'85 champs still gold standard in marketing
It wasn't the sight of a Bears fan with player autographs tattooed all over his body; it was was signing the guy's arm near where linebacker Brian Urlacher's signature had been etched.
"The guy was going to get a tattoo drawn over the autograph," Hillenmeyer said, "so I didn't want to mess it up."
It's not what you would expect during the average public appearance by a player, but you just never know. Bears players are popping up more and more, with the 5-0 start making a big impact off the field. Businesses are interested in attaching themselves to the success of the team.
This month alone, more than two dozen personal appearances have been scheduled - from kicker Robbie Gould getting paid for an autograph signing last week to quarterback Rex Grossman appearing at a telecommunications store next week.
The Bears are hot, and winning sells - and not just for Urlacher, the commercial kingpin of the organization and one of the most marketed players in the league. It already has trickled down to special-teams standout Brendon Ayanbadejo, and with more victories will come more opportunities and more money. The coming bye week won't be work-free; many players are cashing in.
"Obviously, it is starting to heat up for Rex," said Eugene Parker, Grossman's agent. "He's got to take care of the season. The offseason, that's when you can really cash in on that."
Grossman spent three hours Tuesday shooting a commercial for the league with receiver Muhsin Muhammad to promote Pro Bowl voting, which begins online Monday. He wasn't paid, but he's looking forward to doing more of this kind of work now that he has become more marketable. Other than his Reebok shoe deal, the only regular gig he has now is an appearance Sunday nights on Fox's "Final Word."
"Ask any of the '85 Bears," Bob Williams, the president of Burns Entertainment and Sports Marketing, said when he was asked how big opportunities might become for these Bears. "It can get big enough where there is more than enough work for the star players and regular work for pretty much all of the starters who want to do appearances."
But there's a big difference between players today and the ones from two decades ago - and it involves an extra comma in the paychecks. Salaries have skyrocketed, and athletes today don't need the supplementary income as much. Still, it's not bad to have, and a lot of the work is done on their day off Tuesday.
"At this point, off-the-field stuff is just as big as on-the-field stuff," said veteran left guard Ruben Brown, who was a fixture in Buffalo during nine seasons with the Bills. "The money is there, as well as the opportunity for exposure and stuff down the road. For me, if I do something off the field, I am always looking for what it is going to translate into when I am done playing. It's a good thing and a good thing to learn to deal with."
The commercial work will stay with the faces of the franchise - Urlacher, Grossman and coach Lovie Smith, if he wants to get involved. But other engagements are bountiful, and this team has star power. Defensive tackle Tommie Harris is emerging as a potential player-of-the-year candidate, and Muhammad and defensive end Adewale Ogunleye are smooth in public.
Still, these Bears lack the rock-star power their predecessors in '85 had with Walter Payton, Jim McMahon, William "Refrigerator" Perry, Mike Singletary, Dan Hampton & Co.
"This team has a little farther to go," Williams said. "The jobs follow the media frenzy, so it takes a little bit of time for those jobs to start to come in."
Hampton earns a handsome living off the success of his career. He makes appearances year-round and encourages players today to seize the moment.
"All of a sudden, the team has kind of caught the imagination of the nation, and ... they are the hottest commodity from Chicago since last year's White Sox," Hampton said. "I'm glad. They've earned it. They've proven it. They've walked the walk, and they cash the checks.
"The money that they are paying off the field today hasn't gone up like the salaries have. To a lot of these guys, I don't know to what end they are willing to go out and do an appearance for this or that. I think every player has to be judicious about what they do. I'm not saying they all have to be nuns until February, but at the end of the day, you don't want to be skipping weights and going straight to an appearance three nights a week. Once a week is OK. There is enough time to get what you need done and still get a little bit of the icing."
The frenzy the '85 team created was like nothing any other pro-sports franchise in Chicago has experienced, and coach Mike Ditka led the way. That's why Hampton found it amusing when Ditka popped off to the media that his players needed to concentrate on football and not the businesses they were working for off the field.
"I was getting ready to do a tire appearance with Perry and Steve McMichael," Hampton said. "And Ditka says, 'Listen, it's time we get back to football and what made us the Chicago Bears, not all the stuff we got after we became the Chicago Bears.'
"Then we find out he was off to do a big thing for the antifreeze company he had a deal with. It is what it is. Guys are not playing pro football just for the love of it; that's why everybody has a contract. You show me somebody that will play for free, and I will show you someone who is an idiot. All the stuff off the field, you are only going to play once."
Williams says the price of doing business with a Bears player literally will rise from week to week as the victories pile up. If the team puts together a legitimate chase of the Miami Dolphins' perfect 1972 season, demand will far exceed supply.
"Companies who have budgets of all different shapes and sizes will be interested," Williams said. "And any company who wants a Bear ought to sign him right now."
Hampton has a handful of appearances this month, and the success of this team only will put him in greater demand - if only to regale fans with tales of days gone by.
"Our dear beloved coach had the greatest saying of all time," Hampton said. "'To the victor go the spoils."'
