Bears fans -- 'Shuffle' on over to Youtube

UPDATE: As I posted in my blog on November 11th, The NFL has asked Youtube to pull over 3,000 clips of game footage from NFL games. That includes the games that I provided links to in the post below. I'm leaving the original post, so for now at least, just ignore the links, because they won't give you the clips. Thanks NFL.

Here's further evidence that YouTube is one of the best sites on the internet, if not the best. As I mentioned on the show this morning, the other day I discovered some old Chicago Bears clips from the Super Bowl season on Youtube. If you are a Bears fan, and especially if you don't have any of that championship season on tape, or on DVD, I highly recommend you check out these clips. I was psyched to watch them myself, and I'm not a Bears fan.

What's great about these clips is that it's the actual game footage as it aired on CBS, NBC, and ABC during that memorable season. You get a younger, although most likely inebriated, Pat Summerall, and a much more youthful sounding John Madden. You get a Tim Ryan, a Don Criqui, and a Monday Night Football crew that featured Frank Gifford, Joe Namath, and (yikes) Orenthal James Simpson.

What makes it even more of a treat is that getting to see actual game footage of old NFL games on any of the networks these days is about as impossible as finding a copy of The Jazz Singer at Mel Gibson's house. Whether it's ESPN Classic, the NFL Network, or any network in between, old NFL footage is usally made up of highlight reels and slow-motion NFL Films montages. Still enjoyable, but not authentic.

I'm a sucker for the old play-by-play footage. That's why these are fun to watch, even when you're not a Bears fan.

If you go to Youtube and search "Chicago Bears", many of these clips will come up, and then some. I'll give you direct links to a couple of intersting ones I've found from the Super Bowl season...

Super Bowl XX highlights - Here is about an 8:00 collection of plays from the Super Bowl win over New England. Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen on the call. I need to email this link to Tambling.

NFC Championship Game - This is the opening drive of the win over the Rams. The clip opens with part of the NFL Today preview. I may be in the minority, but I am a Brent Musberger fan.

NFC Divisional Game - This is a collection of plays from the win over the Giants. I forgot how long it took Summerall and Madden to realize that Sean Landeta whiffed his punt attempt. Also, check out this postgame feature where Rams coach John Robinson tries not to look like he's scared to death at the thought of having to play the Bears the following week. Clip earns an A+ within the first two seconds thanks to a Jimmy "The Greek" appearance.

Even a treat for a non-Bear fan like me.

Now where did I put Tambling's email address?