MERRIONETTE PARK — The McMichaels have always loved a good party.
Tuesday night, Misty McMichael walked into one with a smile on her face and a secret pursed between her lips. The two were related.
Earlier Tuesday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Seniors Committee voted to whittle down the list of 12 finalists — all whose careers ended before 1998 — to three. Those three figure to join the Hall of Fame when the 49-person full selection committee votes to pass them — it’s practically assured — shortly before the Super Bowl.
Hall representatives called the McMichaels’ house twice Tuesday. The first time, “Mongo,” who first went public with his ALS diagnosis in April 2021, was asleep. When he woke up, they called back; Misty wanted her husband to hear the news for himself. Both times, Misty was told she couldn’t make the decision public until the official announcement Wednesday at noon. So she didn’t.
But she left little doubt that McMichael, a star Bears defensive tackle from 1981-93, will have his name announced Wednesday at noon.
“It’s looking hopeful for us,” she said with a careful smile.
She’s waited so long to publicly celebrate the news that she swears extended her husband’s life, she figured she could wait another 24 hours. That’s what she told a crowd of about 50 Bears fans at 15 Bourbon Street, a bar and restaurant that hosted the fundraiser in the southwest suburbs. The party had been billed weeks ago as a Hall celebration.
“It’s like when they filmed the ’Super Bowl Shuffle’ before they won the Super Bowl,” she said.
McMichael, who famously did not do the shuffle, got to participate Tuesday. Misty FaceTimed her husband to show him the crowd cheering him on. He’s still battling pneumonia at home, she said, and is about to start a second round of antibiotics.
On Aug. 3, she lifted her husband’s do-not-resuscitate order.
“He would have died at home if it wasn’t for the nomination,” she said. “He was dying in front of us. We ripped up the DNR because of the nomination. He has to live to see this.”
McMichael was rushed to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox earlier this month after falling unconscious while waiting for an ambulance. He was treated for pneumonia and sepsis and sent home in less than a week.
”I’m taking him to the hospital,” she said, “and I told him, ‘You are nominated for the Hall of Fame, and we are going to see this.’”
The push to get him to the Hall of Fame started in April 2022 when Jim McMahon, the Bears’ quarterback from 1982-88, helped publicize a petition. When the committee whittled the least from 31 to 12, Misty said she saw her husband smile broadly for the first time in a while.
One of the most recognizable voices in Chicago history, McMichael’s voice and body has been quieted since his diagnosis. The 65-year-old has been bedridden for two years and cannot speak. He’s been starting to use a device that spells out words with his eyes, Misty said.
Former Bears visit his home.
“I get goosebumps,” she said. “That’s the best part of it, to see that love. It’s still there, baby.”
None of a boisterous personality that took him from the NFL to the WCW to a did-he-just-say-that radio show would have been possible were it not for a dominant Bears career. McMichael’s 92 ½ career sacks and 814 tackles rank second and third, respectively, in Bears history. In 2019, the Sun-Times’ Mark Potash ranked McMichael as the 17th-greatest Bears player of all time. All 16 above him were Hall of Famers.
He’s moving closer to joining them. That was clear Tuesday night.
“I’m always going to have a party,” Misty said. “But I’m definitely happy.”