Chicago (AP) – With its massive setting and its larger than life character, Steve McMichael was natural for the grill and the square circle.
The man known as “Mongo” and “Ming the Accessory” left a trace of beaten adversaries and beaten during a career in the renowned temple with the Bears in Chicago. Then he did the same as a professional wrestler.
McMichael, a star defensive tackle of the famous team of the Bears Super Bowl championship, which remained a match in the city of Windy for decades, died Wednesday after a battle with the SLA. He was 67 years old.
McMichael died at Lightways Hospice in the suburbs of Joliet, he told his advertisement, Betsy Shepherd, to the Associated Press.
All-Pro in 1985 and 1987, McMichael was Inducted at the Temple of Fame of Professional Football in 2024. He played in a franchise record 191 consecutive matches from 1981 to 1993 and ranked second behind Richard Dent on the list of Bears career bags with 92 1/2. His last NFL season was with Green Bay in 1994.
The impetuous personality of McMichael and the will to say that what was in his mind made him a perfect adjustment for the professional struggle. He started working for the fight of the world championships in the 1990s at the height of the “World Night Wars” with the Federation of the Wrestling World, starting as a color commentator and later joining Ric Flair in the group “Four Horsemen”.
McMichael revealed in April 2021 that he was fighting against ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of muscle control.
“I promise you, this epitaph that I’m going to have on me now? Is that how I imagined that it was going to end,” McMichael told Chicago Tribune.
McMichael had had tingling in his arms for some time since he thought it was a problem of neck or spine from his days of play or his work as a wrestler. A neurosurgeon of the Mayo clinic suggested in September 2020 that he had ALS. McMichael asked for other opinions and, in January 2021, chicago doctors confirmed the diagnosis.
Although he was mainly withdrawn from public life after his announcement, photos published on social networks by family and friends showed his decline. McMichael went from a giant of 270 pounds who used to explode the blockers and drive the first wrestlers first in the carpet with the “Mongo Spike” to someone who was thin, reads and connected to the machines when his body had failed him.
“He is afraid of dying and he should not be because he is the hardest to cook that I have ever known inside and outside” The wife, Misty McMichael, told the Associated Press before his enthronement to the temple of fame on August 3, 2024. “He is a good man. He will be in paradise before one of us, so I don’t know what he is afraid of. But I told him to hang on to (introduction) and then, you know, I don’t want to see him suffer. He suffers.”
Born in Houston, McMichael’s parents separated at the age of 2. His mother, Betty, married a director of an oil company named EV McMichael, and the young McMichael considered him his father and took his name for his.
The family has moved to Freer, Texas and McMichael started a letter in football, basketball, baseball, track, tennis and golf as a senior. Catcher, he preferred baseball. The Reds of Cincinnati and the Cardinals of Saint-Louis showed interest, but his parents wanted him to go to university.
He received recruitment letters for football from around 75 schools. Bear Bryant wanted to use it as a tight end in Alabama, while Darrell Royal recruited it to Texas as a defensive. McMichael then played for the Longhorns from 1976 to 1979. Although his first year season was marred by the death of his stepfather, he became an All-American consensus of the first team as a senior and entered the temple of renowned university football in 2010.
The Patriots of New England resulted in McMichael in the third round in 1980. He did not last long, appearing in six games as a recruit before going out before his second season. McMichael would play hard on and off the field, fighting in practice and welcomed the nightlife of Boston thereafter.
“They looked at me and said,” Steve, we think you are the criminal element of the league. Going out “”, said McMichael in his speech of enthronement to the temple of renown Greats Greats in 2019.
The same features that have apparently led to a New England ticket were welcomed in Chicago. In this same speech, McMichael remembers having entered the office of the founder George Halas – “It was as if I was walking in a gangster film of 1920 and that he was James Cagney” – when he signed with Chicago.
“Papa Bear” clearly indicated it. “Do you know what he told me, guys?” Said McMichael. “I heard what kind of dirty rat you are in practice. Don’t change, Steve. “
His unpleasant behavior and his oversized personality has made McMichael one of the most feared players on undoubtedly the biggest defense ever gathered. But the longtime friend, Dave Siden, remembered him as a master storyteller and a generous man who would sign his pre-season pay checks to team coaches as a sign of appreciation and buy baskets of children’s toy. Thanks to McMichael, Siden met the Golfer Ben Crenshaw and went behind the scenes during wrestling events.
“I knew him as one of the nicest and most given friends you can have,” said Siden, his cute voice.
McMichael played alongside the reproductive temple, Mike Singletary and Dan Hampton, and the Bears of 1985, led by their dominant defense, made their way to the only super bowl championship in the franchise. McMichael was an All-Pro this season with eight bags.
He played 15 years in the NFL – 13 with Chicago before his last season with the Rival Packers.
“Steve ‘Mongo’ McMichael was a legend of the Bears, and his courageous battle against the ALS was all inspired by us”, ” Bear published on X. “Our hearts go to his family, friends and teammates.”
The president and chief executive officer of the renowned temple of professional football, Jim Porter, said in a statement: “Steve McMichael told everyone that he would fight SLA with the same tenacity that he showed 15 seasons in the National Football League. And he did it. Everyone who played with or against Steve shares the same opinion.
Shortly after the end of his career, McMichael was involved in the fight.
In April 1995, he was in the corner of Lawrence Taylor at WWF’s Wrestlemania when the New York Giants met Bam Bam Balelow. Later that year, he started with WCW as a commentator.
McMichael began his career in the ring in 1996, arguing with Flair on the woman of the time Debra McMichael, then a wrestling valet. He stayed with the company until 1999.
“The world has just lost the incredible Steve ‘Mongo’ McMichael!” Flair posted on x. “He was my best friend through it all!” An incredible athlete and a human being! ”
He and Debra divorced in 1998. He married the former Misty Davenport in 2001 and their daughter, Macy, was born in 2008.
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