Chicago is known to sports fans worldwide, mostly due to the exploits of a certain Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls in the mid-1990’s.
Since then, that famous red, white, and black has become synonymous with sporting success.
The impact of those two separate three-peats is such that, to this day, even those with next to no knowledge of basketball or sports in general know His Airness’ name, as do they of the Bulls.
However, in America, Chicago in sports terms meant the city that housed another dynastic team: the Chicago Bears. They might have won just one Super Bowl, but their legacy still defines not just the city and its franchise, but also the NFL.
Other Chicago sports teams, MLB teams the Cubs and the White Sox, the NHL’s Blackhawks, the soccer outfit the Fire, and even the WNBA’s Sky, have won championships. But their legacy doesn’t spread outside Illinois the way the Bulls and Bears do.
The importance of those two franchises to the city’s legacy is without a doubt. But when ESPN’s First Take decided to debate which of those two teams had a bigger impact, Skip Bayless said this:
Jordan became God-like in Chicago, but the Bears were and always will be religion in Chicago… There are far more NFL Bears fans in Chicago than there are NBA Bulls fans.
Skip Bayless said
The longtime analyst added that if the Bears won another Super Bowl, it would send the entire city into celebration, much more than it did when Michael Jordan won six titles with the Bulls. That is how much the city’s fans love their football.
This entire discussion came about because of what happened on First Take a couple of days earlier. Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had stated after their win over the Seattle Seahawks that no matter how many titles Michael Jordan won, the city was still a ‘Bears Town.’
This sparked a debate where First Take host and Chicago native Shae Cornette was on one side defending Williams’ opinion, while Stephen A. Smith led the onslaught for Jordan’s legacy in that city. Now that Skip Bayless was supporting Cornette’s view, Smith had this to say:
I didn’t say the Bulls teams. I said the Jordan era… The day he retired… in 1998, am I lying when I say that the city of Chicago was a damn morgue… The streets were empty… Michael Jordan had that kind of an effect… He transcended sports.
Stephen A. Smith said
He kept repeating that even though Chicago natives love football more than basketball, the day when the six-time champion retired, the mood across the city was enough to prove who held the power over those fans.
Even though Stephen A. Smith kept repeating how sad Chicago fans were when Michael Jordan retired, Skip Bayless had another analogy to end this argument in favor of the Chicago Bears.
He is in a league, literally, a universe of his own. But in the end, he could have played any sport in Chicago, and he would have been iconic… But it matters that the Bears play NFL football.
Skip Bayless said
The 73-year-old reiterated that even though the NBA GOAT left a legacy that no one could possibly surpass in Chicago, the city’s sports fans still resonate with that one Super Bowl the Bears won in 1985.
Bayless added that Jordan’s impact is beyond doubt. But that city is still primarily a football town. It loved it when the superstar from North Carolina won six titles for them. However, it still holds no candle to