The 49ers and Bears had a short-lived, but heated rivalry in the 1980s when both teams were among the NFC’s most dominant forces.
While the 49ers’ defense in the mid-80s was good in its own right, the Chicago Bears built perhaps the most dominant defensive unit in the history of the NFL. One of the leaders of that defense, Mike Singletary, joined 95.7 The Game in San Francisco to discuss playing against Joe Montana and the 49ers’ dominant West Coast offense.
He relayed one hilarious tale of how Montana strayed from the usual trash talk to bring his own brand of verbal barb.
“He didn’t give you the pleasure of getting up and looking scared and moaning or anything like that,” Singletary told Damon Damon, Ray Ratto and Matt Kolsky. “The thing that Joe did, he got up and he said, ‘hey man, that was a nice hit. Good hit. Wow. Yeah, that was good.’ Might wipe the blood from his nose and get back in the huddle the very next play and throw a touchdown.”
The touchdown wasn’t enough for Montana though, according to Singletary. After scoring, the 49ers’ typically mild-mannered quarterback went in for the verbal kill.
“(Montana would) come up to you and pat you on the butt and say, ‘hey man. Good job. That really was a good hit though,” the Hall-of-Fame linebacker said.
The low-key demeanor on the trash talk after scoring a touchdown on the dominant Bears defense was the worst part. Singletary said “you just want to kill him at that point.”
Montana finished his career 3-4 against the Bears in the regular season, but he got the better of Singletary and the Chicago defense in the postseason. He went 2-0 against them, and the 49ers outscored the Bears 51-3 in the two meetings.
