The opening game of the baseball season is a cause for celebration. It’s a tribal ritual signaling the arrival of spring; the outcome of the game is almost inconsequential, as there are 161 more to follow. The opening game of the NFL season, however, is not just the beginning of the football year and the start of fall; it also dictates in large measure how successful a team will be. With only 16 games in the regular season, a team that starts 0-2 and especially 0-3 can all but write itself off, and that possibility leads directly from an opening loss. Conversely, football is such a game of team play and confidence that a big early win can propel a team from mediocrity to the ranks of contenders. Something like that happened last year to the Bears, who lost their opener but upset the Minnesota Vikings in game two and went on to a 13-3 record based on a series of almost unbelievable comeback victories.
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I had a bad feeling about the Bears’ opener last Sunday. The ’01 Bears were just about the least intimidating 13-3 team in NFL history. They generally enjoyed good health–even an injury to Marcus Robinson only cleared the way for Marty Booker to establish himself as a Pro Bowl-level receiver with a team-record 100 catches–and they caught every break, as in the tipped ball Mike Brown caught and returned for a touchdown in overtime to beat the San Francisco 49ers. They set an NFL record with an 8-0 mark in games decided by seven points or less. Yet as every statistician knows, the law of averages made it just as likely that the Bears’ luck would swing to the other side this season. What’s more, aside from their younger players growing a year older and more experienced, the team appeared little improved. The Bears lost cornerback Walt Harris, safety Tony Parrish, and left tackle Blake Brockermeyer to free agency, and their replacements–Jerry Azumah, Mike Green, and Bernard Robertson, who was starting ahead of the top draft pick, massive Marc Columbo–were unproven. Finally, because Soldier Field was being rebuilt they’d have to play even their home games on the road–at the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium in Champaign.
On the ensuing kickoff Edinger hyperextended his right knee, tough luck symptomatic of the war of attrition being waged on the 100-degree turf under the late-summer sun. Brown, trying to play himself back into shape after missing the entire exhibition schedule with a broken wrist, went out with dehydration. Defensive end Phillip Daniels and cornerback R.W. McQuarters followed him to the sidelines with more serious knee injuries.
Yet just like last year, something happened when the Bears found their backs to the wall. Again Booker got loose on the tough-to-defend post pattern, and Miller hit him in stride to carry the Bears to the Minnesota 24. Thomas hit the line in a crowd, disappeared, then emerged on the other side like a commuter taking a shortcut through Marshall Field’s and ran to the eight. Thomas almost scored on the next play, and then his one-yard burst made the score 23-20 with over six minutes left. The Bears wouldn’t even have to risk an onside kick.
