CHICAGO — Steve McMichael, a star defensive tackle on the Chicago Bears‘ famed 1985 Super Bowl championship team who has ALS, was in intensive care because of sepsis and pneumonia, his wife said Friday.
Misty McMichael wrote in an Instagram post that her husband was hospitalized Thursday night.
McMichael spent 13 of his 15 seasons with the Bears and was an All-Pro in 1985 and 1987. He played in a franchise-record 191 consecutive games from 1981 to 1993 and ranks second to Richard Dent on the Bears’ all-time sacks list with 92½. His final season was with Green Bay in 1994.
McMichael is one of 12 players whose final appearance was no later than 1998 in the mix to be inducted into the Hall of Fame next year. That list will be whittled to as many as three by the selection committee, and the finalists will be part of the 2024 class if they are supported by at least 80% of voters next January.
Whether he was terrorizing opponents or discussing the Bears on sports talk radio, the man known as “Ming The Merciless” and “Mongo” (after the character in “Blazing Saddles” who knocked out a horse) remained a prominent presence in Chicago long after his playing days ended. He also spent five years in professional wrestling in the late 1990s.
