Chicago Bears defeat the Green Bay Packers in The Ultimate 50 Super Bowl Champions Tournament

This will not come as a surprise to Chicago Bears' fans that were alive during the spectacular run of the 1985 Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears, but that team just won a CBS Sports tournament to determine the best Super Bowl Champ of all time.

This wasn't a fan vote, but a highly detailed simulation done by Strat-O-Matic. If you aren't old enough to have played the dice and card Strat-O-Matic games from back in the day, you truly missed out. These days Strat-O-Matic provides the best and the funnest computer sports simulation around.

The Ultimate 50 pits the 49 Super Bowl champions against each other in a tournament format to decide, once and for all, which SB Champ is the Greatest Of All Time.

The SBXX Bears have been all over the news lately with this being the 30th anniversary of that team, and with an ESPN 30 For 30 documentary debuting on February 4th.

But on to the Tourney...

The '85 Bears received a first round bye, because they're the '85 Bears (Duh), and in the second round they defeated the 1990 New York Giants 14-10. This was a defensive battle as both QBs struggled (Chicago's Jim McMahon was only 6 of 9 for 133 yards and N.Y.'s Jeff Hostetler was 12 of 24 for 167 yards), but Walter Payton scored 2 TDs and rushed for 45 yards.

In the next round the '85 Bears took down the 1st ever Super Bowl Champ, the 1966 Green Bay Packers 38-28. Payton had 158 yards from scrimmage, Jim McMahon threw 4 TD passes to 4 different Bears, Matt Suhey, Tim Wrightman, Dennis McKinnon and the go ahead TD to Payton. And the Bears' D picked off Bart Starr 5 times, including 2 from corner Leslie Frazier in the final seven minutes.

In the Round of 8, the '85 Bears defeated the 1998 Denver Broncos. Chicago jumped out to a 17-0 lead and held on to win the game 27-21. Payton was the star of this game as well with 192 yards from scrimmage, but Buddy Ryan's D wasn't too shabby either by intercepting John Elway 4 times.

In the semifinals the SBXX Champion Bears took out the 1992 Dallas Cowboys 24-13, and guess who was the MVP of this game? Sweetness had 138 yards from scrimmage and two TDs, but speedy wide out Willie Gault chipped in big time with six catches for 154 yards.

In the Tournament Final it was the 1996 Green Bay Packers trying (and failing) to stand up to the Monsters Of The Midway. Brett Favre and Green Bay's offense just couldn't solve the 46 Defense and they lost 17-10. Payton went over 100 yards rushing, but it was a 25 yard McMahon to McKinnon pass that was the lone TD for Chicago's offense. Chicago's D was the star of this game as they held Green Bay to just 10 first downs. Bears' rookie DB, Ken Taylor, returned an interception 63 yards for a TD, outside linebacker Wilber Marshall had another pick and two of their three sacks were courtesy of OLB Otis Wilson.

What are your thoughts on Strat-O-Matic's sim?

I think it played out just about how it would have played out in real life.

1985 Chicago Bears, The Greatest Team Of All Time