Hard to imagine Lovie Smith going toe to toe with defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli at halftime of an important Bears game.
Of course, Mike Ditka and defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan famously had to be separated in the locker room at halftime of the 1985 game in Miami, which turned out to be the Bears' only loss of that Super Bowl season.
But there's always danger that an unhealthy divide can develop between the offensive and defensive units, even when the team is on a possible Super Bowl run. The 2012 Bears defense has lifted the inconsistent offense with six pass interceptions for touchdowns in the first seven games.
"That's the Chicago way," Bears Hall of Fame defensive lineman Dan Hampton told me Friday. "I remember hearing stories from Ed O'Bradovich (of the '63 NFL champion Bears) when he would come off the field after recovering a fumble and telling the offense, 'OK, try and hold 'em.' "
The '85 Bears epitomized dysfunction. Hampton didn't like quarterback Jim McMahon. Defensive end Richard Dent didn't get along with Ditka. Ryan and Ditka resented each other. None of the veterans seemed to like imported quarterback Doug Flutie.
"When (McMahon) was unable to stay healthy … when he was unwilling to play in some situations where a lot of other guys on the team were willing to play … that created problems," Hampton said. "It's all ancient history, documented this way and that way.
"We were always in (the offense's) face, trying to taunt them to do better. Was it healthy? I think so. I didn't have a problem with it."
Hampton agrees with Dent, who made headlines this week on the "Mully & Hanley Show" on WSCR-AM 670 when he blamed the mishandling of the quarterback situation for the Bears' failure to win multiple Super Bowls.
"When you sweep it all away, Richard's book, in almost gritty detail, lets you know how close we were to winning three in a row, four in a row," Hampton said. "If we had a dynamic quarterback ready to make plays, we could have beat the 49ers (in the 1989 NFC championship game). Do the math. I mean, if we were good enough to beat one team, it would have been a pretty (good) run.
"There's no doubting that the pinpoint Achilles on our team was the problems we had at quarterback. Let me ask you this: Would the Saints have won the Super Bowl if Drew Brees wasn't their quarterback? Would the Giants have ever won without Eli (Manning)? Without (Tom) Brady, would the Patriots have ever won? ...
"This is a quarterback-driven league. If we would have had Jay Cutler back in the day, not only would we have won four Super Bowls, we wouldn't have lost a (regular-season) game."
Hampton said he does not foresee discord within the 2012 Bears.
"This undercover of angst will never fester because Lovie is pulling the strings on all sides of the football team — special teams, offense, defense," he said. "Back in the day it was a house divided. We had a couple of different polarities, if you know what I mean.
"The one part of this that everyone kind of loses sight of is that this isn't 4-H camp. This isn't the Boy Scouts. This is pro football. The only thing that mattered to us was winning. The harder we played, the more dominant we became. ... We, as a defense, had that kind of attitude and mantra. And we were always hoping that the offense could catch fire with us."
Twitter @kicker34
