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Steve McMichael in 1991.
NFL legend Steve McMichael has died at the age of 67.
Sports anchor Jarrett Payton announced the news via X on Wednesday, April 23.
"With deep sorrow, I share that Steve McMichael passed at 5:28 PM after a brave fight with #ALS, surrounded by loved ones," Payton began. "I’m grateful to have been with him in his final moments. Please keep Steve and his family your prayers. #Bears."
The NFL also mourned the loss on X, writing that the league "is heartbroken to hear of the passing of Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer Steve McMichael after a brave battle with ALS. Our thoughts and condolences are with his family and loved ones."
McMichael died shortly after his wife, Misty, shared that he would be entering hospice as his health declined, TMZ reported.
McMichael played in the NFL for 15 seasons, mostly with the Chicago Bears. Playing with the Bears from 1981 to 1993, he helped the team win the Super Bowl at the end of the 1985 season. In February 2024, McMichael learned he had been selected for the 2024 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.
McMichael was born in Houston in 1957. His father left the family shortly after his birth, and his mother, Betty Ruth, married E.V. McMichael. When he was four, the family moved to the small town of Freer, Texas. He attended Freer High School, where he was a consummate athlete. He lettered in football, basketball, baseball, track, tennis and golf. He wanted to pursue baseball, but his parents wanted him to go to college.
He attended the University of Texas at Austin and played defensive tackle for the Longhorns. Tragedy struck his family when his stepfather was murdered during his freshman year.
“That changed me,” McMichael told the Chicago Tribune in 2005. “Got me thinking, ‘What good is it to be just an athlete if life can just come to an end like that?’ His death drew me to those neon lights.”
Related: Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, 76, Hospitalized Months After Stroke Sidelined Him from the Court: Report
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Steve McMichael in 1990.
He partied hard but he still played tough. He was named All-American his senior year in 1979, and he was the defensive MVP at the 1979 Hula Bowl. In 2020, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
McMichael was drafted by the New England Patriots for the 1980 season, but was cut at the end of the year. Then in 1981, he was signed as a free agent by the Bears, where he blossomed. He became one of the team’s starting defensive tackles. He was first-team All-Pro in 1985 and 1987, went to the Pro Bowl in 1986 and 1987 and won Super Bowl XX with the team.
It was the Bears' first and only Super Bowl win, and they further boosted their profile with their song “The Super Bowl Shuffle.” Recorded before Super Bowl XX in December of 1985, it went to No. 41 on Billboard's Hot 100 early in 1986 and earned the team a Grammy nomination for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals.
McMichael was also known by the nickname Mongo, given to him by teammate Dan Hampton and taken from the movie Blazing Saddles, in which the character Mongo could knock out a horse with one punch. Between week seven of 1981 and week 18 of 1993, he played 191 games straight. He played aggressively and was known for his antics on the field — he would often stand on the field-pregame to stare down the other team — but he said it was all to match the passion of the Bears fans.
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Steve McMichael.
“You know what was always the worst thing I ever had to do?” McMichael told the Chicago Tribune in 2019. “I would stand out there after training camp and there’d be thousands of people. They bring their kids, and they’ve got them shoved up there [against the ropes] to get autographs. And I’d stay as long as I could. But now I’m going to be late for meetings. Or I have to go get dinner and get cleaned up. And I’d have to leave some of those little kids without an autograph. That was the worst I’ve ever felt about myself. Honestly.”
McMichael also hosted a post-game show for two years in the early 1990s. In 2019 for the Bears' 100th anniversary, Bears Centennial Scrapbook authors Don Pierson and Dan Pompei chose the top 100 Bears of all time, and McMichael was number 19.
McMichael played one final season in 1994, for the Green Bay Packers, and then retired. Across 15 seasons, he had 95 sacks, 847 tackles and 13 forced fumbles.
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Steve McMichael in 1994.
McMichaels also had a brief career in professional wrestling. He took part in WrestleMania XI in 1995 and then was hired by World Championship Wrestling. He joined Ric Flair’s wrestling stable The Four Horsemen alongside his then wife Debra Marshall.
Of his decision to join wrestling, he told Wrestling Inc. in 2019, "Football was gone in my life. Entertaining people and the roar of the crowd? Man there's nothing like that.” He left wrestling in 1999.
McMichael also made frequent appearances on sports radio. In 2004 he released a book, Steve McMichael's Tales from the Chicago Bears Sideline. From 2007 to 2013, he was head coach of the indoor football team Chicago Slaughter, and in 2012 he unsuccessfully ran to become mayor Romeoville, Illinois.
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Steve McMichael in 2007.
McMichael married Marshall in 1985. They divorced in 1998. He married Misty Davenport in 2001. They welcomed a daughter, Macy, in 2008.
In 2021, McMichael revealed he had been diagnosed with ALS and stopped making public appearances. He told the Chicago Tribuneat the time, “I promise you, this epitaph that I’m going to have on me now? This ain’t ever how I envisioned this was going to end.”
“I thought I was ready for anything,” he said. “But man. This will sneak up on you like a cheap-shotting Green Bay Packer.”
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Steve McMichael in 2021.
McMichael was finally revealed as an inductee to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Feb. 8, after two decades of nominations. Misty told ESPN at the time, “He’s literally alive because of this nomination.”
"It's amazing we've waited a very long time, and we are really, really happy that he gets to go to Canton," his sister Kathy McMichael told Fox 32 Chicago on Feb. 8.
On Feb. 16, his family announced he had been hospitalized due to an infection.
McMichael is survived by his wife and daughter.
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