With the New England Patriots sitting at 13-0 and two of their final three opponents among the NFL's worst teams, many people are starting to see an undefeated season as a foregone conclusion (I'm not one of those people, but that's another issue). There is already talk that this Patriots team might be the greatest of all time. It's not hard to understand, given the way they've dominated this season. They've even drawn comparisons to another team that's often in the discussion for the greatest of all time: the 1985 Chicago Bears. I'm a Bears fan who loves that 1985 team, but I'm willing to accept the idea that they may not be the greatest ever to play. Still, even if this year's Patriot team is better than them, I'll take those Bears any day, and not just because I'm a fan of the franchise.

Forget about the ability to win a football game for a minute. The reason I watch sports is because I want to be entertained by a compelling story. When I see a championship I want to be happy for the players and coaches who worked hard to get there and for the fans who supported them along the way. After all, we're not watching robots compete. We're watching people who've dedicated most of their lives to their sport. On a football level the 2007 Patriots might possibly have the edge, but on a human level the 1985 Bears win hands down.

I believe it was on this blog site where I saw someone accuse the city of Chicago of being obsessed with the '85 Bears. It's true that Chicagoans still embrace that team today. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, and I remember hearing about the 1985 Bears all the time. When I was in high school kids would talk about that team and wear t-shirts of that team, even though we were all too young to have good memories of them. As Bears fans we were instilled with a sense of reverence for them.

The reason that team means so much is that for a generation of Chicagoans it was the first major sports championship they'd seen one of their teams win. The last one before it had been the Bears' 1963 NFL Championship, which preceded many of their births or memories. With the 1985 team they not only had a long-awaited champion, but a team that could legitimately be in the argument for the greatest of all time. They were the culmination of a building process that started when Mike Ditka took over as head coach, which is the main reason he's still a beloved figure in Chicago sports. Compare that to these Patriots. They've already won three Super Bowls this decade, and New Englanders have also seen two recent Red Sox World Series champions. These Patriots don't mean half as much to the regional fanbase they represent as those Bears did.

There was much more drama to what the Bears did than anything these Patriots have done. Sure, the Bears issued a few blowouts, but for the most part their games were close enough to be interesting, and many of them had special meaning. There was Week 3 where Jim McMahon came off the bench to lead them to victory over the Vikings. There was Week 6 against the 49ers where they avenged their loss in the previous year's NFC Championship Game and William Perry made his debut at fullback. There were two warlike victories over the Packers. There was the Week 11 rout of the Cowboys where the Bears defeated Ditka's mentor Tom Landry. There was also the Week 13 loss where the Dolphins defended their perfect 1972 season and the Bears got a wake-up call that they weren't invincible and needed to stay focused if they were going to win it all. Most Patriot games this year have been blowouts with few dramatic moments. If you were going to read a book about each of these two teams the Bears' story would keep you engrossed much more easily.

Then you have the teams' personalities. The Bears were no doubt a cocky bunch, but you know they were having fun. They were a young team, and after everything they touched seemingly turned to gold you almost couldn't blame them for developing a swagger. That swagger was best exemplified by "The Super Bowl Shuffle," a song and video the players did for charity. "The Super Bowl Shuffle" was recorded during the season, before they'd even won anything. It was an audacious thing to do, but they backed it up by winning the Super Bowl and it showed America that they were a fun-loving group of guys. The personality of the Patriots seems to be best exemplified by their coach, Bill Belichick. He's a dour man who's treating this season as his personal "screw you" to the rest of the league. The first week of the season he thumbed his nose at Roger Goodell by having a guy film his opponent's signals in plain view after all the NFL teams had been warned about that very thing. Since his questionable ethics were made public the Patriots have been accused of running up the score on many of the teams they've faced. Several Patriot players also have reputations for being dirty and classless. They don't seem to get any joy out of the game. They just want to deny every other team the Vince Lombardi Trophy. While the Bears were cocky but lovable, the Patriots are arrogant and offputting.

There's also mystique. Another reason that specific team is so special to Bears fans is because they were a one-time deal. They had the talent to return to the Super Bowl in subsequent years, but for whatever reason it never came together like it did in 1985. It would be 21 years before they made it back to the big game. That 1985 season seems magical, like a perfect few months where the Bears managed to do everything right. The Patriots have already established themselves as this decade's "dynasty" team. If they win the Super Bowl this year it'll just blend together with the others they won. True, if they go undefeated it might stand out a little more, but the fact that they assembled this team with big-name acquisitions and holdovers from past Super Bowl winners takes away that magical feeling.

If the Patriots win the Super Bowl this year they'll rightfully belong in any discussion of the greatest teams ever to play. They might even be a better team than the 1985 Bears. No matter how well the Patriots play football though, I'd rather see a team with the human elements of the Bears. They made an infinitely better story.