Imrem: Gruff, combative Buddy Ryan elevated Bears to greatness
Buddy Ryan grunted and snorted and fumed.
The two of us were sitting in his office a few days before the Chicago Bears were to play the San Francisco 49ers.
I mentioned this would be a test of two of the NFL's most formidable forces of the 1980s: Ryan's "46 Defense" against Bill Walsh's "West Coast Offense."
Ryan bristled.
To the Bears' defensive coordinator, it was no contest.
To him, no offense could withstand the pressure that his defense imposed.
Ryan was correct. The Bears beat the 49ers in a midseason game on the way to winning Super Bowl XX.
That exchange in old Halas Hall flashed back to mind early Tuesday morning when news arrived that Buddy Ryan had died at 85.
So many others accompany the memory.
There was Bears defensive players carrying Ryan off the field after the Bears won the Super Bowl.
There was Ryan moving on to build a great defense as head coach of the Eagles and to saying "you've got a winner in town" when he became head coach of the Cardinals.
There was Ryan as Oilers defensive coordinator throwing a punch on the sidelines at his own team's offensive coordinator during a game on national TV.
There was Ryan … ever combative … ever gruff … ever the Army veteran who served in the Korean War … ever himself everywhere he went.
Buddy Ryan was one of the few assistant coaches as intimidating as Mike Ditka was as a head coach.
That's why as tough as Ryan could be on players - especially young players - those same players loved him.
They loved him so much that they petitioned George Halas, the fabled Papa Bear, to keep Ryan even as the Bears transitioned from the mild Neill Armstrong to the wild Ditka.
They loved Ryan because as tough as they were, they knew that he was as tough if not tougher.
Ryan had great players in Chicago to make his "46" as great as it turned out to be.
Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary, Richard Dent, Gary Fencik, Steve McMichael, Otis Wilson, Wilber Marshall and the rest elevated Buddy Ryan and his defense to new heights.
At the same time, Ryan and his defense elevated them to new heights, and in the cases of Hampton, Singletary and Dent all the way up to the Hall of Fame.
The 1985 Bears champions were a bunch of mostly eccentric humans, and Ryan was appropriately eccentric enough to coordinate them.
Ryan turned them loose within the parameters of the "46" and allowed them to to attack, attack, attack.
That was Ryan's personality, and it fit perfectly with the personalities of football players with nicknames like Danimal, Samurai and Mongo.
I root for Rex Ryan - first as Jets head coach and now as Bills head coach - to win a Super Bowl. In an NFL world dominated by homogenized coaches and general managers, Rex is as outspoken as his father Buddy was.
The league doesn't have enough people like that anymore. Now everything is packaged in bland boxes with tightly wound ribbons. Just look at how closed-lipped Bears head coach John Fox is and how under control his assistant coaches are.
Oh, for the days when Halas Hall was filled all at once by characters with texture like Buddy Ryan and Mike Ditka.
Oh, for the days when a gruff Army veteran's "46 Defense" had its way with even the "West Coast Offense."
mimrem@dailyherald.com