Amazing journey for Dent
The Colonel was promoted to top rank Saturday and this likely is it for the 1985 Bears that won Super Bowl XX.
Walter Payton was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame first. Then Mike Singletary and Dan Hampton joined him.
On Saturday, Richard Dent filled out the foursome.
Dent had a long wait after retiring but maybe the football gods — or at least the 44-person selection committee — wanted to vote him into Canton on the 25th year anniversary of the Bears' only Super Bowl victory.
That, you know, the one in which Dent was named MVP
Of the four Hall of Famers off that team, Dent is the most improbable. Heck, he might be the most improbable of the 27 longtime Bears that have been inducted.
At the end of Dent's career in the NFL he was probable for the Hall of Fame. It was at the beginning that he wasn't even probable to anybody but a select few at Halas Hall to make the Bears' roster.
Now that Dent indeed is headed to Canton, some others qualify for enshrinement in their own Halls of Fame.
Bill Tobin should go into the Hall of Fame for scouts. Buddy Ryan should go into the Hall of Fame for assistant coaches. Maybe most of all, a forgotten Chicagoland dentist who knew the drill should go into the Hall of Fame for tooth doctors.
Every athlete in every Hall of Fame has a great story to tell and few are more fascinating than Richard Dent's.
The Bears' 1983 draft featured Jim Covert, Willie Gault, Mike Richardson, Dave Duerson and Tom Thayer — all significant contributors to the '85 champions.
Dent was an afterthought in a way. The Bears took him in the eighth round, and remember, the NFL draft today has only seven rounds.
Apparently, Tobin knew something nobody else knew. He knew Dent needed dental work.
As a student at Tennessee State, Dent couldn't put on weight because bad teeth prevented him from eating properly.
Tobin suggested the Bears draft Dent at his 224 pounds anyway, slim for an NFL defensive end. They did, sent him to a dentist and before long he ate his way to 265 pounds.
Bingo!
“When you get started,” Dent said Saturday, “you don't think of the Hall of Fame.”
Not at 220 pounds, a defensive end doesn't. At 265 pounds, nickel slick and dynamite quick, with a hunger for quarterbacks ... well, then the Hall of Fame advances from improbable, maybe impossible, all the way to likely.
Once Dent grew into his 6-foot-5 body and ability, Ryan turned him loose in the fabled “46” defense.
With the added weight, Dent not only could get to the quarterback, he could throw down the poor guy like a bag of Big Macs.
Dent provided the Bears with the edge rusher every great defense needs, and this defense might have been the greatest ever.
During the growth process, Dent also went from being The Colonel — you know, able to do one thing very well — to also playing the run at a Hall of Fame level.
By the time Dent completed the journey from 220 pounds to 10 feet tall, he had 124½ sacks with the Bears and 137½ overall in the NFL, still tied for sixth best.
“It's very appreciated,” Dent said of making Canton.
So that looks like it for the '85 Bears, four Hall of Famers with Richard Dent as the once-improbable just dessert.
mimrem@dailyherald.com