Steve McMichael

College football career

Born in Houston, Texas, McMichael attended the University of Texas, where he played for the Texas Longhorns football team from 1976 to 1979. As a senior in 1979, he was a consensus first-team All-American.

Professional football career

McMichael was drafted out of Texas in 1980 by the New England Patriots. He was acquired by the Chicago Bears as a free agent in 1981. He became one of their starting defensive tackles and help lead them to a Super Bowl win in 1985. He had a streak of 101 games started until 1990, when his playing time was reduced. He led the Bears with 11 ¹⁄₂ sacks in 1988. He had 108 tackles in 1989. McMichael was named to the NFC's Pro Bowl teams for the 1986 and 1987 seasons.

McMichael gained notability in a 1991 game against the New York Jets. With the Bears down 13-6 with 1:54 remaining, McMichael forced a Blair Thomas fumble and recovered it at the New York 36. Quarterback Jim Harbaugh then threw a game-tying touchdown to Neal Anderson with :18 left in the game. The Bears went on to win in overtime when Harbaugh scored on a 1-yard TD run. Bears coach Mike Ditka said in 2005 that McMichael was the toughest player he had ever coached. He played with the Green Bay Packers in 1994 before retiring.

World Wrestling Federation (1995)

After the end of his NFL career, he appeared at ringside in the WWF for Lawrence Taylor at WrestleMania XI on April 2, 1995 in Hartford, Connecticut. Taylor was wrestling Bam Bam Bigelow and there were several football players at ringside to keep wrestlers from interfering in the match. During a previous episode Monday Night Raw, McMichael provided guest commentary with Vince McMahon and would later brawl with Kama Mustafa, one of Bigelow's comrades. The fight was all over the arena floor and almost into the stands, knocking over the broadcast table, soon being broken up by personnel. Taylor ended up winning the later match.

Color commentator (1995–1996)

In 1995, McMichael was hired by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). On September 4, 1995, he made his debut with the company as the pro-babyface color commentator on the premiere of WCW Monday Nitro, with Bobby Heenan fulfilling his typical pro-heel commentator role alongside lead broadcaster Eric Bischoff. McMichael would root for the popular wrestlers during matches, would bicker with Heenan on a regular basis, and brought his dog Pepe with him to the broadcast booth.

Four Horsemen (1996–1997)

In April 1996, Ric Flair started hitting on McMichael's wife Debra, who would sit at ringside during WCW Monday Nitro. McMichael challenged Flair and Arn Anderson to a match with his partner Kevin Greene. He trained with Randy Savage (he was actually trained by Terry Taylor at the WCW Power Plant), while Flair and Anderson got Heenan to be their coach for the match.

The match took place at The Great American Bash. During the match, Debra and Greene's wife were chased to the back by Woman and Miss Elizabeth, who were Flair's valets. Debra came back with Woman and Elizabeth, and she had a briefcase full of money and a Four Horsemen T-shirt. McMichael accepted it and hit Greene in the head with the briefcase. McMichael's first singles match was against Joe Gomez at Bash at the Beach. McMichael won with his signature move, the Mongo Spike, which is a reference to his football career having never being able to spike the ball in a game because of never personally scoring.

He went on to feud with the Dungeon of Doom with the other Horsemen, and he had problems with Jeff Jarrett over the affections of Debra in late 1996 through early 1997. Woman would trash Debra, causing McMichael and Benoit to step in each time. The turning point in the McMichael-Jarrett feud was at SuperBrawl VII. McMichael wrestled Jarrett, and if Jarrett won, he was an official Horseman. Debra interfered for Jarrett, so he would win. Then McMichael and Jarrett had to team, and they bickered at first but later became a solid tag team. McMichael wrestled two football players in 1997. He beat Reggie White at Slamboree and lost to Kevin Greene at The Great American Bash, which saw McMichael slapped by Greene's mother at ringside.

In July 1997, Jarrett was kicked out of the Horsemen, and Debra soon left McMichael for Jarrett. McMichael got his revenge when he defeated Jarrett for his United States Heavyweight Championship on the August 21 episode of Clash of the Champions. Just weeks earlier, Arn Anderson had been forced to retire due to an injury, and Curt Hennig took his place in the Horsemen. At Fall Brawl, Hennig turned on the Horsemen and joined the nWo during the War Games match that the Horsemen were involved in. McMichael was handcuffed to the steel cage surrounding the ring along with Benoit, and neither man could defend Flair from the 5-on-1 assault from the nWo; the match ended after McMichael surrendered to stop the nWo from attacking Flair, although Hennig would still slam the cage door on Flair's head (which was edited out of the home video release but included on the WWE Network in full) even after the submission was made. The next night on Nitro, McMichael dropped his United States title to Hennig, and Flair disbanded the Horsemen.

Various rivalries (1997–1999)

McMichael went after Debra's stable of wrestlers that included Jarrett, Eddie Guerrero and Alex Wright. Debra hired Goldberg to get McMichael, and he became one of Goldberg's first victims in November 1997. Goldberg stole McMichael's Super Bowl ring and weeks later McMichael hit Goldberg with a pipe and reclaimed it. He briefly helped Benoit feud with Raven's Flock in January 1998 and then got into a feud with Davey Boy Smith, in which he broke his hand during a match at SuperBrawl VIII in February. McMichael returned in June 1998 and had a feud with Stevie Ray and helped reform the Four Horsemen in October with Flair, Benoit, Dean Malenko and manager Arn Anderson. They feuded with the nWo, and in early 1999, McMichael left WCW.

After wrestling

McMichael co-hosts a Bear pre-game show with Jeff Dickerson on ESPN 1000 in Chicago. He was the head coach of the Chicago Slaughter of the Indoor Football League from 2007 until the team's final season in 2013.

On August 7, 2001, McMichael took a turn as the guest singer for "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field for a game between the Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies. After home plate umpire Ángel Hernández called Ron Coomer out at the plate on a controversial call, McMichael questioned Hernandez's call and said that he would be waiting for him after the game. Hernandez ejected McMichael after he sang, but McMichael had left Wrigley Field immediately after his performance and did not know until much later of the ejection.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2008)

McMichael returned to professional wrestling for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's flagship pay-per-view, Bound For Glory, where he refereed the Monster's Ball Match. This match was notable for McMichael's extremely slow cadence for a three count.

Personal life

In 1985, McMichael married Debra Marshall. They divorced on October 12, 1998.

On August 3, 2007, McMichael appeared as a guest on the Waddle & Silvy Show on ESPN 1000 and announced he is going to be a father with his wife, Misty. Their daughter Macy Dale McMichael was born at 4:12pm on January 22, 2008.

On July 17, 2010, McMichael was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

On August 16, 2012, McMichael announced his intentions to run for mayor of Romeoville, Illinois. He lost the race to incumbent John Noak, garnering 39 percent of the vote.

In wrestling

American football

Professional wrestling