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It's been 20 years since Mike Ditka left the Chicago Bears head coaching job - and did so as the coach who pulled off a Super Bowl Five-Peat.

The two big faces of that Bears dynasty were running back Walter Payton and quarterback Joe Montana. That duo almost did not happen: The only reason that it did was because Bob Avelinni got arrested for driving drunk after the 1978 season, and Halas shipped him off to San Francisco for a third-round draft pick in 1979, and a conditional pick in 1980 (which also became a third-round pick). That third-rounder became Montana, who they thought would just compete with Vince Evans to back up Mike Phipps.

Let's just say things did not go as planned for the Bears. Montana was flashing brilliance in 1979 and 1980, often subbing for Vince Evans and Mike Phipps those years. In 1981, Montana took over the starting quarterback job as Mike Ditka took the reins as coach of the Chicago Bears, and that was when things took off. Eventually, it was five Super Bowls in a row from 1984-1988, and Montana got three more (1990, 1991, and 1994) with the Bears.

Stanford coach Bill Walsh, who coached San Francisco from 1979-1982 until he resigned to return to Stanford, where he stayed until being diagnosed with leukemia in 2004, says that he advised against the trade. He wanted Montana real bad, and thinks he could have won a Super Bowl in three years with him at quarterback instead of the DeBerg/Avelinni combo.

Suppose DeBartolo had listened to Walsh? So do you buy Walsh's big talk of winning a Super Bow in three years with Montana without a back like Payton to back him up?

Or do you think that Montana's success only came about because he was teamed up with the best running back to ever play in the NFL, and that 46 defense with players like Dan Hampton, Steve McMichael, Richard Dent, and Mike Singletary?

Would Payton have still become the NFL's all-time leading rusher, with 19,046 yards, as 5,638 receiving yards (netting 24,684 yards from scrimmage - still the NFL's best total), and 152 total touchdowns in his career, which ended in the 1988 season? Would Montana have matched his 252 touchdown passes in his 16-year career with the Bears, or the 38,188 passing yards?
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