Super Bowl Shuffle
The Song
Categorized under the rap genre, the Super Bowl Shuffle is performed by the athletes of the Chicago Bears before qualifying for the 1986 championship tournament. In the history of the professional American football, the game is already the twentieth which was held in New Orleans, Louisiana. The group was composed of Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, Jim McMahon, Steve Fuller, Willie Gault, Mike Richardson, Gary Fencik, Richard Dent, William Perry and Otis Wilson. The harmony of the Super Bowl Shuffle was created by a collaboration of Lloyd Barry and Bobby Daniels while the lyrics were written by Melvin Owens and Richard Meyer.
In the Billboard charts, the Super Bowl Shuffle reached number forty- one. In the Hot Rhythm and Blues or Hip- hop Singles and Tracks, it landed on the seventy- fifth spot. The song became entirely popular that it was nominated in the Grammy under the Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance by a Dou or Group. The citation was the first not only for an American football team but even to any sports franchise. Even if the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl Shuffle was acclaimed by the highest award- giving body in the music industry, a lot of people criticized the lyrics who said that the track sounded “boastful.”
Even with the criticisms received by the release of the Super Bowl Shuffle, one of the athletes of the Chicago Bears, Walter Payton said that it was for a good cause. Little to the knowledge of the public, the profits obtained from the song went to charity. He added that he together with his team did not recorded the Super Bowl Shuffle for their interest but because the whole franchise desired to “feed the needy.” What a poignant explanation from a professional American football player like him. While the track was on the works in the studio, Julia Kallish, the referee- wife of Richard Meyer, blew the whistle to censor an explicit word in the Super Bowl Shuffle lyrics.
The Team
As what was previously mentioned, credit goes to the Chicago Bears for the Super Bowl Shuffle. It is under the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC). At this juncture, the team is the overall winner of NFC. Before the merge between the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL) was complete, the franchise was part of AFL. Today, the two organizations are known as NFL. The Bears have coveted nine titles while the American Football League still existed which follows after Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers which has twelve in its sleeves.
Even if the Chicago Bears only trailed behind the Green Bay Packers, it has also produced the most number of athletes that are listed in the Hall of Fame of professional American football. To date, the team has enshrined twenty- six athletes and still working on that. Before all the success gained by the franchise, it also has its own share of humble beginnings. The Bears were established on 1919 in Decatur, Illinois but transferred to Chicago two years later. The Wrigley Field served as the club’s home court up to the 1970 regular season. The following, the franchise moved to Soldier Field which remains to be its stadium until this juncture.
The Soldier Field is near Lake Michigan which recently gone through a major renovation to upgrade the aging facilities. A while ago, the Green Bay Packers was mentioned, it is actually considered the greatest rival of the Chicago Bears. The situation is similar to the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox when you speak of baseball. Both teams have met each other on field in a total of one hundred seventy games. Currently, the franchise is coached by Lovie Smith who started in 2004. He followed Dick Jauron who was with the Bears for only a single year as he failed to lead them to the championship tournament.