Every day of the 2015 Chicago Bears season, Chicago Sun-Times Sports will revisit its coverage 30 years ago during the 1985 Bears’ run to a Super Bowl title.
`Slim’ Perry’s not ribbing
Sun-Times Staff
Originally published Nov. 13, 1985
`I’m gonna pass,” said William “The Refrigerator” Perry.
No, the Bears’ defensive tackle wasn’t giving away his next surprise play. He was refusing a rib dinner.
“I got my diet and I have to weigh in tomorrow,” Perry said last night in an appearance at Hecky’s Bar-BQ in Evanston.
There was barely enough room for Perry in the storefront rib shack. Owner Hecky Powell had to rent a hall a few doors away to handle the hundreds of fans.
Powell had snagged Perry – who can now command $3,500 an appearance – for a mere $300. The rib seller had signed Perry last April, before he became America’s favorite football player. The businessman boasted, “Hecky has what you call vision and foresight.”
Perry knows his sudden fame – even greater after Monday night’s David Letterman appearance – can disappear as fast as a plate of ribs. “It’s not doing anything to me,” he said. “I’m the same William Perry.”
Not quite the same. There’s less of him these days. As he told Letterman, he’s down to 302 pounds and one meal a day.
And what does a 302-pound Bear eat.
Anything he wants, as long as it’s on his diet.
His one meal, he said yesterday, is “a salad.”
