Mike Ditka was honored by the Chicago Bears tonight by having his #89 retired alongside the other greats in Bears history that he played with or coached:  #34 – Walter Payton;  #40 – Gale Sayers;  #51 – Dick Butkus;  #61 – Bill George and a host of other numbers for older players that time has forgotten.  Most Bears fans do not know much of Ditka’s playing days with the Bears as a tight end.  Mike Ditka made the HOF as a tight end due to what he accomplished with the Bears and Cowboys.  Mike Ditka is going to be known much more fondly and by more people as the coach of the Chicago Bears team that won Super Bowl XX.  Da Coach.  Made famous by all those SNL skits with “Da Bears Superfans.”  It took a long time but the Bears finally decided to add Ditka’s number to their list of retired numbers and decided to do it when they were playing the Dallas Cowboys.  I thought that was very fitting.  I never got to see Da Coach play but I’m glad to see him honored because he is the only Bears coach to win a Super Bowl and that should count for something.  So congrats Coach:

The city got behind the cause and showed support by having one of the buildings across from the stadium in beautiful downtown Chicago have their lights left on to show 89:

There was a game tonight as well.  The Chicago Bears decimated the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football much to my delight.  Josh McCown has been very impressive in replacing the injured Jay Cutler.  McCown has gone 3-2 while Cutler is out and the 2 losses were not because he didn’t play well.  Tonight, McCown was lights out.  27/36 passing for 348 yards and 4 TDs plus a diving TD run that electrified the crowd.  His best TD throw was the Alshon Jeffery right before the end of the 1st half to give the Bears a 10 point lead and all the momentum heading into the locker room:

The Bears have the most potent offense that I have ever seen them have in my lifetime.  Matt Forte has 1,073 yards rushing with 7 rushing TDs and 65 receptions for 518 yards and 2 TDs.  Brandon Marshall has 84 receptions for 1090 yards and 9 TDs.  Alshon Jeffery has 75 receptions for 1193 yards and 6 TDs.  “The Black Unicorn” Martellus Bennett has 53 receptions for 588 yards and 5 TDs as a tight end.  I can’t remember seeing anything like it and I love it.  If only the defense and special teams were that good, the Bears would be Super Bowl contenders.  Instead, they find themselves tied with the Detroit Lions for the division lead but actually trailing them due to losing the tiebreaker.  3 games are left in the season and the Green Bay Packers are only 1/2 a game back in the standings and they are probably getting Aaron Rodgers back next week.  This one might be going down to the wire and as a Bears fan, I’m excited to see how it plays out.

BEAR DOWN CHICAGO BEARS!