Read Buddy Ryan's emotional letter to the '85 Bears

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In 1981, a group of Bears defenders wrote to team owner George Halas asking that he retain defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan along with the rest of the defensive staff.

Thirty years later, coach Ryan wrote back.

Ryan’s letter, which was featured as part of ESPN’s “30 for 30” film “The ’85 Bears,” reads as follows:

Ryan, 81, was retained, and would coach four more seasons in Chicago, where he designed his famed “46” defense.

He left to become the head coach of the Eagles in 1986, but not before helping guide the Bears to the ’85 Super Bowl, where, according to the film, he told his unit, “You guys will always be my heroes.”

“If Buddy had stayed here in Chicago, I guarantee you, we would have won three Super Bowls. And probably in a row,” Otis Wilson said during the film.

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Stats via Pro-Football-Reference