'Super Bowl Shuffle' perfectly in step with its era

HBO documentary revisits Bears’ 1985 music video that ideally matched iconic team with the rise of MTV.

- CHUCK SCHILKEN

WILLIAM PERRY, left, Willie Gault and teammates filmed the "Super Bowl Shuffle" the day after their first loss of the 1985 season.

(PAUL NATKIN HBO / Getty Images)

The Chicago Bears didn’t want to seem cocky.

They didn’t want to jinx themselves.

They certainly didn’t want to provide opponents with bulletin board fodder during their attempt to bring a Super Bowl championship to their home city after the 1985 season.

As a large group of players from that team — billed as the “Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew” — said in the lyrics to one of the most unlikely hit songs and music videos of the 1980s: “We're not here to start no trouble. We're just here to do ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle.’”

All of those thoughts weighed on the minds of the 30 or so players who recorded “The Super Bowl Shuffle” four decades ago this month, several weeks before the NFL regular season even ended.

“If we don’t go to the Super Bowl, we're gonna be the biggest idiots ever,” former Bears linebacker and Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Singletary says in “The Shuffle,” an NFL Films production presented by HBO Documentary Films. “We gotta win this thing, man.”

Singletary is one of several people who share their thoughts and memories about their participation in what has become a beloved relic during the 40-minute documentary airing on HBO and streaming on HBO Max. Director Jeff Cameron told The Times that it’s no coincidence that “The Shuffle” is dropping during the 40th anniversary season of the Bears’ only Super Bowl title.