CHICAGO -- Thirty years after the Chicago Bears won Super Bowl XX, Buddy Ryan's famed 46 defense still casts a large shadow over the city.
"Everybody realizes what Buddy Ryan brought here and brought back to Chicago -- it was that Monster of the Midway mentality," former Bears All-Pro defensive lineman Steve ‘Mongo’ McMichael said on Tuesday. "He was going to tear your f---ing head off."
Ryan died Tuesday at the age of 82.
His tenacity meshed perfectly with the hard-working mentality of Chicago sports fans, who immediately fell in love with Ryan’s relentless, hard-hitting defense that featured, among others, future Hall of Famers Mike Singletary, Dan Hampton and Richard Dent.