Steve McMichael, an NFL legend who won the Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears, passed away at the age of 67.
The sporting legend’s NFL and professional wrestling careers spanned decades, when his larger-than-life persona attracted newcomers to American football. In his 13 years with the side, the defensive tackle won the 1985 Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears.
Following a journey with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a type of motor neurone disease, which was identified in April 2021, McMichael, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024, passed away on Wednesday at a Chicago hospice.
McMichael will become a legend in the Windy City itself as well as a hero of the Chicago Bears. He will be known as “Ming The Merciless” and “Mongo” after the character in Blazing Saddles who knocked out a horse. He and fellow 1985 Chicago Bears alum Dan Hampton and Otis Wilson both retired from the game after performing in the city’s “Chicago 6.”
The NFL and wrestling scenes were rocked by the athlete’s ALS diagnosis. McMichael had been working in both until 1999 before switching to the latter. He told the local media, “I promise you, this epitaph that I’m going to have on me now,” in a speech from 2021. This is never going to end the way I had hoped it would.
And friends and former teammates’ photos of McMichael’s depressive decline have been posted on social media for four years. The star, who was once a 270-pound giant who used to slam punch punch through linebackers and force wrestlers to jump headfirst into the mat, developed rail-thin, bedridden, and hooked up to machines.
The sports professional’s death was confirmed by McMichael’s publicist a few weeks after Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria star Eric Dane, of San Francisco, California, admitted to having ALS.
And Ric Flair, who McMichael used to fight in the wrestling ring, was one of the first to condolence him today. He wrote online that “the world has lost the incredible Steve “Mongo” McMichael” Through it all, he was my best friend. “A fantastic athlete and person”
Loss of muscle control is a result of ALS, a type of motor neurone diseas that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Dad-of-one McMichael suspected that his tingling in his arms was a result of his playing days or his wrestling career. He assumed it was a result of a neck or spine condition.
However, the NFL star, who was born in Houston, Texas, deteriorated and his wife Misty said he was afraid to pass away. The athlete’s wife, Moise, said: “He’s scared to die, and he shouldn’t because he’s the most badass man I’ve ever known inside and out.” He is a decent man. I don’t know what he’s afraid of because he’ll be in heaven before any of us. However, I’ve told him to “hang on” until the (induction), and then, you see, I don’t want to see him go through any pain. He has been experiencing pain.
McMichael spent 13 years with the Chicago Bears before joining the NFL. He battled ALS with the same tenacity he had for years on the field, leading to his rise as one of the mostfeared players inarguably the game’s greatest defense ever.
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Source: Mirror
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