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Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football is the New York Times bestselling gripping account of a once-in-a-lifetime team and their lone Super Bowl season.

For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the 1985 Chicago Bears were more than a football team: they were the greatest football team ever—a gang of colorful nuts, dancing and pounding their way to victory. They won a Super Bowl and saved a city.

It was not just that the Monsters of the Midway won, but how they did it. On offense, there was high-stepping running back Walter Payton and Punky QB Jim McMahon, who had a knack for pissing off Coach Mike Ditka as he made his way to the end zone. On defense, there was the 46: a revolutionary, quarterback-concussing scheme cooked up by Buddy Ryan and ruthlessly implemented by Hall of Famers such as Dan "Danimal" Hampton and "Samurai" Mike Singletary. On the sidelines, in the locker rooms, and in bars, there was the never-ending soap opera: the coach and the quarterback bickering on TV, Ditka and Ryan nearly coming to blows in the Orange Bowl, the players recording the "Super Bowl Shuffle" video the morning after the season's only loss.

Cohen tracked down the coaches and players from this iconic team and asked them everything he has always wanted to know: What's it like to win? What's it like to lose? Do you really hate the guys on the other side? Were you ever scared? What do you think as you lie broken on the field? How do you go on after you have lived your dream but life has not ended?

The result is Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football, a portrait not merely of a team but of a city and a game: its history, its future, its fallen men, its immortal heroes. But mostly it's about being a fan—about loving too much. This is a book about America at its most nonsensical, delirious, and joyful.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00CVNNPEC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux (October 29, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 29, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6102 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 353 pages
Reviewer: Patrick
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Rich Cohen Goes Above and Beyond
Review: Within football lore, the 1985 Chicago Bears are spoken about in rarified air. Despite this, I have never really known much about the team and their historic run beyond the laundry list of notable NFL players and coaches that came from that ‘85 Bears team. I would attribute this to being born a decade and a half after “those” Bears played, but I have always had a fascination with that team, what made them so dominant, and the larger-than-life personalities. Labeled a “must-read” by NFL.com writer Chris Wesseling, Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football fulfills all that fascination and more.Writing from the perspective of a beloving fan, Rich Cohen seamlessly intertwines his own perspective as a Chicagoan and Bears fan with interviews of players and coaches and commentary on the sport and its changes. The book takes on more than just telling the story of the 1985 Bears and its players. Cohen not only follows the stories of the unique individuals that made this team through anecdotes from players, coaches, and those close to the team, but he also provides the history of the game itself, including the evolution of offensive and defensive theory, strategy, and the politics of the sport. From the wild-card starting Quarterback Jim McMahon, to the hot-tempered Hall of Fame Head Coach Mike Ditka, and all the “Monsters of Midway” that comprised their vaunted defense, each member had a story to tell from their own perspective.In particular, Monsters provides never-before-heard stories of the contentious, to say the least, relationship between Coach Ditka and Jim McMahon which was a highlight of the book for me. Ditka was notoriously hard on quarterbacks, perpetually berating them on the sidelines for making mistakes and breaking them down. But McMahon was different. He truly embodied the “wild heart” of football and wooed over the city of Chicago with his heroic play. He was able to take the verbal abuse and funnel it through one ear and out the other. According to Cohen, the McCaskey’s, owners of the Chicago Bears and an original founder of the NFL, shared similar ideals with Ditka when it came to their players and having a personality, but McMahon was not afraid to give his opinion. Cohen recalls that when McMahon was asked what position his team should draft for in the 1986 draft, he replied “Owner” in reference to the McCaskey’s. However, the way McMahon played brought a life to the Bears offense that resulted in their one and only Super Bowl win, with Ditka describing his play as “a linebacker playing quarterback.”Cohen’s frank interviews of former players also reveal the ugly truths of life after the NFL. Cohen asks the question “What happens when you have a dream and that dream comes true?” For all those players and coaches on the 1985 Bears, that Super Bowl win to cap a 15-1 season represented everything they had been working on to that point in their lives. Ditka described a feeling of emptiness that washed over him even before their blowout Super Bowl win was complete. “It was like falling off a mountain,” Ditka said, and unfortunately, that Super Bowl also represented the high-point of many lives for members of that ‘85 team.Many players struggled immensely after their careers. In his conversations with Cohen, McMahon recalls first hearing about the suicide of All-Pro safety and former teammate Dave Duerson who shot himself in the chest so to preserve his brain for study into CTE, a degenerative brain disorder almost every former NFL player suffers from due to repetitive contact. “At some point, every conversation I had with a retired player turned to ‘the disease’,” McMahon says. He admits his worries due to the physical style of football he played, especially for a quarterback, but what Cohen is highlighting is the fragility of life and the negatives that come with achieving your goals and reaching the pinnacle of success, even if it came at the cost of their bodies.Monsters: The 1985 Bears and the Wild Heart of Football is a fantastic read that goes beyond just documenting the dominance of the ‘85 Bears to a narrative on life, struggle, and change. The first-hand sources Cohen taps would have been sufficient for writing a fantastic book about one of the greatest NFL teams of all time, but he exceeds this by tying their story to the broader shift in both American and football culture and fandom. Overall, I would recommend Cohen’s work to football fans and non-football fans alike, along with anyone who would be interested in a team comprised of such unique characters that it reads like drama TV.

Reviewer: Ryan Fletcher
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A great read!
Review: This is an extremely well researched and well written book. My wife bought it for me for my birthday - without any input from me. As the author points out in the book, there have been many books written on the '85 Bears. Even as a lifelong Bear's fan I was not all that excited when I first received the book for that very reason -- in some ways the '85 Bears are almost a cliché. However, once I opened the book I could hardly put it down -- I even stayed late at work one night to read this book at my desk because I have three small children at home so it is tough to find time to read until they are asleep (my wife is the best!).I assumed from the cover and that this would be simply a recap of the 1985 season and a closer look at some of the key players on that team. It was immensely more than that. It is walk down the entire history of the Bears and George Halas, but also a history of the NFL. It also weaves in personal stories and memories from the author which I could relate to and it made me harken back to my own memories of that magical season and my childhood in the suburbs of Chicago. As is so often the mark of a great book, I did not want this one to come to an end.Why only four stars? Well, the author name dropped Jake Tapper as a friend towards the end of the book. I loathe Jake Tapper. Petty on my part maybe, but we are entitled to our opinions, right?Regardless, this is a great book and I would recommend it to any fan of the Bears or the NFL.Did I mention my wife is the best?

Reviewer: EJ
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Daaah Bears!
Review: I'm not a person who reads a lot of books about the NFL, and I'm a Steelers fan. Nonetheless, I loved this book. It is really about more than the 1985 Chicago Bears; it is also a story of the game and how it affects the players both physically and mentally.Cohen provides, of course, the great tale of the '85 Bears, including the team conflicts, strategies, and successes with a brand new assault defense. He gives us fine portraits of the players and coaches themselves, with probably the most detail on Jim McMahon and Mike Ditka, both of whom he interviewed for the book. But the true prize in this Cracker Jack book is that he also includes a great deal of information on the history of the NFL. I found it to be fascinating, but I must caution that if you've already read a lot about the early NFL days (Halas, Thorpe, etc.), this may be somewhat repetitive for you.Cohen also sprinkles the book with some real concerns about the effects the football has on the players, including the relatively recent data regarding chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He addresses something that I myself have experienced recently as a football fan: the guilt that comes with watching a game for entertainment when human beings can be seriously injured for life. The thoughtful coverage of these issues was a huge bonus to this book. Sweeping it under the rug would have been a grave disservice.I actually think this book is recommended for just about any reader, football fan or not. But if you are a football fan, then it's promoted to a must-read.

Reviewer: Big Dawg
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book is extremely well written and was a pleasure to read from cover to cover. The Bears history is fascinating with so many larger than life characters. I recommend this book to any NFL fan that appreciates the early days of the league no matter what team you root for.

Reviewer: taiyo.ki
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Ein großartiges Zeitdokument, weil es aus der Sicht eines sprachgewandten Fans geschrieben ist. Das Buch behandelt nicht nur die Saison 1985/86 entlang der wesentlichen Episoden der Bears-Saison, sindern greif weiter in die Geschichte der Bears und ihrer Personlichkeiten aus.

Reviewer: Valerio
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Libro veramente interessante per gli amanti del football anni 80....Consegna perfetta per tempi, peccato che ogni volta che ordino un libro da amazon mi arriva rovinato. Un angolo completamente rovinato.

Reviewer: DtkCameron
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Having recently rediscovered my enjoyment of American Football I decided to indulge in a nostalgic trip back to the roots of my youthful passion, ie the Chicago Bears of 1985, that's what brought me to this book, and what a book.Being an avid reader with a library of titles this one has gone instantly into my top five, possibly even the top two, it is truly outstanding. The writing is superb, really pulls you along, the research impeccable, if you only read one account of the 85 Bears make sure it's this one.If there is any gripe, and it genuinely is a minor one, it's that not enough attention to detail has been paid to each individual game of the season.Buy it, read it, enjoy it and be sure to revisit it down the road.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: As a person who has only recently started to watch NFL, this book touches on some great pieces of history about the game in general as well as the specific story of the 1985 bears. Well written and a very interesting story about a great sports team.