relation to the similarly-named first man on the Moon. The Bears' defensive players all signed a letter to Halas, asking that he keep Armstrong's defensive coordinator, James "Buddy" Ryan.

So when Halas made his last hire -- "Papa Bear" died on October 31, 1983 -- Ryan was the only holdover on the coaching staff. And he and the man Halas hired as head coach never got along.

That man was Mike Ditka. One of the earliest great tight ends in football history, the native of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a small steel-mill city outside Pittsburgh, had starred with the Bears, making 5 Pro Bowls and helping them win the 1963 NFL Championship -- or, if you prefer, "Super Bowl -III." He later played for the Dallas Cowboys, helping them win Super Bowl VI. Head coach Tom Landry made him assistant head coach, and the Cowboys, with both Landry and Ditka, won Super Bowl XII.

Ditka inherited a team with an already legendary running back, Walter Payton, but not much else. He and general manager Jerry Vainisi began to build a champion. In 1984, his 3rd season in charge, the Bears went 10-6, winning the NFC Central Division, their 1st 1st-place finish since 1963, and their 1st Playoff berth in 7 years.

They beat the Washington Redskins in the Divisional Playoff. But in the NFC Championship Game, not only did the San Francisco 49ers beat them 23-0, but they rubbed it in: Head coach Bill Walsh had guard Guy McIntyre play as a blocking running back. Ditka remembered that.

So the Bears began the 1985 season with this lineup:

* Offense. Quarterback: Jim McMahon. Running backs: Walter Payton and Matt Suhey. Receivers: Willie Gault and Dennis McKinnon. Line: Center Jay Hilgenberg, guards Mark Bortz and Tom Thayer, tackles Jim Covert and Keith Van Horne, and tight end Emery Moorehead.

* Defense. Line: Ends Dan Hampton and Richard Dent, and tackles Steve McMichael and William Perry. Linebackers: Mike Singletary, Otis Wilson and Wilber Marshall. Secondary: Cornerbacks Mike Richardson and Leslie Frazier, and safeties Gary Fencik and Dave Duerson.

* Special Teams: Placekicker Kevin Butler, punter Maury Buford, and whatever players had most impressed Ditka in practice. Ditka had been a great special teams player himself once, and had coached it in Dallas. He liked to say, "A man without fear belongs in an insane asylum. Or on special teams."

The Bears lost their 1st 3 preseason games, before winning the last. It didn't show during the regular season. The 1st 5 games were a home-and-home sweep of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a home win over the Patriots (20-7, which gave no indication as to how the season would end), a win away to the Minnesota Vikings, and a home win over the Redskins.

The next game was against the 49ers, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on October 13. The 49ers were 3-2, having already lost 1 more game than in all of the previous season. Joe Montana may have been the greatest quarterback who ever lived, but the Bears sacked him 7 times. The Bears won, 26-10. 

Late in the game, Ditka sent the rookie Perry in -- as a running back. With McIntyre the year before in mind, he even let Perry -- so fat and seemingly full of food, his nickname was "The Refrigerator" -- carry the ball twice, and he rushed for 4 yards. This had no real effect on the game, but Ditka had sent a message. (This would be the Bears' last win away to the 49ers for 29 years.)

The Perry experiment probably should have ended there: Ditka had made his point to Walsh. But Ditka wanted to make a point to Ryan as well: Contrary to what Ryan believed, Perry could play. And the next game, on October 21, on ABC's Monday Night Football, against the Green Bay Packers, the oldest arch-rivalry in the NFL, would have the entire country watching. (Theoretically, the oldest rivalry is between the Bears and the Arizona Cardinals, who played in Chicago from 1920 to 1959, but since the Cards left Chicago, the teams have cared little about each other.)

During what turned out to be a 23-7 victory, the Bears had a 1st and goal on the Packer 1-yard line. Ditka sent out a formation with Perry looking as though he was going to block for Payton, already the NFL's all-time leading rusher. Instead, McMahon handed the ball to Perry, and he broke through the Packer line to get into the end zone.

At 335 pounds, he became the heaviest player ever to score an offensive touchdown in the NFL. That is, there had been heavier defensive players who picked up a fumble and returned it, or recovered a fumble in the end zone. But Perry was the heaviest player who had been sent in for an offensive play to score a touchdown on said play.

The next week, the Bears beat the Vikings. Perry played, but did not appear on offense. The next week, on November 3, the Bears went to Lambeau Field for a rematch against the Packers. Perry was sent in for 1st and goal on the Packer 4, and moved out to become an eligible receiver. McMahon threw him the ball, and Perry took it in for a touchdown. It gave the Bears a 7-3 lead in a game they would win 16-10.

Now, the Bears were 9-0, and Perry had become a folk hero. He starred in a commercial for McDonald's, ordering 4 McDLTs, 2 large fries, and a Diet Coke. Yes, a Diet Coke, as if that would have made a difference. The tagline, over Perry's huge smile with one missing front tooth, was, "McDonald's: Where The Refrigerator stocks up."

The Bears beat the Detroit Lions at home, to go 10-0. The next week, with McMahon injured and Steve Fuller quarterbacking, the Bears went to Texas and beat the Dallas Cowboys 44-0. Perry rushed for 1 yard, but not a touchdown. The next week, they hosted the Atlanta Falcons, and Perry rushed for another 1-yard touchdown.

The 12-0 Bears' bid for an undefeated season was ruined the following week at the Orange Bowl, losing 38-24 to the Miami Dolphins, who in 1972 became the only undefeated Super Bowl Champions to this day. This remains the most-watched game in Monday Night Football history. Perry did not appear on offense.

Timing is everything: That game was played on December 2, the day before the scheduled release of a song and video the Bears, including Perry, Payton and McMahon, had recorded: "The Super Bowl Shuffle." It made the Bears, including "Fridge" (until the video, most people hadn't heard the shortened version of his nickname), bigger stars than any NFL team had ever been.

Their complacency shattered, the Bears went to work, winning their last 3 games to finish 15-1: Wins over the Indianapolis Colts at home, the New York Jets at the Meadowlands, and the Lions at the Pontiac Silverdome.

Perry was not sent in on offense again, but was proving to his critics, including Ryan, that he was a capable defensive lineman. He ended up starting 9 of the 16 regular-season games. He even recovered 2 fumbles and returned them for a total of 66 yards.

Having gone 15-1, the Bears had matched the previous year's 49ers for most wins in an NFL regular season. When the Dolphins went undefeated in 1972, it was a 14-game season. But there was still that 1 loss on their record. It wouldn't matter much, though, if they won the Super Bowl.

In the Divisional Round, their opponents were the NFC East Champions, the Giants. Bill Parcells' G-Men had their own devastating defense, led by Lawrence Taylor. But the game would be at Soldier Field, right on Lake Michigan, with a Winter wind blasting in. No problem for the Giants, right? Giants Stadium had a wind that swirled around, and they were used to cold and wind.

They were not used to the '85 Bears, or to their wind. Early in the game, Sean Landeta dropped the ball to punt, and the wind blew it so that it just sort of glanced off the side of his foot. It was a 5-yard punt, and Shaun Gayle was right there to pick it up and take it into the end zone. That touchdown, and Butler's point-after, were the only scoring in the 1st half, but the Giants were already dead. Two touchdown passes from McMahon to McKinnon made it 21-0, with the Giants having only 32 rushing yards. Phil Simms had been sacked 6 times for 60 yards.

Next was the NFC Championship Game, at home, against the NFC West Champions, the Los Angeles Rams. As a Southern California team (by this point, they were playing home games in Anaheim), the Rams were not used to cold weather. They had Eric Dickerson, who, the season before, had set a new NFL record for rushing yards in a season. The Bears limited him to 46 yards, and the Rams' offense as a whole to 130 yards. The Bears won, 24-0. For the 1st time since the NFL Championship Game became known as the Super Bowl, they were in it.

There was controversy. Ditka and Ryan were still feuding. At age 45 and 54, respectively, they should have been well past the need for the verbal equivalent of a dick-waving contest. Rumors were swirling that Ryan would get one of the inevitable head coaching vacancies in the NFL. McMahon was feuding with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, over advertising on the headbands he wore under his helmet. And he was feuding with the media, over remarks he allegedly made over the personal lives of the women of New Orleans, site of the game.

But on Super Sunday, January 26, the Bears seemed to be set to be all business, against a Patriots team coached by Raymond Berry, the Hall of Fame receiver for the Baltimore Colts of the 1950s and '60s. The Pats had done something no other team had done in a single postseason: Win 3 Playoff games on the road. The Bears were favored by 10 points, an unusually high point spread, but the Pats looked like, at the least, they belonged on the same field as the franchise once, and again, known as "The Monsters of the Midway."

*

This game should have been the Bears' crowning achievement. It should have been Payton's crowning achievement, finally playing in the big game after 11 seasons. But he fumbled in the 1st minute of the game, and the Patriots shocked the football world by taking a 3-0 lead on a field goal by Tony Franklin. Remember: The Bears hadn't allowed so much as a point in their 1st 2 postseason games.

The Bears tied it on a Butler field goal. Figuring he was going to win the game anyway, Ditka went against his tough-guy "Iron Mike" image, and decided to get cute. At the Patriot 3-yard line, he sent Perry in. McMahon tossed the ball back to him, and Perry raised his arm for an option pass. NBC announcer Dick Enberg spoke for all of us when he said, with shock in his voice, "It's Perry, he's gonna throw the ball!"

But, never having done this in an actual game, the Fridge hesitated, couldn't find an open receiver, and had to run it himself, and was tackled for a 1-yard loss. The man who had become the biggest name on a defense that included future Hall-of-Famers Singletary, Hampton, Dent and McMichael, and All-Pros Marshall, Wilson, Duerson and Fencik, had become, for all intents and purposes, a sack victim. And the game was still tied, 3-3.

But, as with after the loss in Miami, the Bears woke up. They punished the Patriots. They humiliated them. (Keep in mind, Bill Belichick was then an assistant coach for the Giants, and Tom Brady was 8 years old. Neither of them could cheat to help the Pats.) Butler kicked a field goal, and, in the last minute of the 1st quarter, Suhey ran 11 yards for a touchdown. Chicago 13, New England 3.

Midway through the 2nd quarter, McMahon ran the ball himself, got flipped, and landed on his head. He was not immediately injured. A few plays later, with the ball on the Patriot 2-yard line, he lowered his head, got clobbered, and still took the ball in for a touchdown. On the last play of the 1st half, Butler kicked another field goal. Chicago 23, New England 3.

Midway through the 3rd quarter, McMahon got the ball to the Patriot 1. Instead of giving Payton the ball to give him his Super Bowl touchdown, McMahon took it in himself. A little over a minute later, with Berry having replaced starting quarterback Tony Eason -- who thus became the 1st starting quarterback in a Super Bowl to fail to complete a pass -- with the team's longtime former starter, Steve Grogan, Reggie Phillips intercepted a Grogan pass, returning it 28 yards for a touchdown.

It was 37-3 when Ditka sent Perry in again with the ball at the 1. Ditka could have had Perry block for Payton, to give "Sweetness" his Super Bowl touchdown. Instead, Ditka had McMahon hand the ball to Perry, who jumped over the line, and fell into the end zone. Touchdown. The Bears led, 44-3. With 3:48 left in the 3rd quarter.

With 13 minutes left, Grogan found some consolation, with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Irving Fryar. With 5:36 left, and the "46 Defense" replaced by their reserves, Henry Waechter sacked Grogan in the end zone, for a safety. The Patriots were limited to just 123 yards from scrimmage. 

The game ended 46-10, and, for the 1st time in 22 seasons, the Chicago Bears were NFL Champions. Dent was named the game's Most Valuable Player. They could have given it to McMahon. At least they didn't give it to Perry: For the most part, he did his job, but giving him the MVP would have been a terrible example of pandering.

*

At the end of the game, before the Patriots' body was even cold, the resentments in the team began to show. The offensive players picked Ditka up and carried him off the field. They did so quickly, because they saw that the defensive players were running over to do the same for Ryan. And some players were bitter that Ditka chose to give Perry, not Payton, the greatest player in the Bears' proud history, the chance to score the last touchdown, or any touchdown. Payton carried the ball 22 times for 61 yards, but didn't get his touchdown.

The next day, the Bears got a championship parade in Chicago. They were also set to go to the White House, to be honored by President Ronald Reagan. But the day after the parade, the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after launch, killing all 7 astronauts aboard. The Bears' White House celebration was canceled.

Between the message the defense sent by carrying Ryan off the field, the complaints about Perry and Payton, and the inability to be honored by the President, the 1985 Chicago Bears, one of the greatest teams in football history, foreshadowed a scene from the 1988 baseball-themed movie Bull Durham: A kid is pitching well, and his veteran catcher criticizes him anyway. The pitcher asks, "Can't you just let me enjoy the moment?" And the catcher says, "Moment's over."

Sure enough, just 3 days after the Super Bowl, Ryan quit, and accepted an offer to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, where he failed to understand that he had Randall Cunningham, a man known as "the Ultimate Weapon," as his quarterback. He never saw another Super Bowl except on television.

Not having to deal with Ryan should have been the best thing that could have happened to both Ditka and Perry. It wasn't: The Bears were still one of the best teams in the NFL, but never again were they the best team.

They lost in the Divisional Playoffs in the 1986 and 1987 seasons, after which Payton retired. They lost in the NFC Championship Game (at home, to the 49ers) in 1988, missed the Playoffs in 1989, lost in the Divisional Round in 1990, lost in the Wild Card Round in 1991, and missed the Playoffs in 1992, at which point Ditka was fired. He had won 106 regular-season games, 6 Division titles, and 6 postseason games, but only 1 NFC Championship Game and 1 Super Bowl.

The Bears became the NFL equivalent of the New York Mets: All that talent in the 1980s, all those memorable characters, and all that hype, from both local and national media machines; and they ended up only going to their sport's final once, winning just the once. The Mets won their World Series 9 months after the Bears won their Super Bowl, and didn't learn the right lessons.

Not only did both franchises fail to win another title and eventually get broken up, but neither one has ever won another title. The Bears have only been to 1 more Super Bowl, the Mets to only 2 more World Series, all lost.

Still, the '85 Bears became not just a historic team, but an iconic one. They were mentioned in the 1987 film Planes, Trains and Automobiles. From 1991 to 1997, "The Chicago Superfans" was a sketch on Saturday Night Live, with beefy men copying Ditka's look -- caps with the Bears' "Wishbone C" logo, aviator sunglasses, and big bushy mustaches -- and raising their mugs of beer to toast "Da Bearssss!" (Once Michael Jordan started winning titles, "Da Bullssss!" was added to the sketch.) And Chicago native Michael Wilbon frequently drops mentions of the team as co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption.

Singletary later served as head coach of the 49ers, Frazier of the Vikings, backup safety Jeff Fisher took the Tennessee Titans to Super Bowl XXXIV, and backup linebacker Ron Rivera took the Carolina Panthers to Super Bowl 50.

In 2011, on the 25th Anniversary of their win, President Barack Obama, who's lived his adult life in Chicago (but was in the opposing metropolitan area, attending Harvard Law School, when that Super Bowl was played), decided to give the '85 Bears the White House visit they never got from Illinois native and former small-college football player Reagan.

But not all was well. Those Bears suffered for their profession, suffered for their art. Payton, who was both one of the most graceful, and one of the toughest, players of his generation, died of liver disease in 1999. Duerson killed himself in 2011, a few months before the White House visit. He wanted his brain donated to science, to see if his struggles in retirement were caused by brain damage, caused by football. It was determined that they were. McMahon has reported memory issues, and believes he also has CTE. Given some of Ditka's statements the last few years, people have wondered about him, too. And McMichael developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the paralytic condition known as Lou Gehrig's disease. (He lived just long enough to see himself elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.)

Yes, this Bears team was a lot of fun. But beneath the level of fun was trouble that we never saw coming. And, unlike a lot of troublesome football teams of that era and since, it had little to do with steroids, stickum, or (despite having Ryan as defensive coordinator) "bounties."

There's one other thing to note: The Bears' cheerleaders, the Honey Bears, had their contract run out after that Super Bowl. Team owner Virginia Halas McCaskey, who inherited the team from her father, chose not to negotiate a new one. She didn't like the idea of cheerleaders. The Bears haven't had them since. The Bears have been to just one Super Bowl since, and lost it.

In 2026, not having won the title in 40 years, just once in 64 years, the Bears are 1 of the last 8 teams standing. We shall see.

 

November 12, 1990: The Body Bag Game

Byron Evans knocks Stan Humphries out of the game.

Jerome Brown looks on.

November 12, 1990, 30 years ago: ABC Monday Night Football broadcasts a game from Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Redskins, 28-14. Judging by the score, it does not look to a current eye like a particularly notable game.

But it was. It was "The Body Bag Game."

The Redskins, coached by Joe Gibbs, still had a few of the players who had helped them win Super Bowl XVII 8 seasons earlier, and many of the players who had helped them win Super Bowl XXII just 3 seasons earlier. But they were also in something of a transition. Most notably, Doug Williams, the quarterback who was named the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XXII, had been cut in a cost-saving measure.

The 3 quarterbacks on the Redskins' roster at this point were Jeff Rutledge, who had led the University of Alabama to a National Championship in 1978, but whose pro career had turned out to be a bust; Stan Humphries, who would one day take the San Diego Chargers to their only Super Bowl, but had thrown all of 10 passes in regular-season NFL games going into this season; and Mark Rypien, who was in his 3rd season as the team's starter, and would go on to lead the Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXVI and win that game's MVP.

The Eagles were coached by James David "Buddy" Ryan. Once the defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears, designer of the "46 Defense" that was key to their win in Super Bowl XX, and before that the coach of the New York Jets' defensive line that was a big reason why they won Super Bowl III, he was beloved by his defensive players. But the offensive players on his teams never fully trusted him. The Eagles' quarterback was Randall Cunningham, an incredibly versatile player whose nickname was "The Ultimate Weapon." Ryan didn't have a clue as to how to use him.

But Ryan built a devastating defense in South Philly. Ends Reggie White and Clyde Simmons. Tackles Jerome Brown and Mike Golic. Linebackers Seth Joyner and Byron Evans. Cornerbacks Eric Allen, Izel Jenkins and William Frizzell. Safeties Terry Hoage, Wes Hopkins and Andre Waters. They were good, and they were mean.

How mean were they? In the days leading up to the game, Ryan told reporters the Eagles would beat the Redskins so badly, "they'll have to be carted off in body bags." Big talk, given that, just 3 weeks earlier, in Washington, the Redskins beat the Eagles, 13-7. The Eagles came into this game 4-4, the Redskins 5-3.

It should be noted that Rypien was already injured, and did not play in the game. So Rutledge started for the Redskins. The Eagles knocked him out of the game. Humphries came in. Later on, the Eagles knocked him out, too.

The Redskins were down to just 1 healthy player who had ever played the position of quarterback at any level: Brian Mitchell, a rookie running back who had played quarterback at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now named simply the University of Louisiana). Pressed into emergency duty, he attempted 6 passes, and completed 3 of them, for 40 yards, and also ran a 1-yard play for a touchdown.

By that point, the Eagles were already up 28-7, with Mitchell's score making the scoreboard at least look respectable. The Eagles got offensive touchdowns on a pass from Cunningham to Heath Sherman and an option pass from Keith Byars to Sherman; and "defensive touchdowns" on a fumble return by Simmons and an interception return by Frizzell.

All told, 9 Redskin players had to leave the game due to injury, and none returned. Did the Eagles play dirty? Well, they were called for 11 penalties, totaling 88 yards. However, I didn't watch the game, even though it was nationally televised, in my case on WABC-Channel 7. So I can't remember what specific penalty calls were made; and I can't find a record with a breakdown of those penalties. But I've also never seen a record of the Redskins, their coaches, or their fans claiming that the Eagles were dirty that night. It's not like they were their South Philadelphia neighbors, the NHL's Flyers.

Both teams ended up winning 5 of their last 7 games to make the Playoffs, and the Redskins returned to The Vet and beat the Eagles, 20-6. The Redskins used the experience to motivate themselves to win the Super Bowl the following season, completing a 9-year run where they went to 4 Super Bowls, winning 3.

Ryan never got the Eagles very far. That loss to the Redskins was his 3rd Playoff game as an NFL head coach, and he lost them all. He was fired after the season, and later coached the Arizona Cardinals for 2 years, without getting them into the Playoffs, and never got another head coaching job. Like so many before him, and a few after him, he proved that a great defensive coordinator does not necessarily make a good head coach.

It would take the Eagles another 14 seasons to reach the Super Bowl, and another 27 seasons to win one.

For the 1991 season, with what became known as "The Body Bag Game" in mind, the NFL instituted the Third Quarterback Rule: If an NFL team went into a game with only 2 healthy quarterbacks, it could dress a 3rd quarterback who was not on the 45-man game-day roster. The catch was that, if he entered the game before the 4th quarter, no other quarterback could return to the game.

There's one more oddity to this game: After 10 seasons with the Redskins, including a Super Bowl XXVI ring and a 1995 Pro Bowl berth, Brian Mitchell played 3 seasons (2000-02) with the Eagles, and became much admired by the hard-to-please Eagle fans. He played 1 last season in 2003, with the New York Giants, and retired with more yards on kick and punt returns, 19,013, than any player in NFL history. His 23,330 career total yards are 2nd all-time, behind only Jerry Rice. He is eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but is not in it.

For all the talent on their roster, Reggie White is the only Eagle from the Body Bag Game who is in the Hall of Fame. So are Redskins Art Monk (receiver), Russ Grimm (guard) and Darrell Green (cornerback), as well as head coach Joe Gibbs. Jerome Brown was killed in a car crash shortly before preparations for the 1992 season began, having played only 5 seasons. Had he lived, he probably would have made the Hall.

Eagle fans love this game, even though it came to nothing. They like to think of themselves, and their city, as a lot tougher than the pretty boys in the nation's capital of Washington, or fashionable New York, or glitzy Sun Belt cities like Miami, Dallas and Los Angeles.

But ask them now: Which game means more to you, the Body Bag Game, or Super Bowl LII? Even the most posturing of self-proclaimed tough guys will take the Super Bowl win.

Yankees Have Rain and Parades vs. Texas Rangers; Buddy Ryan, 1931-2016

I am way behind. I haven't been as many as 7 games behind since -- I think, 2009.

The Yankees won the World Series that year. Maybe this is a good sign.

This past Friday (a week ago today), the Yankees began a 3-game home series against the Minnesota Twins, the team with the worst record in the American League. Masahiro Tanaka started, and allowed 3 runs in 6 innings.

The Twins 2 runs in their half of the 3rd inning, and the Yankees did the same in theirs. The Twins countered with 1 in the 4th, but the Yankees followed with 2. Aaron Hicks provided some insurance in the 8th, with his 3rd home run of the season.

"No Runs DMC" each pitched a perfect inning of relief: Dellin Betances in the 7th, Andrew Miller in the 8th, and Aroldis Chapman in the 9th. Yankees 5, Twins 2. WP: Tanaka (5-2). SV: Chapman (14). LP: Tommy Milone (0-2).

*

Saturday featured an old-fashioned pitcher's duel, except neither starter was allowed to go past the 6th inning. Michael Pineda pitched brilliantly for 6, allowing just 1 run on 2 hits and a walk, striking out 8. But he threw 94 pitches, so Joe Girardi chickened out, and took him out. Twins starter Ervin Santana pitched, effectively, equally well, but was removed in the 6th by Paul Molitor, the Minnesota native and Hall of Fame Milwaukee Brewer now managing the Twins.

The game remained 1-1 into the 8th inning, which Alex Rodriguez led off by beating out a grounder to 3rd base. Girardi sent Hicks in to pinch-run for him. Brian McCann singled him over to 3rd. Mark Teixeira, still trying to find his way back after returning from injury, struck out. Starlin Castro grounded to short, where Eduardo Escobar dropped the ball, allowing Hicks to score the winning run.

Again, No Runs DMC got the job, the difference this time being that Chapman allowed a hit; otherwise, 3 perfect innings of relief. Yankees 2, Twins 1. WP: Miller (5-0). SV: Chapman (15). LP: Ryan Pressly (2-4).

*

The Sunday game didn't go so well. For the 3rd straight game, Nathan Eovaldi didn't have it, allowing 5 runs in 6 innings. Teixeira hit a home run, his 4th of the season, and the 398th of his career, tying him with Dale Murphy on the all-time list. But the Yankees only got 1 other hit, a double by Hicks.

Twins 7, Yankees 1. WP: Tyler Duffey (3-6). No save. LP: Eovaldi (6-5).

*

So the Twins went out, and the Texas Rangers came in. Ivan Nova started for the Yankees on Monday night, and he allowed 4 runs in 5 innings. But he left with a 5-4 lead. Richard Bleier pitched a perfect 6th inning, and Dellin Betanches pitched a perfect 7th. Teixeira hit another home run, giving him 5 for the year and 399 for his career, tying him with Al Kaline. So it was 6-4 Yankees.

But the Yankees couldn't hold the lead. Miller allowed a run in the 8th to make it 6-5. Girardi brought Chapman on to close it out, but he walked the leadoff batter. Then came a rain delay that was as long as the game itself had been to this point.

When the game resumed, Girardi panicked, as he so often does, and refused to send Chapman back out there. He sent in Kirby Yates. Big mistake: He got a strikeout, then he hit 3 batters and allowed 2 singles, and the Rangers scored 4 runs.

The Yankees got 2 runners on in the bottom of the 9th, but couldn't score either of them. Rangers 9, Yankees 6. WP: Tony Barnette (5-2). SV: Sam Dyson (16). LP: Yates (2-1).

The umps should have called the game when the rain came, and it was clear that the delay wouldn't be less than half an hour. I've seen games called much earlier than that, usually to the Yankees' detriment. This time, it was resumed to the Yankees' detriment.

*

The Tuesday game was worse. A pair of pitchers from the 2009 World Series opposed each other: CC Sabathia for the Yankees, and former Philadelphia Phillie Cole Hamels for the Rangers. CC allowed 2 runs in the 1st inning, but settled down, and it was still only 2-0 Rangers after 7.

For once, Girardi left a starting pitcher in too long. CC imploded in the 8th: Hit by pitch, infield single, RBI single, RBI double. Anthony Swarzak was no better: RBI single, RBI single, double play, RBI infield single.

The Yankees got a run in the bottom of the inning, for all the good it did. Rangers 7, Yankees 1. WP: Hamels (9-1). No save. LP: Sabathia (5-5).

*

The Yankees went into the Wednesday night game 2 games under .500. They needed a statement game. They got 2 of them in a row.

Tanaka started, and was awful. Although his strikeout-to-walk ratio was 7-1, he allowed 6 runs on 8 hits in 6 innings. Luis Cessa allowed 1 run over the last 3 innings.

Chase Headley hit a home run, his 5th of the season. Brian McCann hit his 11th in the 8th. But the Yankees went into the bottom of the 9th trailing 7-3.

Rob Refsnyder led off with a single to center. Jacoby Ellsbury drew a walk. Brett Gardner singled home Refsnyder. A-Rod lined out. McCann hit his 2nd homer of the game, his 12th of the season, and that tied it at 7-7. Castro drew a walk, and Didi Gregorius ended it with a home run, his 7th of the season, and the Yankees' 1st walkoff homer of the season.

Yankees 9, Rangers 7. WP: Cessa (1-0). No save. LP: Dyson (1-2).

*

The Thursday game was a day game after a night game. But maybe that's just what the Yankees needed, to keep the momentum going.

Pineda started, and was fantastic. He allowed 1 run on 2 hits, walked 3, and struck out 12 -- in 6 innings. But, because he threw 92 pitches over those 6 innings, rather than let him continue, Girardi panicked, and went to No Runs DMC.

Actually, I can't fault that decision, since Betances (1 hit in the 7th), Miller (a perfect 8th) and Chapman (1 hit in the 9th) pitched shutout ball between them.

Pineda allowed a run in the 1st, but Gregorius died it up with his 8th homer in the 5th. The game went to the bottom of the 9th tied 1-1.

Barnette took the mound for the Rangers. He walked Headley to start the inning. Gregorius bunted him over to 2nd. Hicks drew a walk -- perhaps an "unintentional intentional walk," to fill 1st base and set up an inning-ending double play. Castro grounded to 1st, and that moved the runners over, 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs.

The batter was Ellsbury. Would he come through for the Yankees? We never found out: Barnette threw a pitch too low, and Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos couldn't handle it. Headley scored -- a walkoff passed ball, a pretty rare play, but one that helped the Yankees this time.

Yankees 2, Rangers 1. WP: Chapman (2-0). No save. LP: Barnette (5-3).

So the Yankees go into this weekend at .500, 39-39. They are 8 games behind the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Eastern Division, and 3 games behind the Red Sox for the 2nd AL Wild Card slot.

They begin a 3-game series on the Coast tonight, away to the San Diego Padres. Come on you Bombers!

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Rex Ryan is no longer the head coach of the Jets. Which may be a good thing, because he's weird.

But he wasn't even the weirdest guy in his own family. That would be his father.

James David Ryan was born on January 17, 1931 in Frederick, Oklahoma. "Buddy" Ryan served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, then went to Oklahoma A&M and played guard on their football team. (The school became Oklahoma State in 1958.)

He then coached at high school football in Texas, and in 1961 joined the football staff at the University of Buffalo. His defensive success there got him noticed by the biggest coach in town, Lou Saban of the AFL Champion Buffalo Bills. (Father of Nick Saban.) But UB offered him more money, and he stuck around, until moving on to the University of the Pacific and Vanderbilt.

He took a pro job with the New York Jets in 1968. With Ryan and Walt Michaels (later to coach the Jets to the 1982 AFC Championship Game) building the defense, they won the AFL title, and then held the mighty Baltimore Colts to a single touchdown and winning Super Bowl III.

It was his own team's offense that inspired his defensive schemes. He saw that head coach Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank would do whatever it took to protect the knees of quarterback Joe Namath. So every defense that Buddy Ryan devised after 1968 was designed to get the quarterback first.

In 1976, he moved on to the Minnesota Vikings, and they reached Super Bowl XI, but lost to the Oakland Raiders. He was hired as defensive coordinator by the Chicago Bears in 1978. He had a defensive scheme based around safety Doug Plank, who wore Number 46, and so Ryan called it "the 46 Defense."

In 1982, the Bears' founding owner, George Halas, fired head coach Neill Armstrong (no relation to the astronaut), and the Bears' defense, led by middle linebacker Mike Singletary, pleaded with the old man to make Ryan the head coach. They didn't, and Papa Bear hired one of his greatest players, Mike Ditka, who had been on the successful staff of Tom Landry with the Dallas Cowboys.

Ditka and Ryan were an odd couple. Very odd, each in his own way. Could 2 such men share control of a pro football team without driving each other crazy? For a time, yes: Iron Mike gave Buddy control of the D, and left him alone. In the 1984 season, they reached the NFC Championship Game, but lost to the San Francisco 49ers.

Then came the 1985 season, one of the most spectacular any NFL team has ever had. They got to 12-0, and they hype was unbelievable. But in Game 13, a Monday Night Football game against the Miami Dolphins at the Orange Bowl, not only did Da Bears lose, but Ditka and Ryan argued so much during the halftime locker room meeting that Dikta challenged Ryan to a fight.

What happens when the irresistible force country boy from Oklahoma fights the immovable object city guy from Pittsburgh? We'll never know: The offensive linemen pulled Ditka away, and the defensive guys pulled Ryan away.

The Bears settled down the rest of the way, shutting out the Giants and the Los Angeles Rams in the Playoffs, and blowing the New England Patriots away 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. The offense carried Ditka off the field, as you would expect; but the defense carried Ryan off the field.

This was not totally unprecedented: When the Bears, with Ditka as tight end, won their previous title, the 1963 NFL Championship, no one dared carry Halas, then both owner and head coach, off the field, so they carried off their defensive coordinator, George Allen, who later coached the Rams and the Washington Redskins. But most fans did not know about this precedent, and it was shocking.

It was clear that some NFL team was going to hire Ryan as a head coach, and when the Philadelphia Eagles came calling, neither Ditka nor Mike McCaskey, running the Bears for his parents, Virginia and Ed McCaskey (Halas, Virginia's father, had died in 1983), lifted a finger to try to convince him to stay.

But as hard as it was for Ditka and Ryan to be together, neither was as good without the other. Neither one ever reached another Super Bowl. Ryan didn't because, as brilliant as he was with defense, he didn't know squat about offense.

One of the first things he did as Eagle head coach was to release Earnest Jackson, who had rushed for over 1,000 in each of the preceding 2 seasons. He built a defense with Reggie White, Jerome Brown, Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, Eric Allen, Andre Waters and Wes Hopkins. But he also had an offense led by mobile quarterback Randall Cunningham, a man so versatile, he was known as "The Ultimate Weapon." He had Keith Byars in the backfield. He had Cris Carter, Irving Fryar and Keith Jackson (not the sportscaster) to throw to. In 5 seasons as head coach, Ryan took the Eagles into only 3 Playoff games, and lost them all.

Which isn't to say they didn't have their moments. In 1987, during the NFL players' strike, the Cowboys broke the strike, playing seasoned veterans against the Eagles' "scabs," and won. Two weeks later, Ryan decided that this meant that running up the score was okay in the NFL now, and, with a safe lead, went for another touchdown in the final seconds. Landry, whose Cowboys had cheated and otherwise played dirty for over a quarter of a century, had no credibility to say anything.

If ever there was "a shit-eating grin," this is it.

Nor did Landry's replacement, Jimmy Johnson. In 1989, he said Ryan had taken out bounties on 2 of his players for the Thanksgiving game. A previous Eagles head coach, Dick Vermeil, would ask his players, "What's it going to take to beat the Dallas Cowboys?" Buddy Ryan seemed to know: He was 8-2 against them as Eagles head coach.

In 1990, the Eagles knocked 11 Redskin players out of a game, which became known as "The Body Bag Game." You ask an Eagles fan between the ages of 30 and 50 who the franchise's all-time leading rusher is, and they might not be able to remember. (I had to look it up: It's LeSean McCoy, with 6,792 yards from 2009 to 2014. He's now with the Buffalo Bills.) But they'll relish telling you about the Bounty Bowl and the Body Bag Game. That's Philly fans for you, and that's Buddy Ball for you.

The heart of Buddy Ball: Left to right: Clyde Simmons,

Eric Allen, Jerome Brown, Seth Joyner and Reggie White.

Ryan was fired after the 1991 season, going 43-38-1, counting the 3 Playoff losses. He spent the 1992 season talking about the NFL on CNN. In 1993, he was hired as the defensive coordinator for the Houston Oilers. They won their last 11 regular-season games to make the Playoffs, but in the last game, against the Jets, he and offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride got into a shouting match on the sidelines. As with his to-do with Ditka in 1985, the defensive players pulled Buddy away, and the offensive players did the same with Gilbride.

Did this 2nd near-fight make Ryan's name mud in the NFL? Hardly: The Arizona Cardinals made him head coach and general manager in 1994. In his 1st season, they went 8-8, and looked like they were headed in the right direction. But in 1995, they crashed to 4-12, and he was fired. His overall head coaching record was 55-58-1.

After that, he retired to his ranch in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and his 2nd wife, Joanie. He and his 1st wife, Doris, divorced shortly after the birth of twin sons Rex and Rob. They had an older son, Jim. Rex now coaches the Bills, and Rob is his defensive coordinator. Like his father, Rex has proven that he knows defense, but doesn't know offense. At least he got the Jets into a conference title game (2, in fact), which is more than his father ever did as a head coach, though he got 3 different teams into Super Bowls as an assistant, winning with 2 of them -- and none of his sons yet has a Super Bowl ring.

Left to right: Rob, Buddy, Rex

After losing Joanie to Alzheimer's disease in 2013, and battling cancer and the effects of a stroke, Buddy Ryan died on his ranch on June 28, 2016. One of the most fascinating characters in NFL history was 85 years old.

UPDATE: He was buried in Lawrenceburg Cemetery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.