Saints, Bears lack experience
CHICAGO – Two decades and forever. That’s the time span between trips to the Super Bowl for the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints.
While various players from each side have been to the NFL’s biggest game with other teams, these are two organizations mired in, well, super droughts. The last time the Bears played for the league title, it was in January 1986, and the stars were named Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, Dan Hampton and Jim McMahon. The defense was overwhelming and Da Coach, Mike Ditka, was overbearing.
That 21-year hiatus is distressing in Chicago, but it’s also 19 years shorter than the span New Orleans has gone without a Super Bowl trip. Those four decades make up merely all of the Saints’ existence.
Because Sunday’s NFC championship game involves franchises that haven’t enjoyed much success in the Super Bowl era, the celebrations might be just a bit more exuberant.
“Growing up watching the NFL, being such a fan of the sport and the league,” Bears quarterback Rex Grossman said, “it means a great deal to be in this position. I really respect where we are at right now as far as the history of the league. I’m approaching it with a ton of intensity and focus, but not trying to make it bigger than it is. It’s still just a football game we are playing at Soldier Field against the Saints.”
Sure it is. But it’s also the biggest game of the careers of every Bears player except five with previous Super Bowl game experience: wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad; defensive backs Ricky Manning Jr., and Dante Wesley; tackle Fred Miller; and punter Brad Maynard. Backup quarterback Brian Griese was with Denver in 1999, but didn’t get on the field.
“I think experience teaches you a lot, so if you have been in that situation … we have a few, we don’t have many,” said Bears coach Lovie Smith, the defensive coordinator for the 2001 Rams that lost to New England for the NFL title. “But yes, it has to have helped, especially if you’ve been there recently.”
Beyond the second round of the playoffs is farther than the Saints have traveled. They’ve made this uplifting journey in the wake of a nomadic season where they played home games in three cities after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. They went 3-13 during 2005, and Sean Payton was hired as coach.
Payton’s work this season, when the Saints went 10-6 and won the NFC South, earned him AP Coach of the Year honors. He and his players, from All-Pro quarterback Drew Brees to rookie stars Reggie Bush and Marques Colston to longtime Saints Joe Horn and John Carney, have been vital forces in the revival of their city’s spirit.
So imagine what a Super Bowl berth would do for the city.
“I say this all along, and I have throughout the course of the season,” said linebacker Scott Fujita, in his first year with the Saints: “I have never been on a team where I really felt like the community and the team were in it together. And that’s not just lip service, that’s the truth.”
The Saints also get enlightenment from defensive tackles Hollis Thomas and Brian Young; linebacker Mark Simoneau; kicker Carney; safety Omar Stoutmire; and running back Aaron Stecker, all with Super Bowl appearances. Fullback Fred McAfee, on injured reserve, and backup quarterback Jamie Martin also were on Super Bowl teams.
While the Bears play the no-respect angle, the Saints wonder if America has recognized they are more than a team of destiny.
“We have been riding an emotional wave this whole year,” Fujita said. “But you can’t discredit this is a damn good team that I’m playing on, too. From the very beginning … the emotions, guys were excited about that, and the community and the rest of the country kind of looked at it that way. But the more games you watched and the effort you see the players are putting out there, and also the talent level, you see it’s a lot more than just an emotional story.”