Left to right: William "The Refrigerator" Perry and Willie Gault.
Left to right: William "The Refrigerator" Perry and Willie Gault.Paul Natkin/HBO
So your team just got its collective hide tanned on national television and you’re not in a boastful mood. But tomorrow you’re slated to shoot a music video for a song that basically proclaims you’re Super Bowl-bound.
Oops.
That team was the 1985 Chicago Bears. The song, of course, was “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” an improbable hit that proved great football players don’t always make good dancers or, heaven forbid, rappers. The video was recorded the day after a 38-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football in week 13.
Patriots fans certainly know it worked out OK for Da Bears, who mauled the Pats 46-10 in Super Bowl XX; that loss to the Dolphins was the only blemish on the Bears’ 15-1 season. But what if they had collapsed instead of shuffling onward? The new 40-minute HBO documentary “The Shuffle” has some good fun considering this question, with the help of former Bears Gary Fencik, Willie Gault, Jim McMahon, and Mike Singletary. The consensus: Once you dance around and rap about how you’re going to the Super Bowl, you had best go to the Super Bowl. (Quick side note: the Dolphins won a 15-year-old degenerate gambler named Chris Vognar some money that night. What can I say, I knew how to pick ‘em.)
“The Shuffle,” directed by Jeff Cameron and premiering at 9 p.m. Nov. 25 on HBO and HBO Max, tells the story of how former Jovan CEO and Red Label Records founder Richard Meyer got speedy wide receiver Willie Gault to convince several of his teammates to do the Shuffle. The film brings us back to the video shoot, where Hall of Fame linebacker Singletary rallied his men to at least make an effort. Hard-partying quarterback McMahon and all-world running back Walter Payton were no-shows; they took the perfectly reasonable stance that the team shouldn’t shoot a goofy music video the day after an embarrassing loss. They shot their bits later and were added via the magic of special effects.
This was an age of hip-hop novelty songs, and if you think “The Super Bowl Shuffle” was the worst of them, Rodney Dangerfield’s “Rappin’ Rodney” would like a word. It was also just two years after the launch of MTV. The “Super Bowl Shuffle” video was a viral hit before “viral” was a thing. The song itself hit No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was somehow nominated for a Grammy. (It lost to Prince and the Revolution’s “Kiss.”)
Lest Patriots fans feel left out, the doc reminds us that the Pats made a response music video before the Super Bowl, for the song “New England, the Patriots, and We.” If you don’t remember it, you’re far from alone.
Chris Vognar can be reached at chris.vognar@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram at @chrisvognar and on Bluesky at chrisvognar.bsky.social.