Bears great Steve McMichael is almost a Hall of Famer.
His wife, Misty, has spearheaded a campaign to induct him for the past year or so, and he was announced Wednesday as one of three finalists selected by the senior committee. All that’s left is a vote by the full panel in February, and if McMichael gets at least 80% as expected, he’s in.
He has waited decades for that honor, as has everyone around him.
“Great news — well deserved and way overdue,” ex-Bears quarterback Jim McMahon told the Sun-Times. “I just hope it happens while he’s still with us. This is why he’s been hanging around.”
McMichael’s health has deteriorated because of ALS, and Misty said he’s still struggling with pneumonia after nearly dying from it three weeks ago.
Nothing will cure the sorrow as McMichael continues to decline, but good news is precious.
“It’s given us a mission and something else to focus on besides death,” Misty said, holding back tears in her home in Homer Glen. “It’s given us life and another year with him, and I can’t ask for more than that. I want the most time we can have with him.”
McMichael’s 15-year career as a defensive tackle made him a worthy candidate even without sympathy.
He starred for the Bears from 1981 through ’93, including their ’85 championship season, and was an All-Pro twice and second-team All-Pro twice. He’s second in team history in sacks (92 1/2) and third in tackles (814).
But the push to keep him on voters’ minds surely helped. Misty, publicist Betsy Shepherd and others have gone all out, and Misty said a Hall of Fame representative told her they’d been flooded with mail about McMichael.
“A lot of times, people have to be reminded to do the right thing,” Bears Hall of Fame defensive lineman Dan Hampton said. “This is a very appropriate time for the Hall of Fame to recognize him.”
The senior committee also chose Broncos seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker Randy Gradishar and versatile star Art Powell, who made four Pro Bowls with the Raiders in the 1960s.
Misty sees the final vote as merely a formality and can already imagine taking her husband to the enshrinement ceremony in Canton, Ohio, next August. She’ll cut the gold jacket in half so she can put it on McMichael in his wheelchair and has been urging him to work on his speech on the Eyegaze machine, which lets him type using his eyes.
Jarrett Payton would give almost anything to hear McMichael give that speech in his deep Texas accent. Payton, the son of Bears legend Walter Payton, has been friends with McMichael nearly his entire life.
“I used to run around old Halas Hall, and they had these hot chocolate packets, and I would always rip them up and throw the powder around and everybody would chase me,” said Payton, a sports anchor at WGN. “Steve would just pick me up with one hand and be like, ‘Walter, get your boy. Here he is.’
“I just miss his voice. His voice is everything. I can only imagine what he would say right now of getting that phone call and to be able to tell the people how thankful he is.”
He thought for a second, then added, “You’d probably have to bleep out a couple of things. You couldn’t take him live. No way.”
Payton introduced his father at the 1993 induction, and the McMichaels have asked him to do it for “Mongo,” too.
McMichael often doubted this would happen, Misty said, but now it’s on the cusp of becoming reality. He can’t speak, but the people closest to him can sense what it means.
“He would always say he didn’t need a gold jacket, but he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame,” Payton said. “Now that it’s actually happening, I think he’s feeling joy.”
