Why McMahon wore Bears jersey to Packers White House visit originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Here’s a little bit of Bears trivia for you: Jim McMahon, the quarterback of the legendary 1985 Bears, won a second Super Bowl with the team’s No. 1 rival, the Green Bay Packers. Further, when the Pack made their championship trip to the White House in 1997, McMahon didn’t wear green and gold. He went in his Bears jersey.
It sounds like a crazy move considering the historic rivalry between the two franchises, but McMahon offered up a simple explanation for the decision to wear orange and blue on the Packers’ visit, on a recent episode of “Good Morning Football.”
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“Back when we won, in ‘85, we didn’t get to go to the White House,” McMahon said on the NFL Network. “The (Challenger) space shuttle blew up two days after we won, so all the focus was on that, which was rightfully so. But I think they could’ve snuck the Bears in at some point between the time I went with the Packers.
“I explained it to all my teammates in Green Bay. I explained it to the coaches, what I was going to do. I said, ‘I’m going to represent our team in Chicago.’ I actually called up a couple of my old linemen, said, ‘Send me your jerseys, and I’ll hold those up too, during the team picture.’ I just wanted to represent the Bear team that never got to go.”
The Bears eventually made the trip to the White House themselves, but it was much later, in 2011 when Barack Obama was in office.
“I know a few of the fans in Green Bay might’ve been upset,” McMahon said. “But I think the coaches and players knew what I was doing.”
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