The 1980 season was the Chicago Bears' 61st in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

, and their third under

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Neill Armstrong Neill Ford Armstrong (March 9, 1926 – August 10, 2016) was an American football player and coach whose career spanned more than four decades at both the college and professional levels. Notably, Armstrong served as the head coach of the ...

. The team failed to improve from their 10–6 record from

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

to finish at 7–9, and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 1978. One of the victories was on

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

; Chicago entered the Thursday game at 4–8, last place in the

NFC Central The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and tough ri ...

division, and were trailing 17–3 after three quarters. With no time left in regulation, Bears quarterback

Vince Evans Vince is a given name, it is the anglicisation and shortened form of the name Vincent, as well as a surname. It may refer to: Given name People * Vince Agnew (born 1987), American football player * Vince Cable (born 1943), British politici ...

scored a game-tying touchdown that sent the game into

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

. Then, before a national television audience on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, Dave Williams returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown on the first play of overtime for a 23–17 victory over the stunned Lions. Running back

Walter Payton Walter Jerry Payton (July 25, 1953Although most sources at the time of his death gave Payton's birth year as 1954, reliable sources subsequently state he was born in 1953. – November 1, 1999) was an American football running back who played ...

once again led the NFC in rushing for the fifth straight year with 1,460 yards; he also had the league's highest annual salary at $475,000.

Offseason

Draft

Undrafted free agents

Roster

Schedule

Season summary

Week 1: at Green Bay Packers

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Pro-Football-Reference.com
/ref>

Week 15

Week 16

Standings

References

Chicago Bears Chicago Bears seasons

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

{{ChicagoBears-season-stub