The 1982 season began on January 20th, as curly-haired new coach Mike Ditka met the media with President George S. Halas at a round table at the Bears' Chicago business office. Chicago was Mike Ditka's destiny, he told the media. Ditka and the new regime's first move was to end the team's quarterback carousel by drafting BYU quarterback Jim McMahon with their 5th pick in the first round. Bear officials were thrilled that he was still on the board after Baltimore drafted Art Schlister with their 3rd pick. It was a sign that things were going to be different, very different indeed, when McMahon showed up at Halas Hall with a beer in his hand.

Ditka held a minicamp for the team in May in Phoenix, Arizona. During this camp, he made a statement by bringing back an old-fashioned hitting drill called the "nutcracker". This drill pitted an offensive lineman versus a defensive linemen, and a running back whose object was to get around the defensive player. As can be imagined, this led to some ferocious hitting, sorely needed by a team that many said lacked discipline after the 1981 campaign. Aside from the extra hitting and the overall sense of discipline players felt, Ditka also made a promise to players at this minicamp. He stated that he was going to take this Bears team to the super bowl, period. Some players that stood before him would be there with him, but many would not, he said. Those that did not want to be there had better pack their bags. The future would hold both of these statements to be true.

The '82 season began with much turmoil. Players had been threatening a walkout all summer if their labor demands were not met by the third game of the season. Each team's starters staged impromptu midfield handshakes before each game's coin-flip as a sign of solidarity. The first two games did not bode well for the team, as they lost the opener 17-10 at Detroit, and the home opener the following week to New Orleans, 10-0. After these two games, the players walked out on strike, and 7 games of the season had to be cancelled.

For much of the 1982 season the team looked comical. One portion of the Dallas Cowboys' offense Ditka brought along with him was the gimmick in which the offensive line would stand up in unison before "setting" in a three-point stance. Looking like they were more worried about figuring out the complicated play they were trying to run, most of the time half of the line stood, and the other half forgot about the gimmick. None-the-less, the offensive system was much more imaginative than the previous regime's. It featured the "shotgun" formation for the first time, and was destined to revolve around the great running back Walter Payton along with rookie quarterback Jim McMahon.

The season resumed with a rematch against the Detroit Lions on November 21st, and the Bears pulled out the first win of the Mike Ditka era, 20-17. The rest of the season featured wins over Los Angeles and New England, but the team also suffered 5 more losses to finish 3-6. Chicago was actually in the running for a playoff spot if they could win the season finale at Tampa Bay, but a missed field goal sent the game into overtime, and the Bears lost 26-23.

"When I was coaching in Dallas, I wrote a letter to George Halas, telling him that at some point I wanted to be a head coach (it wasn't then), and that I would love for him to consider me to be coach of the Bears."

"Halas had me up for the interview at his kitchen table, and asked me to tell him my philosophy on football.  I said my philosophy was the same as him, to win.  He said, OK, we're going to pay you X amount of dollars, and I said I'm sure happy to have the job.  This was a lifelong dream to me."

"We don't wear hats in meetings.  I've got a couple of things I stand on, and one of them is wearing hats in meetings.  Hats are for outdoors."

"You did everything we asked of you this weekend, and we asked a lot.  Don't forget it, this is the way training camp will be.  It's the way it has to be.  I'll tell you this, this is a good football team standing here, and we're gonna get better."

"I played here when people really took pride in pulling on the Bears jersey.  I want that to happen again."

"That's something I never heard in the six years I've been here.  We're always talking about being competitive.  I'm glad someone's got a different frame of mind.  I'm tired of being "competitive".  Obviously, that attitude hasn't pushed us to our limits." -Gary Fencik on Ditka's statement that his team would go to the Super Bowl.

 

 

Ditka was an offensive assistant with the Dallas Cowboys before being hired in 1982 as the Bears' tenth head coach.  The Cowboys, offensive powerhouses, used to stand at attention before "ready" was called at the line of scrimmage, then stand up and set.  Ditka, along with fellow Dallas assistant Ed Hughes (who became his offensive coordinator in Chicago), tried to install this wrinkle in the Bears' offense in 1982.  Unfortunately, the pre-strike demoralized players couldn't even do this in rhythm and it looked awful.  In a show of union solidarity, players from both teams ran to midfield and shook hands before the first two games.  These events were met by a round of boos throughout stadiums.  The Bears lost their first two games prior to the strike, then finished the season 3-4.  They actually would have made the playoffs with the strange post-strike format, but barely missed when they lost to Tampa in the season finale.  WR James Scott returned to the Bears in '82 after he played for the CFL's Montreal Alouettes in 1981.  Punter Bob Parsons nailed an 81-yard punt vs. New England.

The NFL endures its first work stoppage as seven games are cancelled league-wide by a player's strike. The league decides to forego their traditional divisional rankings, and instead the top eight teams in each division make the playoffs. The world champion 49ers miss the playoffs with a 3-6 record, same as the Bears. Two 4-5 teams (Detroit and Cleveland) make the postseason, but are quickly eliminated. Dallas loses in the NFC Championship game for the second year in a row, to Washington. The Redskins beat Miami 27-17 in Super Bowl 17.