Sport: Football
Born: August 21, 1959
Town: Jersey City, New Jersey
James Robert McMahon Jr. was born August 21, 1959 in Jersey City, NJ. Although he moved to San Jose with his family when he was three—and most people think of him as a California Kid—anyone who has spent time in Hudson County knows there was more than a little Jersey in Jim, too. Football fans also know that staying on the field was a problem for Jim during his career, but his injury woes began long before he played a down in college or the pros. At age six, he detached a retina horsing around with a fork. He was always sensitive to bright light after that.
Even so, Jim became a bona fide three-sport star as a teenager and won the starting quarterback job as a sophomore at Andrew Hill High School in San Jose. The following year, the family moved to northern Utah. Jim won the starting quarterback job at Roy High School as a junior in 1975 and was named team MVP. He was also named the top player on the Royals’ basketball and baseball teams.
Jim earned all-state honors in 1976 and was courted by a number of top college programs, including Brigham Young. Jim was raised a Catholic, so on paper BYU didn’t make a lot of sense for him. However, the football team loved to put the ball in the air and Jim’s parents convinced him that this unconventional choice would be the right one, so off to Provo he went. He competed with Marc Wilson for playing time in 1977 and 1978, and decided to red-shirt in 1979 while nursing an injury.
Jim returned to the field as the Cougars’ starter in 1980 and led the nation with 47 touchdown passes and an NCAA-record 4,571 passing yards. BYU’s final game was a Holiday Bowl match-up with Southern Methodist. SMU led by 20 points but Jim engineered a spectacular comeback in the final five minutes and won the game on a Hail Mary pass. As a senior in 1981, Jim threw for 3,555 yards and 30 touchdowns, with just seven interceptions. After having finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1980, he rose to third in 1981, behind Marcus Allen and Herschel Walker—and in front of Dan Marino.
The Chicago Bears selected Jim with the fifth pick in the 1982 NFL Draft. Coach Mike Ditka handed him the starting job during the strike-shortened ’82 season and the offense struggled while he learned the ropes. Chicago improved to 8–8 in Jim’s second year at the helm, and in 1984 were 7–2 in the nine games Jim started before a kidney injury cut short his season. The Bears were strong enough to make it to the NFC Championship game that year without him, but missed his strong arm and leadership in a 23–0 loss to Joe Montana and the 49ers.
All the pieces came together in 1985. Jim was able to start 11 times and the Bears had a perfect record in those games. They finished 15–1 overall, with Jim passing for 2,392 yards and 15 touchdowns. Chicago’s D was the big story in the postseason, pitching shutouts against the Giants and Rams. In Super Bowl XX against the Patriots, the Bears’ defense starred again. Jim, meanwhile, led seven scoring drives of varying lengths and scored twice himself in an overwhelming 46–10 victory. He connected on 12 of 20 passes for 256 yards, including a pair of long completions to Willie Gault.
Injuries continued to dog Jim and hurt Chicago’s postseason prospects in the years that followed. He continued to make headlines, however. During the 1986 playoffs, he was admonished by the NFL for wearing an adidas headband (logos were supposed to be covered) under his helmet against the Giants. The following week, in the NFC Championship against the Rams, his headband read Rozelle. That joke cost him $5,000.
In 1989, the Bears traded him to the San Diego Chargers. From there, he saw time with the Eagles, Vikings and Packers. Most fans forget that Jim got a second Super Bowl ring with the Packers in 1996, his final year. In 15 seasons as an NFL quarterback, he started over 10 games just five times, but still amassed over 18,000 yards and averaged better than a touchdown pass per start.
Jim retired to suburban Chicago after his playing days. About 10 years into that retirement he began noticing the ill effects of all the helmet-to-helmet hits he’d absorbed. He joined hundreds of ex-players in a lawsuit against the NFL and, in 2012, was diagnosed in the early stages of dementia.