'It's Now Or Never': Homer Glen's McMichael Awaits Hall Of Fame Call

HOMER GLEN, IL — For more than two years now, the reality of living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has consumed the lives of Steve and Misty McMichael and has turned life as they once knew it completely upside down. And then some.

Steve McMichael, a member of the Chicago Bears’ dominant defense that led the team to a 1985 Super Bowl championship and that many consider the best of all time, was diagnosed with ALS— more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease — in 2021. In the nearly 30 months since, the once-dominant defensive tackle and professional wrestler has lost his ability to move or speak.

For Misty McMichael, who has been married to the Bears legend for 22 years, being her husband’s caretaker has taken its toll. While he has round-the-clock nursing care, Misty McMichael has watched the once gregarious football star who once ran unsuccessfully to be Romeoville’s mayor wither away into almost an unrecognizable shell of his former self.

But for the past several months, Misty McMichael has also become her husband’s campaign manager, making a push to get McMichael into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Late last week, McMichael — who was more commonly known as “Mongo” during his football and pro wrestling careers — was announced as one of 12 semifinalists for entry into the Hall of Fame as voted on by the senior’s committee. On Aug. 22, three nominees will be moved forward out of that group and into final consideration for the Hall of Fame's 2024 class. Misty McMichael knows that her husband is running out of time as ALS continues to cruelly chip away at his body.

Yet, after coming up short in previous Hall of Fame chances, McMichael, 65, is hoping that this year is different. And if his wife is to be believed, Mongo’s time has come.

“It really gives us something to live for for another year,” Misty McMichael told Patch on Tuesday.

“But it’s time now. We’re running out of time now. It’s now or never, really.”

Many of McMichael’s former teammates, like Misty McMichael, hope that Mongo’s Hall of Fame chances aren’t a case of too little, too late. While former Bears stars Water Payton, Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary, Jimbo Covert and Richard Dent — along with former coach Mike Ditka — have reached Canton’s hallowed halls from the 1985 team, many wonder why McMichael has not.

McMichael spent 13 of his 15 NFL seasons with the Bears and was named a first-team All-Pro twice while making three all-NFL All-Pro teams. He finished his career with 95 sacks, 13 forced fumbles, 17 fumble recoveries and three safeties. He also had 5 1/2 sacks in 12 playoff games during his time with the Bears, for whom he played 191 of his 213 career games, ranking only behind Patrick Mannelly in career games played in a Bears uniform.

Hampton told Patch on Tuesday that numbers aside, the contributions McMichael made to the 1985 Super Bowl championship team should matter — perhaps more than the statistics that he says are almost superficial in McMichael’s case. He says that one only needs to look at the film to see what kind of an impact McMichael made on the Bears during his career.

Years after his teammate's playing career ended, Hampton now hopes that his Hall of Fame call has finally arrived.

“I know this is something that has kept Steve hanging on,” Hampton told Patch on Tuesday. “If it is, well, God bless him. I just know that (the Hall of Fame) does mean an awful lot to him …he always had this self-determination and it would be great if he was able to be a part of this. And so I’m just as happy as can be that some shoes have dropped and some things are falling into place.”

When McMichael was named one of the semifinalists for Canton, one of his nurses recorded his response as WGN sports anchor Jarrett Payton, the son of Bears legendary running back Walter Payton, shared the news that McMichael had taken another step toward Canton. In the cell phone video, Misty goes to her husband’s bedside and keeps repeating, “It’s happening….it’s happening” as a smile comes across her husband’s face.

McMichael, who sometimes uses his eyes to type out a message on a small computer, relayed a message to Misty: “Are you ready to go to Canton?” In a word, she said, her answer is yes.

While she and her husband have been disappointed with previous Hall of Fame votes, Friday’s announcement naming McMichael as one of the 12 finalists was another sign to Misty McMichael that this year will indeed be different. In many ways, deep down, she realizes that this may be her husband's final chance to see his Canton dreams realized.

“I hope he stays alive for the next year because I know he will if he gets inducted,” Misty McMichael told Patch, her voice cracking with emotion. “I know he’ll stay alive. He’s tough. He’s not human. He probably should have been dead already. The doctors have been giving him six months for a year.

“But he’s hanging on and I really hope that this gives him the incentive to hang on for another year.”

One of the most difficult aspects of living with ALS, Misty McMichael said, is the fact that the disease does not touch the patient’s ability to think or comprehend things. Although McMichael is confined to the bed in the couple’s Homer Glen home, Misty says that her husband has a full grasp of what’s happening.

That helps, Misty McMichael says. With communication limited because of McMichael’s inability to speak, Misty is forced to look for other signs that her husband is hanging in there despite the crippling disease he has lived with for more than two years.

Since McMichael was announced as one of 31 Hall of Fame semifinalists earlier this year, Misty says she has seen noticeable differences in her husband. His smile has returned, Misty said, who says she can again see her husband’s dimples. The couple has already made preliminary plans to celebrate at Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park to celebrate and Misty McMichael says she has already looked into how she would get McMichael to Canton, Ohio, for the induction ceremony should he be selected.

The McMichaels have been together for the past 25 years, which has given Misty a front-row seat to what football has meant to her husband. McMichael has already been inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame as well as Hall of Fame locations in Texas and Chicago.

The numbers have been good enough, his teammates with the Bears have said repeatedly, are good enough to get McMichael to Canton. But while others from the Super Bowl championship squad have reached the Hall of Fame, McMichael has not. Misty McMichael is now doing everything she can to change that.

She has started with a series of social media posts designed to keep Steve McMichael’s name in the public eye. She has started to co-host a podcast “Monsters of the Madhouse” which in recent episodes has included appearances by former Bears players including Jim McMahon, Kevin Butler, Hampton and others.

Since McMichael was diagnosed with ALS in 2021, former Bears teammates such as Mike Singletary, Richard Dent, Hampton, Otis Wilson — as well as pro wrestling legend Ric Flair — have paid visits to Homer Glen as a way of trying to keep their former teammate’s spirits up. Hampton admits that the visits to visit McMichael can be tough. Without the ability to speak or move, McMichael has been at the center of a number of photographs with his former teammates and others who visit.

But Hampton says that the visits also provide a reminder of just how devastating the disease can be. Like Misty McMichael, Mongo’s former teammates know that there is no cure for ALS and that eventually, their football brother is going to die.

“It’s a universal combination of disbelief and God bless him,” Hampton said. “You walk out saying, 'There but for the grace of God go I' …But (ALS) is an awful thing. But it’s not something where you can say, ‘I’m going to put in another movie — we have to be there until the end’ and in a universal way, we all say we hate it like hell.”

Misty McMichael hopes the push is enough and knows that to some, sympathy for her husband’s failing health may play a role. Dan Pompei, the longtime pro football writer who is part of the Hall of Fame process, told Patch this week that while all 12 finalists have the credentials to enter the Hall, only three will make it. When asked about McMichael’s chances of getting there, Pompei said that the former Bears star is as deserving as each of the 12 being considered.

Hampton, like Misty McMichael, knows that his former teammate’s health may likely factor into the equation. The Bears organization released a statement pushing for McMichael’s Hall of Fame push, which comes three years after Covert became the latest member of the ‘85 Bears to gain entry in the Hall. Now, as the push for her husband’s hopes reach their final days, Misty McMichael just wants to see her husband reach the destination he has always sought.

“Pity vote — I don’t care what you want to call it,” she told Patch. “He deserves (the Hall of Fame) – he knows it, I know it, everyone knows it. So, if they call it a pity vote, I don’t care.

“I want him in because he deserves to be there, but how he gets in…..We’re going to get him there one way or another.”

As she continues to push for her husband’s Hall of Fame candidacy leading up to Aug. 22, Misty McMichael has also started pushing McMichael to begin working on his Hall of Fame speech. At this point, she would rather see McMichael gain entry into Canton before his death but says that if it happens after his passing, she will present a speech for her husband either way.

For the sake of those listening, though, she would prefer that it happens while McMichael is still around.

“I know he’s going to get into the Hall of Fame eventually,” Misty McMichael said Tuesday. “But (the Hall of Fame) isn’t going to like that if they wait until he dies to induct him. If they do it this year, it will be a great speech. I’m going to be happy and thankful and grateful and all those wonderful things. But if they wait for him to die, they’re not going to like that one.

“I care about (McMichael). I want him to see this before he passes. I want him to know — and everyone else to know – that he deserves it.”