September 4, 2025 • 36 mins
Bears Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary joins Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Super Bowl XX and share what he's been up to since his playing days.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Shut over man, DJ Moore, end zone touchdown, touchdown, Paars.
I am Jeff jon again Litsu Hon Donnie got.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
What was like playing for coach Good?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I don't want to answer any questions like that pressure
coming is a big trouble. Dottie Goos Motest Sweat.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Bears et Cetera brought to you by Chevy Drives Chicago,
the official truck partner of yours Chicago Bears. We visit
today with a man who is a portrait of faith, leadership,
and intensity. Bears middle linebacker Mike Singletary possessed an emotional
fire and played an unrelenting brand of ball. His legacy
includes ten Pro Bowls, twice the NFL's Defensive Player of
(00:48):
the Year, a Super Bowl twenty winner, and enshrinman in
the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We discussed today an
episode one sixty six of the Bears et Cetera Podcast
were brought to you by Miller Lite with Super Bowl
winning Bears guard Tom I'm Jeff Joniek and our special guest.
This week of what is a very impactful week in
Bear's history, the fortieth anniversary of the Super Bowl twenty
winning team. Mike and Tom, Welcome to the podcast. Forty
(01:11):
years Where did the time go? A lot has happened since,
and we're still celebrating you guys.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
Mike, Well, you know what it is. It is pretty
amazing and time does fly really fast.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
But it was a great year in eighty five and
very exciting, and you know, here we are at the
fortieth anniversary.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You know, Mike, I'm going to give you a question
to think about. So I don't want your answer right now.
I'm going to get back to it in a little while.
I want to know the most encouraging thing but also
the most discouraging thing that's ever been said to you
by Buddy Ryan.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
Okay, So that's why.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
So you know, I've recently read an article that you
penn in the Wall Street Journal and talked a lot
about yourself, your upbringing, the things you overcame, and how
successful you've become. People ask me about you all the time,
and I always say, Mike Singer Terry was the most
well prepared professional athlete I've ever been around. And so
my question to you, with all that seriousness, how did
(02:08):
Willy talk you into doing the Super Bowl Shuffle?
Speaker 5 (02:11):
No? What is very simple? Uh, Willy came in and Uh,
it was a well planned out plan. I mean it
really was.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
He came in and he said, Mike, there's this this,
this program, this this opportunity to do a super Bowl
shuffle of video about you know, the Bears and and
you know, going to the Super Bowl. And I said, well,
that doesn't that didn't know, I don't that doesn't make
(02:41):
any sense.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
I don't do that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And he said, well, all of the proceeds that comes
from the video will go towards feeding the hungary.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
In Chicago on the South side and on the West side.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And he knew that would that would be all that
he needed to say order for me to say yes,
Did you have any lyric?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Did you get to see the lyrics before you sang
your solo? Or did you show up and sing the
solo just however however they have written it.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
I showed up and did the solo however they had
written it.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Tom, were you asked to do it? I know you
would never do it, but were you asked?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Well, Willie, when we were coming home from the Miami game,
Willy was walking up and down the aisle trying to
encourage the guys to show up at the Park West
the next morning to be in the chorus of it.
So when you see Calvin Thomas in there, you see
Tom zech in there, you see Stefan Humphreys in there,
all those guys were everybody was included. But really I
(03:44):
could never see myself dancing on camera. So it was
something I wasn't in agreement with. And you know, Mike,
I you know, I always thought about Dick in the
back of my mind because I'm going, God, if you
guys go out and you do the Super Bowl Shuffle
and we failed to live up to a song called
the Super Bowl Shuffle? Is Dicka going to hold it
against everybody? But you know he kind of climbed aboard
(04:07):
and embraced it like everybody else did. Well.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
What was really interesting about that is right after I
talked to Willie about it, I knew I had to
talk to coach Dick about it. So I went up
and I said, Coach, I want to tell you about
something that the team is thinking about doing, and it
(04:32):
has to do with feeding Hungary on the South side
of Chicago.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
And he said, Mike, if.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
You do it, you know it sounds good or what
have you, as long as you promise me that it
will not affect the team.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
You can do it. And as long as I got that,
I'm good.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And I said, okay, I said, we only have a
shooting a shoot after the Miami game. And of course
it came at the worst opportune time, losing to Miami.
We had to shoot it the next day. But it
was in retrospect when I think about that game, it
was it came at the best time. Shooting the super
(05:16):
Bowl Shuffle couldn't come at a better time because it
was kind of a rallying point for getting us back
together after that game. No one wanted to shoot that
video that day. That morning, you just got beaten. You
did not want to sing the Super Bowl Shuffle, but
we agreed to it. We said we would do it,
(05:39):
and we tried to keep our eyes on the bigger
prize and that's where the money was going to go
to the South Side to feed the hungary.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
There it was.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
But the next day when we went there to do
that shoot and we got to know each other on
a whole new level. I didn't know that Leslie Frazier
couldn't dance. You guys, you are awful. So I mean,
really that that alone getting to see guys dance for
(06:09):
the first time and laugh and before you knew it.
But when we got ready to leave, we were excited,
we were happy, and at the same time we realized, hey, guys,
you know, we got to get ready to go.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
We gotta go.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
We can't lose another game. We gotta go, and we
gotta win this thing. We would be the biggest idiots
ever if we don't win.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
You dangled your own carrot. You guys dangled your own
carrot right then and there.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
Yeah, I mean it was.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It was a whole new level of commitment and so
it ended up being, I thought, a really good thing.
And at that time, we were the youngest team to
go to the Super Bowl, so it was it was
another thing for us to really be held accountable at
a whole new level.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
This podcast is brought to you by Miller Lite, the
official beer partner of your Chicago Bears. To like middle
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Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ninety six calories and three point
two carbs per twelve ounces. Mike, this is almost a
question I can answer without you saying a word, but
(07:15):
I want.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You to give it some gusto.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Why did players on those Bears teams you were on
from the time you arrived in the eighties until the
early nineties follow you.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I think there's really one word, And I think I
was very sincere. I really I really cared about the guys,
and I think every guy knew that I would do
anything for my teammate. I would not let one guy
take advantage of another. If I said I was going
(07:49):
to do something, I followed through. So it was I've
always been a leader. That's something that I may not
be anything else, but if I give you my word
on something, nine times out of ten, it's going to
get done.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
You know, Mike, I brought this up the other day
we were talking to Jim mcmahonon the only reason I
brought it up is because my brother in law was
a part of the nineteen eighty Kodakohol American team and
you're on there. And then I look at the two
other linebackers on there, Bob Crable, a teammate of mine
from Notre Dame, but Lawrence Taylor. So when you put
yourself in that group, your size, your structure, your status,
(08:31):
what you were able to do, and your accomplishments in college.
Did you know that things in the NFL were going
to come to that ten time Pro bowl Er, future
Hall of Famer or did you kind of get in
a room with some of these guys and size them
up and look at them and go, Okay, this is
what I need to do in order to accomplish what
(08:53):
you did.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
You know, that's a that's a really good question.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I just finished writing my book that's due to be
introduced in September, and it's called Visualize Your Greatness. And
so for me at twelve years old, just to try
to answer your question in a roundabout way, at twelve
years old, when my mom asked me to be the
(09:20):
man at the house when my brother had just passed away.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
A few weeks ago and my dad had just left home.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And when my mom asked me to become the man
at the house, I said, Mom, I can do that,
and I'm gonna last at ten kids. And I go
in the room and I get out a sheet of
paper and I write out my vision statement that sounds
like this, find a way to get a scholarship to
go to college, get my degree, in which I had
become the first in my family to do so, get
(09:51):
drafted and go to the NFL. Buy my mom a
house and take care of her for the rest of
her life. Becom an All American, go to the Super Bowl,
and own my own business. So that's what I wrote
out at twelve years old and put it on the wall.
And I wasn't even playing football yet because it was
(10:12):
against our religion. We were Pentecostal, and none of my
brothers played. I'm the smallest one, and so when I
wrote that, I had to beg my mom to let
me play. But it was something that was a burning
desire in me. I never saw myself as small. I
heard I was small. I never saw myself as not
(10:35):
having everything I needed in order for me to accomplish
what it was that I wanted to do. And so
it was a desire from the inside out that fired
that I had in me. That was the thing that
always motivated me, and I knew that God was the
really the sauce that really made the difference.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
That book, by the way, the Playbook for the Seven
Seas of Success is also a part of that title.
Mike faith centered, which is no surprise at all because
it is the foundation of your existence. But courage, consciousness, consistency, character, confidence, commitment, compete.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Tom.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I think that sums up Mike singletary to a t.
But all about you, know, Mike, You've always talked about
excellence constantly. Every time I've ever heard you speak, Tom's
lived it with you, shoulder to shoulder. So how long
has this been in the offing for you, this type
of book.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
It's interesting. I really wasn't going to do another book,
but when I think about.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
All of the social media, all of the a lot
of young kids, young people or older people that are
really following people, and they have lost their own voice
of having an authentic thought, and so I really, I
(12:01):
really wanted to encourage people to be courageous enough to
think again about what it is in life that you
want to accomplish.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
It is never too late, and being able to.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Rise above all of the things that are happening in
our country and and the division and and the name
calling and the hate and whatever it is right now,
it's going to take a courageous leader to kind of
step in and be for everybody, not not the black,
(12:37):
not the white, not not the Democrat, not the Republican,
but to be for people and to love people and
meet people where they are and help take them where
they could not go on their own. And to me,
that's that's kind of that that's kind of the bottom
line to me is as to what we need in
this country right now, and that book is the heart
(12:59):
of the you.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Know, like that message that you bring up.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I always think to myself that locker rooms are a
great presentation of what you're saying, because everybody in our
locker room I enjoyed their company. And I think about
the eighty five Bears and how much I enjoy every
one of their those personalities. And I was just recently
talking about the eighty five Bears, because that team had
(13:23):
something for everybody. Whether you're a pretty guy like Fensik,
you're a big guy like Fridge, you're an intellect like yourself,
you're a movie character, you know for like Hampton and
McMichael and stuff. That team is unique in its personalities.
I think the real just the friendship and the love
(13:44):
that we had for each other. And I think it's
a great example of kind of what you're saying and
what you would what you envisioned for where we could go.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Well, I think you're exactly right. You know, if you
can be a part of that team, you can be
a part of of anything. Because we were as different
as as night is from day. But somehow, some way
we made it work. You know with the coaches. You know,
(14:15):
our coaches were different, Our leaders were different. You know, Walter, myself,
you and Botsey and Horn and I mean we're all different,
and uh but somehow, you know, when you put McMahon
out there, and uh, you put Peyton out there, you
put Hampton out there. I mean, guys that really may
(14:40):
not hang out ever, but on that field they were brothers.
And and to me, that's really what what our country
should be all about. Allowing everybody to be unique, allowing
them to be who they are, allowing them to to
be able to live lives as best they can, and
(15:03):
if they do something that you don't like, being able
to come alongside them and say, hey, you know what,
instead of criticizing you, I'm gonna try to help you
do better.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
How can I help you be better? How can you
help me be better? And then kind of go from there.
You know, I got to say what was fun for me.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
So when I was playing in the USFL, I was
kind of forewarned of a couple guys. There was a
guy that knew McMichael and he was telling me about McMichael.
He was actually one of his roommates in New England.
But then I also played with Andrew Mellintree in Doak
Fields your counter linebackers at Baylor when you were there,
and they used to tell me for a couple of
(15:43):
years the approach to Mike Singletary and going live all
the time and how hard of a hitter was. So
I was already aware of some of you guys, and
through the guys that I played with in the USFL,
I enjoyed their personalities and that time I'm in football,
but I kind of enjoyed the fact that I was
(16:04):
forewarned about a couple of guys that would play a
huge role in my life and my football life, like
you and mang.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Okay, well those are good guys.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Before one year, dope and I were We came the
same year and went through the same tough stuff every day.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
The defensive coordinator we had was all my goodness. He
was really really crazy and tough.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
And who was that Who was that Mike?
Speaker 5 (16:35):
His name was Corky Nelson.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Uh, Corky Nelson was an old linebacker, coach and defensive
coordinator that was as tough as nails and crazy as
they come. And uh, you know, when I got to
know him, I thought, once I left Baylor, man, it's
gonna be smooth sailing from now on. Then I meet
buddy Ryan, I'm thinking, you gotta be kidding me. One
(17:01):
guy kills me physically, the other guy kills me mentally.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
I'm like, I can't will it? Lord? What are you
doing to me?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
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(17:30):
official physical therapy partner of the Chicago Bears. In light
of that fortieth anniversary and you guys getting together for
alumni dinner and so forth, and I hear it's going
to be a massive, massive amount of people showing up
for that private event for you guys.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
You know, we could talk.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
About the superstars and the Hall of Famers all day long,
but there was such a melgam of talent when you
think of guys like Todd Bell, Al Harris, Ron Rivera,
Jim Moore, I mean we can go on and on,
Jim Morrissey, Sean Gale. So many different players were on
that team, and this whole idea of modern day players saying, hey,
(18:07):
I hear this cliche constant sharp and iron with iron
on both sides of the ball. You guys lived that
every single day and now it just hitting me out.
We got iron Mike as the head coach as well,
So yes, iron sharpening iron.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Did you guys feel that?
Speaker 5 (18:21):
You know, I really felt like.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Everybody was so immersed in trying to be the best
that they possibly could. There's no way that you could
realize the the greatness that we were surrounded by. And
I think that starting with coach Dicka and Buddy Ryan
leading the way, and then our leaders. You know McMahon,
(18:50):
as crazy as he was, he was a tremendous leader.
Walter Jimbo horn Fair. I mean, guys like that, it's
just when they come together, you don't realize what's really.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
There, the depth of the guys that are there.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
And Tom getting back to what I was talking about earlier,
you know, you're in the locker room. That's one thing,
but it's another thing. When we made that video the
Super Bowl Shuffle, there was just some things that I
learned about guys that I never knew and seeing guys
laugh and relax at a whole different level, it was
(19:36):
just it took us to a whole another level personally
and gave us a bit of a window to see
a guy for a moment in a different light. So
it really was a great group of guys, really was.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
You know, That's another thing is when we made the
Black and Blue Blues Brothers poster of the offensive line,
we made it after the fourth game of the year,
so it was about performance or else You're going to
be kind of ridiculed and criticized for making a poster
on just the offensive lineman after week four and where
were you going to go with it? And thankfully it
(20:12):
ended up where we did. So even though we only
have a couple of minutes left, and I was asking
you the most encouraging thing and the most discouraging thing
that Buddy Ryan ever said to you. And the only
reason I'm asking this is because the production of perseverance,
what you were able to accomplish throughout your career, where
you were drafted, and what you turned into. There's not
(20:32):
many guys that have an NFL success story like yours.
But not everything was roses, and sometimes you had to
live with criticism from a coach as much as you
did the encouragement of a coach. Is there anything that
comes to mind when you think about Buddy?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
First of all, I say the worst thing. I can't
think of the worst thing. He came up with a
new high every day. It was just amazing some of
the stuff that came out of his mouth. And you know,
my whole first year, just to give you an example,
my second year when I came in, I came so
(21:10):
close one day to going up and he had ridiculed
me and rode me so much that practice. I was
going to go up and ask him to trade me.
I really was, and Osborne stopped me. But that was
that was one of the worst points of my life,
but one of the best things that happened was one
(21:32):
day I had I had hit a turn in my career,
and I started playing the way he wanted me to play.
And he came up to me one day with a plaque.
It was a platter a plate, and on that plate
it says there's nothing that you and I can't do together.
(21:54):
He just gave that to me, and he say he
had the pipe in his mouth. Look at this date,
and that's what I believe. And he walked off and
I looked at it and I had a tear in
my eye because I thought, Wow, I think we're gonna
make it. And so after that we really started talking
(22:19):
on a whole different level and we started going moving
upward from there.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Did he have to convince you about the forty six
defense or because of your study habits, did you take
it all into a fact and an account when you
were watching tape and stuff and go, Okay, we got
the talent to run this defense and we can do
it successfully.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
Well. The thing about the forty six is he was
trying to run the forty six with.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Some guys that at the time, some of the older
guys that were there when I got there, and I
asked Buddy. One day, I said, Buddy, I said, do
you mind if I go and talk to some of
the guys and just kind of find out what they
need to do in order to get on the field.
And he said, yeah, yeah, Okay, go ahead, And so
I went and started. I was talking to Todd Bell,
(23:11):
I was talking to Al Harris, I was talking to
Ruben Henderson.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
I was talking.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So I was talking to these guys and asking them
Otis Wilson, I was talking old and so, what do
we need to do in order for you to get
on the field. And a lot of guys at that
time there were a million things in the playbook. The
playbook was like six inches thick. And what I did
was I took notes from the guys. Guys said, we're
(23:41):
just doing too much stuff.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
It doesn't make any sense. We don't have to do
that much stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
So I wrote out the notes and I went to
Buddy's door, knocked on the door, and put the notes
under the door and ran off. And the next day,
and this is the greatest tribute to Buddy Waller, the
next day that playbook went from about six inches to
(24:06):
about half an inch.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Wow, And we began to Todd.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Bell started playing, Otis started playing, Al Harris started playing,
and all of a sudden, the guys were on the field.
Because Buddy didn't want mistakes. He could not stand mistakes.
And so but now he realized that we needed to
(24:34):
have walkthroughs, and we had.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Walkthroughs during lunchtime.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
We're walking around with a sandwich in our hands and
the playbook in the other and we're walking around outside.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
We had to do those walkthroughs.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
So Buddy listened to everything that I gave him, the
notes that I gave him, we started doing it. And
so with those walkthroughs and cutting the defense down so
guys could play fast, putting the talent on the field
that could play man, I think it just it.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
Took it to a whole other level.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
And to me, that was the greatest tribute to Buddy
is just being open to really listening to what a
player had to say.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
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be opened. With your buddy here, Tom Thayer and Jay Hilgenberg.
(25:38):
He told me about this many times. I've never heard
it from your perspective, though, give me the why.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
And what it was like. You know what?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
For me, it was flushing out the game that we
just had and knowing that the next week. I was
always focused on on what's to come. You know, the
best is yet to come. I was never satisfied with
(26:06):
what we did the week before or the game that
we just played.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
It was what do we do next? But how do
we get better? How do we how do we shift
this team out? How how do how do I get better?
How do I get better as a leader?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
How do I make sure that I'm putting us in
the right situation all the time? Because Buddy, Buddy would
sit in the office on Mondays and he's sitting there
asking me, why did you make this call? Because the
more we we went along, the more he trusted me
(26:42):
to change calls and shift guys around and move the
defense and those kinds of things. And so I knew
I had to be accountable on Monday, to have an
answer for why I shifted the guys, why I made
that call, why I change the defense, And if I
didn't have an answer, it wasn't going to be pretty.
So that was the accountability factor. But before the accountability,
(27:06):
I had to make sure that I took ownership, and that,
to me, is what ownership is all about. I'll take
the heat, you encourage me out, you can do whatever
you want to do. Just give me the opportunity to
be the best that I can be. Give me everything
that I need, and I'll take all the heat board,
but just give me the opportunity.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
To own it.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Tom, did you feel the same way.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Richard mcmurr and the janitor lived across the street, and
so back in the day you had to wait till
the tape was made to get access to it, and
so we would give him, give our video guys a
little bit enough time to get the video made, and
then we would go over to Richard's house no matter
what time day or night, and wake him up and
(27:51):
go in there and watch the tape. And sometimes because
of a guy like Ditka, if you had a couple
of bad plays, you had to be prepared for that
because he would criticize you in front of all your peers,
and you had to be able to absorb it and
improve on it. And so I think that's just when
you're raised as an offensive lineman or the starting middle
(28:11):
linebacker the Chicago Bears at that time. And I know
Mike had the old Beta system in his house as well.
That was pretty expensive at that time. But the transition
from the real to reel to Beta two DVDs and
now with the tablet they have, it's you know, been
a great access to be being able to watch the
(28:33):
tape if you really wanted to, if you wanted to
put that time.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
In Mike today, you know you could by the time
you sit your fanny in the seat to fly back home,
you'd already watched the whole game on your iPad Today.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
That would be it's amazing. It would have been amazing.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Imagine what how like?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
It just would have expedited the time and your mind
getting ready for what's I mean it would have been
for a guy like yourself, that's like, that's glory. So
you had your wife Kim as your Hall of Fame presenter,
and you guys have raised a great family and I
see her posting on Facebook often about the things you
guys are doing and motivational speaking and what's it been
(29:15):
like for her to travel this journey with you and
your your children.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
It has been truly amazing. She is an amazing woman.
She has been.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
She is my best friend by far. You know, we
do everything together. We continue to grow and challenge each other.
But she is the best thing, by far that's ever
happened in my life.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
And you've had quite the life, and you're still giving
great advice to all who will listen. Where can we
find your book when it comes out, Visualize your Greatness,
The Playbook for the Seven Seas of Success, released in September.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Well, if you can find it, Mike Singletary dot com,
Mike singletarybook dot com. That's all you have to do,
Mike Singletary book.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
All right, we'll spread the word big Mike.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Yeah, you better get ready for a lot of incoming
messages Mike and request for the book. Hey, we really
appreciate you taking the time out. You're still one of
my heroes and every time I get a chance to
talk to you, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Well, same here, Tom, You're the one of the best
teammates anybody could ever have. So anybody ever asked me
about your favorite Bears. Tom Fair and Matt Suey are
my favorite Bears. I love those guys. They're the best
guys to play with, great teammates.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
And great friends to this day. All right, Mike, thank
you so much, appreciate it. Thank you, Yes, thank you
for all your time, buddy, Thank you by to see you, Mike.
All right, Tommy, let's put a wrap on this, because
I could have gone deeper, and there's so many accolades
I want to give him, but I don't think he
wants to hear all that, right, Number nine of the
Bears all time one hundred list, drafted by the Bears
in Round two uh and then had just an amazing career.
(30:59):
Third in game started in Bear's history at the time
of his retirement, just trailing Walter Payton nearly fifteen hundred tackles,
seven interceptions, twelve filmble recoveries, College football Hall of Famer
in nineteen ninety five and a former head coach in
this league with the San Francisco forty nine ers and
always always attached to the game in some way, but
(31:21):
the playbooks that he thrived on and helped execute. He's
now giving everybody a playbook for life as well. And
that's the one thing I might take away with Mike.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
You know, the one thing about Mike Singletary is he
lived up to his own expectations. He exceeded in a
lot of the public expectations. And they thought he was
too small, too short to play linebacker in the NFL.
He was challenged by Buddy Ryan. He came in and
he was a leader on one of the most high
profile teams of all time. So we can sit here
(31:52):
and say a lot of great things about Mike Singletary
and we probably wouldn't be able to get them all
out if you take his life into consider.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
A Yeah, I believe his impact is not statistical at all.
To me, it's the bar for NFL players in terms
of preparation, leadership, and the courage to lead. Actually, so
it's kind of a blueprint to how to lead. I mean,
would you agree on a team of so many leaders?
Speaker 5 (32:18):
Right?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
But you know now you think ed you talked about
us all being on our sixties, and here he is
trying to make you know, this what the world needs
and how the world could be a better play. So
he's going to transfer from the locker room and being
a Hall of Famer into an adult male that can
be equally as considered in the Hall of Fame in
(32:40):
terms of just the human population.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I'll wrap with this.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Coach Ditka once said, quote his intensity, his zeal to
do everything perfectly makes him a leader by example. He's
like but Gus and Bill George, and he mentioned Joe Schmidt,
the former Detroit Lion. Guys like that, those are and
you know, at the Hester Hall of Fame and Auction
the dinner before the Gold Jacket dinner the night before
last year, I'm watching Mike, who they introduce all the
(33:08):
living Hall of Famers who are there, and Mike is
helping all these Hall of Famers who may not be
able to navigate the steps going down to their table
and seat at this dinner. When I saw him, I
went up to him. I said, Mike, that is one
of the classiest moves by you. I guess it shouldn't
surprise you, but that's what he helped his fellow Hall
(33:28):
of Famers that could not navigate those stairs, and he
was the first guy out of a seat to help them.
And that just personifies Mike Singletary.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
He wasn't asked to do it, He did it on
his own, and that's the type of guy Mike is.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
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(34:02):
ruler bag United proud to fly the Chicago Bears. And
you too, how much are you looking forward to the
night before and the dinner with everybody?
Speaker 4 (34:11):
We've We've been able to talk to a couple guys
over the last couple of days, and it's the guys
that you don't see for years that you look forward
to seeing because you spend so much time with them
inside of a locker room when you are just a
kid growing up. But now we're all men in our
sixties and seventies and you have a chance to you know,
recapture some of the moments of the locker room, but
(34:32):
you get to catch up on how things are going
and you know, what's going on in everybody's lives, and
so I'm really looking forward to that before. They're going
to have a salute to the players at halftime of
the game, but the alumni bank with the night before,
I think will be equally as enjoyable because that's when
you're going to have a little time to have an
expanded discussion because the halftime is still twelve minutes, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
And enough time to accommodate that. Now those a bigger
in life characters, well, I.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Mean, you're going to get some guys that are going
to have a twelve minute applause, So you know it's
it's please hold your applause to the.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
End so Tom could get back up to the booth
to call the second half of what we hope is
going to be an amazing night at Soldier Field.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Tom for Bears Vikings. Have you put that in perspective yet?
Speaker 5 (35:19):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Yeah, I've been thinking about that, you know, since they
hired Ben Johnson, because you know, every time they introduced
the Chicago Bears broadcast on ESPN. They say, the home
of the new Chicago Bears. Well, this is the new
Chicago Bears this year, and.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
The division got a whole lot interesting with the Micah
Parsons deal for that team up north.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Tommy, Wow, sure did, but hey, you got to block
them anyways.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
This podcast is brought to you by Miller Lite, the
official beer partner of your Chicago Bears. Tastes like Miller
Time Chicago. Go to millerlight dot com slash Bears pod
to find delivery options near you. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Ninety six calories three point two carbs per twelve ounces.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
That's gonna do it for us.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Thanks to our special guest, Bears Hall of Famer Mike Singletary.
For Tom there, I'm Jeff Jonahak. Thanks for listening. Everybody,
please subscribe now on your Chicago Bears official app, Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Bear down, everybody,
Shut over man, DJ Moore, end zone touchdown, touchdown, Paars.
I am Jeff jon again Litsu Hon Donnie got.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
What was like playing for coach Good?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I don't want to answer any questions like that pressure
coming is a big trouble. Dottie Goos Motest Sweat.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Bears et Cetera brought to you by Chevy Drives Chicago,
the official truck partner of yours Chicago Bears. We visit
today with a man who is a portrait of faith, leadership,
and intensity. Bears middle linebacker Mike Singletary possessed an emotional
fire and played an unrelenting brand of ball. His legacy
includes ten Pro Bowls, twice the NFL's Defensive Player of
(00:48):
the Year, a Super Bowl twenty winner, and enshrinman in
the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We discussed today an
episode one sixty six of the Bears et Cetera Podcast
were brought to you by Miller Lite with Super Bowl
winning Bears guard Tom I'm Jeff Joniek and our special guest.
This week of what is a very impactful week in
Bear's history, the fortieth anniversary of the Super Bowl twenty
winning team. Mike and Tom, Welcome to the podcast. Forty
(01:11):
years Where did the time go? A lot has happened since,
and we're still celebrating you guys.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
Mike, Well, you know what it is. It is pretty
amazing and time does fly really fast.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
But it was a great year in eighty five and
very exciting, and you know, here we are at the
fortieth anniversary.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You know, Mike, I'm going to give you a question
to think about. So I don't want your answer right now.
I'm going to get back to it in a little while.
I want to know the most encouraging thing but also
the most discouraging thing that's ever been said to you
by Buddy Ryan.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
Okay, So that's why.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
So you know, I've recently read an article that you
penn in the Wall Street Journal and talked a lot
about yourself, your upbringing, the things you overcame, and how
successful you've become. People ask me about you all the time,
and I always say, Mike Singer Terry was the most
well prepared professional athlete I've ever been around. And so
my question to you, with all that seriousness, how did
(02:08):
Willy talk you into doing the Super Bowl Shuffle?
Speaker 5 (02:11):
No? What is very simple? Uh, Willy came in and Uh,
it was a well planned out plan. I mean it
really was.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
He came in and he said, Mike, there's this this,
this program, this this opportunity to do a super Bowl
shuffle of video about you know, the Bears and and
you know, going to the Super Bowl. And I said, well,
that doesn't that didn't know, I don't that doesn't make
(02:41):
any sense.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
I don't do that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And he said, well, all of the proceeds that comes
from the video will go towards feeding the hungary.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
In Chicago on the South side and on the West side.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
And he knew that would that would be all that
he needed to say order for me to say yes,
Did you have any lyric?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Did you get to see the lyrics before you sang
your solo? Or did you show up and sing the
solo just however however they have written it.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
I showed up and did the solo however they had
written it.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Tom, were you asked to do it? I know you
would never do it, but were you asked?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Well, Willie, when we were coming home from the Miami game,
Willy was walking up and down the aisle trying to
encourage the guys to show up at the Park West
the next morning to be in the chorus of it.
So when you see Calvin Thomas in there, you see
Tom zech in there, you see Stefan Humphreys in there,
all those guys were everybody was included. But really I
(03:44):
could never see myself dancing on camera. So it was
something I wasn't in agreement with. And you know, Mike,
I you know, I always thought about Dick in the
back of my mind because I'm going, God, if you
guys go out and you do the Super Bowl Shuffle
and we failed to live up to a song called
the Super Bowl Shuffle? Is Dicka going to hold it
against everybody? But you know he kind of climbed aboard
(04:07):
and embraced it like everybody else did. Well.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
What was really interesting about that is right after I
talked to Willie about it, I knew I had to
talk to coach Dick about it. So I went up
and I said, Coach, I want to tell you about
something that the team is thinking about doing, and it
(04:32):
has to do with feeding Hungary on the South side
of Chicago.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
And he said, Mike, if.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
You do it, you know it sounds good or what
have you, as long as you promise me that it
will not affect the team.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
You can do it. And as long as I got that,
I'm good.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
And I said, okay, I said, we only have a
shooting a shoot after the Miami game. And of course
it came at the worst opportune time, losing to Miami.
We had to shoot it the next day. But it
was in retrospect when I think about that game, it
was it came at the best time. Shooting the super
(05:16):
Bowl Shuffle couldn't come at a better time because it
was kind of a rallying point for getting us back
together after that game. No one wanted to shoot that
video that day. That morning, you just got beaten. You
did not want to sing the Super Bowl Shuffle, but
we agreed to it. We said we would do it,
(05:39):
and we tried to keep our eyes on the bigger
prize and that's where the money was going to go
to the South Side to feed the hungary.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
There it was.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
But the next day when we went there to do
that shoot and we got to know each other on
a whole new level. I didn't know that Leslie Frazier
couldn't dance. You guys, you are awful. So I mean,
really that that alone getting to see guys dance for
(06:09):
the first time and laugh and before you knew it.
But when we got ready to leave, we were excited,
we were happy, and at the same time we realized, hey, guys,
you know, we got to get ready to go.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
We gotta go.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
We can't lose another game. We gotta go, and we
gotta win this thing. We would be the biggest idiots
ever if we don't win.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
You dangled your own carrot. You guys dangled your own
carrot right then and there.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
Yeah, I mean it was.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It was a whole new level of commitment and so
it ended up being, I thought, a really good thing.
And at that time, we were the youngest team to
go to the Super Bowl, so it was it was
another thing for us to really be held accountable at
a whole new level.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
This podcast is brought to you by Miller Lite, the
official beer partner of your Chicago Bears. To like middle
Time Chicago, go to middle light dot com slash Bears
Pod to find delivery options near you. Celebrate responsibly Midller
Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Ninety six calories and three point
two carbs per twelve ounces. Mike, this is almost a
question I can answer without you saying a word, but
(07:15):
I want.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You to give it some gusto.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Why did players on those Bears teams you were on
from the time you arrived in the eighties until the
early nineties follow you.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I think there's really one word, And I think I
was very sincere. I really I really cared about the guys,
and I think every guy knew that I would do
anything for my teammate. I would not let one guy
take advantage of another. If I said I was going
(07:49):
to do something, I followed through. So it was I've
always been a leader. That's something that I may not
be anything else, but if I give you my word
on something, nine times out of ten, it's going to
get done.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
You know, Mike, I brought this up the other day
we were talking to Jim mcmahonon the only reason I
brought it up is because my brother in law was
a part of the nineteen eighty Kodakohol American team and
you're on there. And then I look at the two
other linebackers on there, Bob Crable, a teammate of mine
from Notre Dame, but Lawrence Taylor. So when you put
yourself in that group, your size, your structure, your status,
(08:31):
what you were able to do, and your accomplishments in college.
Did you know that things in the NFL were going
to come to that ten time Pro bowl Er, future
Hall of Famer or did you kind of get in
a room with some of these guys and size them
up and look at them and go, Okay, this is
what I need to do in order to accomplish what
(08:53):
you did.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
You know, that's a that's a really good question.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I just finished writing my book that's due to be
introduced in September, and it's called Visualize Your Greatness. And
so for me at twelve years old, just to try
to answer your question in a roundabout way, at twelve
years old, when my mom asked me to be the
(09:20):
man at the house when my brother had just passed away.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
A few weeks ago and my dad had just left home.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And when my mom asked me to become the man
at the house, I said, Mom, I can do that,
and I'm gonna last at ten kids. And I go
in the room and I get out a sheet of
paper and I write out my vision statement that sounds
like this, find a way to get a scholarship to
go to college, get my degree, in which I had
become the first in my family to do so, get
(09:51):
drafted and go to the NFL. Buy my mom a
house and take care of her for the rest of
her life. Becom an All American, go to the Super Bowl,
and own my own business. So that's what I wrote
out at twelve years old and put it on the wall.
And I wasn't even playing football yet because it was
(10:12):
against our religion. We were Pentecostal, and none of my
brothers played. I'm the smallest one, and so when I
wrote that, I had to beg my mom to let
me play. But it was something that was a burning
desire in me. I never saw myself as small. I
heard I was small. I never saw myself as not
(10:35):
having everything I needed in order for me to accomplish
what it was that I wanted to do. And so
it was a desire from the inside out that fired
that I had in me. That was the thing that
always motivated me, and I knew that God was the
really the sauce that really made the difference.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
That book, by the way, the Playbook for the Seven
Seas of Success is also a part of that title.
Mike faith centered, which is no surprise at all because
it is the foundation of your existence. But courage, consciousness, consistency, character, confidence, commitment, compete.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Tom.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I think that sums up Mike singletary to a t.
But all about you, know, Mike, You've always talked about
excellence constantly. Every time I've ever heard you speak, Tom's
lived it with you, shoulder to shoulder. So how long
has this been in the offing for you, this type
of book.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
It's interesting. I really wasn't going to do another book,
but when I think about.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
All of the social media, all of the a lot
of young kids, young people or older people that are
really following people, and they have lost their own voice
of having an authentic thought, and so I really, I
(12:01):
really wanted to encourage people to be courageous enough to
think again about what it is in life that you
want to accomplish.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
It is never too late, and being able to.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Rise above all of the things that are happening in
our country and and the division and and the name
calling and the hate and whatever it is right now,
it's going to take a courageous leader to kind of
step in and be for everybody, not not the black,
(12:37):
not the white, not not the Democrat, not the Republican,
but to be for people and to love people and
meet people where they are and help take them where
they could not go on their own. And to me,
that's that's kind of that that's kind of the bottom
line to me is as to what we need in
this country right now, and that book is the heart
(12:59):
of the you.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Know, like that message that you bring up.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
I always think to myself that locker rooms are a
great presentation of what you're saying, because everybody in our
locker room I enjoyed their company. And I think about
the eighty five Bears and how much I enjoy every
one of their those personalities. And I was just recently
talking about the eighty five Bears, because that team had
(13:23):
something for everybody. Whether you're a pretty guy like Fensik,
you're a big guy like Fridge, you're an intellect like yourself,
you're a movie character, you know for like Hampton and
McMichael and stuff. That team is unique in its personalities.
I think the real just the friendship and the love
(13:44):
that we had for each other. And I think it's
a great example of kind of what you're saying and
what you would what you envisioned for where we could go.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Well, I think you're exactly right. You know, if you
can be a part of that team, you can be
a part of of anything. Because we were as different
as as night is from day. But somehow, some way
we made it work. You know with the coaches. You know,
(14:15):
our coaches were different, Our leaders were different. You know, Walter, myself,
you and Botsey and Horn and I mean we're all different,
and uh but somehow, you know, when you put McMahon
out there, and uh, you put Peyton out there, you
put Hampton out there. I mean, guys that really may
(14:40):
not hang out ever, but on that field they were brothers.
And and to me, that's really what what our country
should be all about. Allowing everybody to be unique, allowing
them to be who they are, allowing them to to
be able to live lives as best they can, and
(15:03):
if they do something that you don't like, being able
to come alongside them and say, hey, you know what,
instead of criticizing you, I'm gonna try to help you
do better.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
How can I help you be better? How can you
help me be better? And then kind of go from there.
You know, I got to say what was fun for me.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
So when I was playing in the USFL, I was
kind of forewarned of a couple guys. There was a
guy that knew McMichael and he was telling me about McMichael.
He was actually one of his roommates in New England.
But then I also played with Andrew Mellintree in Doak
Fields your counter linebackers at Baylor when you were there,
and they used to tell me for a couple of
(15:43):
years the approach to Mike Singletary and going live all
the time and how hard of a hitter was. So
I was already aware of some of you guys, and
through the guys that I played with in the USFL,
I enjoyed their personalities and that time I'm in football,
but I kind of enjoyed the fact that I was
(16:04):
forewarned about a couple of guys that would play a
huge role in my life and my football life, like
you and mang.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Okay, well those are good guys.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Before one year, dope and I were We came the
same year and went through the same tough stuff every day.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
The defensive coordinator we had was all my goodness. He
was really really crazy and tough.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
And who was that Who was that Mike?
Speaker 5 (16:35):
His name was Corky Nelson.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Uh, Corky Nelson was an old linebacker, coach and defensive
coordinator that was as tough as nails and crazy as
they come. And uh, you know, when I got to
know him, I thought, once I left Baylor, man, it's
gonna be smooth sailing from now on. Then I meet
buddy Ryan, I'm thinking, you gotta be kidding me. One
(17:01):
guy kills me physically, the other guy kills me mentally.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
I'm like, I can't will it? Lord? What are you
doing to me?
Speaker 1 (17:09):
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(17:30):
official physical therapy partner of the Chicago Bears. In light
of that fortieth anniversary and you guys getting together for
alumni dinner and so forth, and I hear it's going
to be a massive, massive amount of people showing up
for that private event for you guys.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
You know, we could talk.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
About the superstars and the Hall of Famers all day long,
but there was such a melgam of talent when you
think of guys like Todd Bell, Al Harris, Ron Rivera,
Jim Moore, I mean we can go on and on,
Jim Morrissey, Sean Gale. So many different players were on
that team, and this whole idea of modern day players saying, hey,
(18:07):
I hear this cliche constant sharp and iron with iron
on both sides of the ball. You guys lived that
every single day and now it just hitting me out.
We got iron Mike as the head coach as well,
So yes, iron sharpening iron.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Did you guys feel that?
Speaker 5 (18:21):
You know, I really felt like.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Everybody was so immersed in trying to be the best
that they possibly could. There's no way that you could
realize the the greatness that we were surrounded by. And
I think that starting with coach Dicka and Buddy Ryan
leading the way, and then our leaders. You know McMahon,
(18:50):
as crazy as he was, he was a tremendous leader.
Walter Jimbo horn Fair. I mean, guys like that, it's
just when they come together, you don't realize what's really.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
There, the depth of the guys that are there.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
And Tom getting back to what I was talking about earlier,
you know, you're in the locker room. That's one thing,
but it's another thing. When we made that video the
Super Bowl Shuffle, there was just some things that I
learned about guys that I never knew and seeing guys
laugh and relax at a whole different level, it was
(19:36):
just it took us to a whole another level personally
and gave us a bit of a window to see
a guy for a moment in a different light. So
it really was a great group of guys, really was.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
You know, That's another thing is when we made the
Black and Blue Blues Brothers poster of the offensive line,
we made it after the fourth game of the year,
so it was about performance or else You're going to
be kind of ridiculed and criticized for making a poster
on just the offensive lineman after week four and where
were you going to go with it? And thankfully it
(20:12):
ended up where we did. So even though we only
have a couple of minutes left, and I was asking
you the most encouraging thing and the most discouraging thing
that Buddy Ryan ever said to you. And the only
reason I'm asking this is because the production of perseverance,
what you were able to accomplish throughout your career, where
you were drafted, and what you turned into. There's not
(20:32):
many guys that have an NFL success story like yours.
But not everything was roses, and sometimes you had to
live with criticism from a coach as much as you
did the encouragement of a coach. Is there anything that
comes to mind when you think about Buddy?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
First of all, I say the worst thing. I can't
think of the worst thing. He came up with a
new high every day. It was just amazing some of
the stuff that came out of his mouth. And you know,
my whole first year, just to give you an example,
my second year when I came in, I came so
(21:10):
close one day to going up and he had ridiculed
me and rode me so much that practice. I was
going to go up and ask him to trade me.
I really was, and Osborne stopped me. But that was
that was one of the worst points of my life,
but one of the best things that happened was one
(21:32):
day I had I had hit a turn in my career,
and I started playing the way he wanted me to play.
And he came up to me one day with a plaque.
It was a platter a plate, and on that plate
it says there's nothing that you and I can't do together.
(21:54):
He just gave that to me, and he say he
had the pipe in his mouth. Look at this date,
and that's what I believe. And he walked off and
I looked at it and I had a tear in
my eye because I thought, Wow, I think we're gonna
make it. And so after that we really started talking
(22:19):
on a whole different level and we started going moving
upward from there.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Did he have to convince you about the forty six
defense or because of your study habits, did you take
it all into a fact and an account when you
were watching tape and stuff and go, Okay, we got
the talent to run this defense and we can do
it successfully.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
Well. The thing about the forty six is he was
trying to run the forty six with.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Some guys that at the time, some of the older
guys that were there when I got there, and I
asked Buddy. One day, I said, Buddy, I said, do
you mind if I go and talk to some of
the guys and just kind of find out what they
need to do in order to get on the field.
And he said, yeah, yeah, Okay, go ahead, And so
I went and started. I was talking to Todd Bell,
(23:11):
I was talking to Al Harris, I was talking to
Ruben Henderson.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
I was talking.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So I was talking to these guys and asking them
Otis Wilson, I was talking old and so, what do
we need to do in order for you to get
on the field. And a lot of guys at that
time there were a million things in the playbook. The
playbook was like six inches thick. And what I did
was I took notes from the guys. Guys said, we're
(23:41):
just doing too much stuff.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
It doesn't make any sense. We don't have to do
that much stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
So I wrote out the notes and I went to
Buddy's door, knocked on the door, and put the notes
under the door and ran off. And the next day,
and this is the greatest tribute to Buddy Waller, the
next day that playbook went from about six inches to
(24:06):
about half an inch.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Wow, And we began to Todd.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Bell started playing, Otis started playing, Al Harris started playing,
and all of a sudden, the guys were on the field.
Because Buddy didn't want mistakes. He could not stand mistakes.
And so but now he realized that we needed to
(24:34):
have walkthroughs, and we had.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Walkthroughs during lunchtime.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
We're walking around with a sandwich in our hands and
the playbook in the other and we're walking around outside.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
We had to do those walkthroughs.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
So Buddy listened to everything that I gave him, the
notes that I gave him, we started doing it. And
so with those walkthroughs and cutting the defense down so
guys could play fast, putting the talent on the field
that could play man, I think it just it.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
Took it to a whole other level.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
And to me, that was the greatest tribute to Buddy
is just being open to really listening to what a
player had to say.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
How do you tell the cashier you're a Bears fan
without telling him you're a Bears fan? With the Chicago
Bears PNC Bank visa debit card, which gets you exclusive
discounts on Bears merchandise. Find out more at PNC dot com,
Slash Bears card after games, going back to Oldallas Hall
and put the projector on, waiting for the door to
be opened. With your buddy here, Tom Thayer and Jay Hilgenberg.
(25:38):
He told me about this many times. I've never heard
it from your perspective, though, give me the why.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
And what it was like. You know what?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
For me, it was flushing out the game that we
just had and knowing that the next week. I was
always focused on on what's to come. You know, the
best is yet to come. I was never satisfied with
(26:06):
what we did the week before or the game that
we just played.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
It was what do we do next? But how do
we get better? How do we how do we shift
this team out? How how do how do I get better?
How do I get better as a leader?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
How do I make sure that I'm putting us in
the right situation all the time? Because Buddy, Buddy would
sit in the office on Mondays and he's sitting there
asking me, why did you make this call? Because the
more we we went along, the more he trusted me
(26:42):
to change calls and shift guys around and move the
defense and those kinds of things. And so I knew
I had to be accountable on Monday, to have an
answer for why I shifted the guys, why I made
that call, why I change the defense, And if I
didn't have an answer, it wasn't going to be pretty.
So that was the accountability factor. But before the accountability,
(27:06):
I had to make sure that I took ownership, and that,
to me, is what ownership is all about. I'll take
the heat, you encourage me out, you can do whatever
you want to do. Just give me the opportunity to
be the best that I can be. Give me everything
that I need, and I'll take all the heat board,
but just give me the opportunity.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
To own it.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Tom, did you feel the same way.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Richard mcmurr and the janitor lived across the street, and
so back in the day you had to wait till
the tape was made to get access to it, and
so we would give him, give our video guys a
little bit enough time to get the video made, and
then we would go over to Richard's house no matter
what time day or night, and wake him up and
(27:51):
go in there and watch the tape. And sometimes because
of a guy like Ditka, if you had a couple
of bad plays, you had to be prepared for that
because he would criticize you in front of all your peers,
and you had to be able to absorb it and
improve on it. And so I think that's just when
you're raised as an offensive lineman or the starting middle
(28:11):
linebacker the Chicago Bears at that time. And I know
Mike had the old Beta system in his house as well.
That was pretty expensive at that time. But the transition
from the real to reel to Beta two DVDs and
now with the tablet they have, it's you know, been
a great access to be being able to watch the
(28:33):
tape if you really wanted to, if you wanted to
put that time.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
In Mike today, you know you could by the time
you sit your fanny in the seat to fly back home,
you'd already watched the whole game on your iPad Today.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
That would be it's amazing. It would have been amazing.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Imagine what how like?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
It just would have expedited the time and your mind
getting ready for what's I mean it would have been
for a guy like yourself, that's like, that's glory. So
you had your wife Kim as your Hall of Fame presenter,
and you guys have raised a great family and I
see her posting on Facebook often about the things you
guys are doing and motivational speaking and what's it been
(29:15):
like for her to travel this journey with you and
your your children.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
It has been truly amazing. She is an amazing woman.
She has been.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
She is my best friend by far. You know, we
do everything together. We continue to grow and challenge each other.
But she is the best thing, by far that's ever
happened in my life.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
And you've had quite the life, and you're still giving
great advice to all who will listen. Where can we
find your book when it comes out, Visualize your Greatness,
The Playbook for the Seven Seas of Success, released in September.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Well, if you can find it, Mike Singletary dot com,
Mike singletarybook dot com. That's all you have to do,
Mike Singletary book.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
All right, we'll spread the word big Mike.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Yeah, you better get ready for a lot of incoming
messages Mike and request for the book. Hey, we really
appreciate you taking the time out. You're still one of
my heroes and every time I get a chance to
talk to you, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Well, same here, Tom, You're the one of the best
teammates anybody could ever have. So anybody ever asked me
about your favorite Bears. Tom Fair and Matt Suey are
my favorite Bears. I love those guys. They're the best
guys to play with, great teammates.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
And great friends to this day. All right, Mike, thank
you so much, appreciate it. Thank you, Yes, thank you
for all your time, buddy, Thank you by to see you, Mike.
All right, Tommy, let's put a wrap on this, because
I could have gone deeper, and there's so many accolades
I want to give him, but I don't think he
wants to hear all that, right, Number nine of the
Bears all time one hundred list, drafted by the Bears
in Round two uh and then had just an amazing career.
(30:59):
Third in game started in Bear's history at the time
of his retirement, just trailing Walter Payton nearly fifteen hundred tackles,
seven interceptions, twelve filmble recoveries, College football Hall of Famer
in nineteen ninety five and a former head coach in
this league with the San Francisco forty nine ers and
always always attached to the game in some way, but
(31:21):
the playbooks that he thrived on and helped execute. He's
now giving everybody a playbook for life as well. And
that's the one thing I might take away with Mike.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
You know, the one thing about Mike Singletary is he
lived up to his own expectations. He exceeded in a
lot of the public expectations. And they thought he was
too small, too short to play linebacker in the NFL.
He was challenged by Buddy Ryan. He came in and
he was a leader on one of the most high
profile teams of all time. So we can sit here
(31:52):
and say a lot of great things about Mike Singletary
and we probably wouldn't be able to get them all
out if you take his life into consider.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
A Yeah, I believe his impact is not statistical at all.
To me, it's the bar for NFL players in terms
of preparation, leadership, and the courage to lead. Actually, so
it's kind of a blueprint to how to lead. I mean,
would you agree on a team of so many leaders?
Speaker 5 (32:18):
Right?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
But you know now you think ed you talked about
us all being on our sixties, and here he is
trying to make you know, this what the world needs
and how the world could be a better play. So
he's going to transfer from the locker room and being
a Hall of Famer into an adult male that can
be equally as considered in the Hall of Fame in
(32:40):
terms of just the human population.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I'll wrap with this.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Coach Ditka once said, quote his intensity, his zeal to
do everything perfectly makes him a leader by example. He's
like but Gus and Bill George, and he mentioned Joe Schmidt,
the former Detroit Lion. Guys like that, those are and
you know, at the Hester Hall of Fame and Auction
the dinner before the Gold Jacket dinner the night before
last year, I'm watching Mike, who they introduce all the
(33:08):
living Hall of Famers who are there, and Mike is
helping all these Hall of Famers who may not be
able to navigate the steps going down to their table
and seat at this dinner. When I saw him, I
went up to him. I said, Mike, that is one
of the classiest moves by you. I guess it shouldn't
surprise you, but that's what he helped his fellow Hall
(33:28):
of Famers that could not navigate those stairs, and he
was the first guy out of a seat to help them.
And that just personifies Mike Singletary.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
He wasn't asked to do it, He did it on
his own, and that's the type of guy Mike is.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Hey Bear's van Steinholvels is a probab partner of the
Chicago Bears, now open in Orland Park. Steinhofels in Chicago,
Land's furniture and mattress leader with the largest selection to
fit every style and budget, and his one hundred percent
employee owned chopping store and online at Steinhoffels dot com.
And good news, Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new
planes with all the bells and whistles, like Bluetooth cond
oft screens at every seat in room for every once
(34:02):
ruler bag United proud to fly the Chicago Bears. And
you too, how much are you looking forward to the
night before and the dinner with everybody?
Speaker 4 (34:11):
We've We've been able to talk to a couple guys
over the last couple of days, and it's the guys
that you don't see for years that you look forward
to seeing because you spend so much time with them
inside of a locker room when you are just a
kid growing up. But now we're all men in our
sixties and seventies and you have a chance to you know,
recapture some of the moments of the locker room, but
(34:32):
you get to catch up on how things are going
and you know, what's going on in everybody's lives, and
so I'm really looking forward to that before. They're going
to have a salute to the players at halftime of
the game, but the alumni bank with the night before,
I think will be equally as enjoyable because that's when
you're going to have a little time to have an
expanded discussion because the halftime is still twelve minutes, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
And enough time to accommodate that. Now those a bigger
in life characters, well, I.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Mean, you're going to get some guys that are going
to have a twelve minute applause, So you know it's
it's please hold your applause to the.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
End so Tom could get back up to the booth
to call the second half of what we hope is
going to be an amazing night at Soldier Field.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Tom for Bears Vikings. Have you put that in perspective yet?
Speaker 5 (35:19):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Yeah, I've been thinking about that, you know, since they
hired Ben Johnson, because you know, every time they introduced
the Chicago Bears broadcast on ESPN. They say, the home
of the new Chicago Bears. Well, this is the new
Chicago Bears this year, and.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
The division got a whole lot interesting with the Micah
Parsons deal for that team up north.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Tommy, Wow, sure did, but hey, you got to block
them anyways.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
This podcast is brought to you by Miller Lite, the
official beer partner of your Chicago Bears. Tastes like Miller
Time Chicago. Go to millerlight dot com slash Bears pod
to find delivery options near you. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Ninety six calories three point two carbs per twelve ounces.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
That's gonna do it for us.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Thanks to our special guest, Bears Hall of Famer Mike Singletary.
For Tom there, I'm Jeff Jonahak. Thanks for listening. Everybody,
please subscribe now on your Chicago Bears official app, Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Bear down, everybody,
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