Bear blitz wows Brits

Writing from London They almost got it right.

They had a traffic jam worthy of the Super Bowl and a partybefore the game that had everything from whole roast pig to 31flavors.

They had a singing, chanting, cheering crowd that did the wave,rose to a frenzy during the coin flip and even had that relic ofyears gone by, a streaker, hidden in its festive midst.

The only thing they screwed up on was the weather. But youcould hardly avoid the dank and dreary London evening by packing thegame off to a dome or some sunny clime, now, could you? How elsecould they sing "God Save the Queen" before a football game?

So in the end, Jim McMahon wrapped his headband around the hoodof his poncho and the Bears had fun yesterday. Almost as much fun asthe 82,699 people who jammed Wembley Stadium to see them beat theDallas Cowboys 17-6 in their first exhibition game of the season.

Not quite, but almost.

As good as the Bears felt after knocking off the revenge-mindedCowboys and showing there is defense after Buddy Ryan, it was nothingcompared to the excited response of the fans.

Nobody could have enjoyed this game more than the people whocrowded into the seats or stood shoulder to shoulder in the end zoneand cheered a strange game they understand imperfectly but delightin nevertheless.

"It was almost like playing at home," said Bears linebacker MikeSingletary of the crowd's enthusiastic response every time somethingvaguely interesting happened. "They were really into it."

"They got excited even before the game," McMahon said. "Westarted clapping during warmups and they started clapping right alongwith us."

"It seemed like the whole country was out for a picnic and theydidn't care about the weather or anything else," Walter Payton said.

"They were really having fun out there," William Perry said."Especially when naked people started running out on the field."

Perry was speaking of the man who, with 3:08 to play, left thestands behind the end zone and dashed onto the field without so muchas a raincoat to hide behind. He was, as they say over here,starkers.

A couple of stadium officials tackled the interloper and sloshedaround on the turf with him in a better exhibition of mud wrestlingthan some that charge admission. Finally, their superior numbersprevailed and they hauled him off.

"Damn!" shouted Dennis McKinnon, the injured wide receiver whowatched the incident in the press box. "Where's my camera?"

"Michael McCaskey and Jerry Vainisi wouldn't give me theirbinoculars," complained Diana Ditka, the wife of the Bear coach, whowas watching the game from the royal box in the company of theAmerican ambassador to Great Britain.

"I had to look around to check all our guys on the bench," Ditkasaid.

"Nobody's got that much nerve," McMahon replied.

The only thing more remarkable than the enthusiasm the Englishcrowd brought to the game was its ignorance. People cheerfullyadmitted they knew almost nothing of the game's finer points, butwere captivated by the spectacle. This phenomenon may have been summed up when Perry scored atouchdown in the second quarter. Perry's importance is vastlyoverplayed here - just as it is in the United States - but thedifference is that he is the only American player many people herehave ever heard of.

So it was that for a mere $4 you could have washed down yourcornish pastie with a pint of American beer in a plastic William Perry mug at Wembley yesterday.

When Perry scored, I was down in the stands watching the gamewith a couple of young London women who said they had come to Wembleyfor a laugh.

"Did he?" Belinda Levine said. "Which one is he? Is he in theblack or the white? Will he do it again, do you think?"

What about the game itself?

"It's really weird," she said. "All this starting and stopping.You can't tell where the ball is. And everybody hitting each otherand all going in different ways."

Her friend, Candida Brent, was somewhat more in tune with thegame, but she had a good reason.

"I lived in Florida for a while," she said. "I hate the Bears.I cried when the Dolphins lost the Super Bowl two years ago."

Out in the corridor, waiting patiently for the hot dog line tomove, was Kate Bowen of London, who had been driven into a mildappreciation of football by her 15-year-old brother, Julian. He's mad about it," she said. "He's always reading magazines aboutit and talking about the Fridge. That's why I'm down here gettingthe food. He won't leave the game."

Down behind the end zone, where men held up small boys for a verybad view and women stood sedately holding their dates' hands in thecrush, the people were getting an education into the ways of thegame.

"You watch it on telly and you see the highlights," said EmmettHepburn of Newton. "When you watch it here, you know when the advertsare coming."

Even Perry's touchdown failed to thrill him.

"You didn't really see him go over, did you?" Hepburn said."It'd be nicer to see him hit daylight and go over, wouldn't it?

"But he's had his trip to London, hasn't he? Let's put it thatway."

Let's put it that way about the entire team. For all thehoopla, what it boils down to is they have had their trip to Londonand they have won a football game. I can remember less successfultrips than that to Green Bay.