1985 Bears Coverage: Tickets to Buccaneers game sell out quick

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.

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Brian Hewitt

Originally published Sept. 5, 1985

All of the tickets for Sunday’s Bears game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were sold before noon today, so WBBM-TV, channel 2 will show the game live beginning at noon. WGN radio will also carry the game. . .

Coach Mike Ditka’s tongue-in-cheek answer when asked about the slow ticket sales was, “Nobody likes the Bears. It’s like Rodney Dangerfield says: We get no respect.”. . .

Bear general manager Jerry Vainisi’s explanation of why the Bears have taken their contract offers to Al Harris and Todd Bell off the table: “We don’t want to have an offer out there for an unlimited amount of time. Their value goes down the more they are missing.”. . .

Wide receiver Dennis McKinnon (knee) is not on the injury report, but he missed practice again yesterday. Ditka said, “There is nothing structurally wrong with Dennis,” and expects he will start against Tampa Bay Sunday at Soldier Field. “He’s gonna have to work through it the pain,” said Ditka. “Take an extra aspirin.”. . .

Ditka on Tampa Bay running back James Wilder: “I would say he’s about the closest thing all-around since Payton.”. . .

Former Notre Dame quarterback Blair Kiel is listed on Tampa Bay’s “reserve non-football illness” list with Krohn’s disease, an intestinal affliction similar to colitis. Kiel’s football future is not good.