Remembering Super Bowl Champion Coach and Hall of Fame Tight End Mike Ditka

Mike Ditka, who passed away today just nine days before his 87th birthday, is perhaps best known as the coach of the dominant 1985 Chicago Bears team that won Super Bowl XX, but he was also one of the greatest tight ends in pro football history. Ditka was the first tight end inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1988), and he was also selected to both the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team (1994) and the NFL's 100th Anniversary Team (2019).

Ditka had a successful college career at the University of Pittsburgh, leading the team in receptions in all three of his varsity seasons (1958-60) while being named an unanimous First Team All-America selection in 1960, when he also finished sixth in Heisman Trophy balloting. Ditka was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986.

The Chicago Bears selected Ditka with the fifth overall pick in the 1961 NFL Draft, while the Houston Oilers chose him with the eighth overall pick in the 1961 AFL Draft. Ditka signed with the Bears, and in 1961 he set the NFL's rookie tight end records for receptions (56), receiving yards (1076), and touchdowns (12) when the NFL season lasted just 14 games; he led all NFL tight ends in all three categories that season. Ditka was the first NFL tight end to have at least 1000 yards receiving and at least 12 receiving touchdowns in the same season, a feat that more than 60 years later has only been matched by four players: Todd Christensen (1983), Rob Gronkowski (2011, 2014), Jimmy Graham (2013), and Travis Kelce (2022). Ditka still holds the rookie record for touchdowns by a tight end, his rookie tight ends reception record stood until 1988, and his rookie tight ends yardage record lasted until 2024. The longevity of those records is remarkable considering not only that the NFL season was later lengthened but also that Ditka played in a run-dominant era before rules changes opened up the passing game in 1978 and again in the 2000s. 

Ditka led all NFL tight ends in receptions in each of his first four seasons. The Bears went 11-1-2 in 1963 before beating the New York Giants 14-10 to win the NFL Championship. Ditka led that team in receptions (59), receiving yards (794), receiving touchdowns (eight), and scoring (48 points) while earning the first of back to back AP All-Pro First Team selections. 

Ditka felt that the Bears did not compensate him adequately for his production, declaring that owner George Halas "threw nickels around like manhole covers." The Bears traded Ditka to the Eagles in 1967 and he had two forgettable seasons in Philadelphia before being traded to Dallas. He did not post eye-popping numbers with the Cowboys, but he started all three of their playoff games in 1971 as the Cowboys won a Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history, defeating Miami 24-3 in Super Bowl VI. 

Ditka retired after the 1972 season and joined Tom Landry's staff as a special teams/receivers coach, a position that Ditka held in Dallas for nine seasons (1973-81) as the Cowboys reached the Super Bowl three times, including a 27-10 win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII. 

After the Bears won the 1963 NFL title, they missed the playoffs from 1964-76 and went 0-1 in the playoffs in 1977 and 1979. When the Bears hired Ditka as their head coach in 1982, he inherited a 6-10 club that went 3-6 under his direction during the strike-shortened 1982 campaign. The Bears improved quickly, going 8-8 in 1983 and then 10-6 in 1984 when they captured the first of five straight NFC Central Division titles. Under Ditka, the Bears reached reached the NFC Championship game three times, and won Super Bowl XX by the biggest margin in Super Bowl history at that time, routing the New England Patriots 46-10. That 1985 championship team is famous for the "Super Bowl Shuffle" video that the players made during the season, and for going 15-1 before winning their three playoff games by a combined margin of 91-10, including shutouts in two NFC playoff games before the Super Bowl. Defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan was a mastermind. Doug Plank, who played safety for the Bears, said that Ryan was playing chess with his defensive strategies. The Bears' legendary "46" defense featured Hall of Famers Mike Singletary, Richard Dent, Dan Hampton, and Steve McMichael and led the league in fewest points allowed during the regular season (198). The underrated offense with Jim McMahon at quarterback and Walter Payton (1551 rushing yards, third best in the NFL) at running back ranked second in the NFL in scoring (456 points, just 11 behind the "Air Coryell" San Diego Chargers). Even if you weren't a Bears fan, that team was fun to watch (unless they were pounding the daylights out of your favorite team). I was a freshman in high school at that time, and I must say that more than 40 years later I still consider the 1985 Bears one of the greatest and most entertaining NFL teams I have ever seen.

Ditka was not a man prone to regrets, but one regret that he admitted publicly is that he did not make sure that Payton scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl; in a goal line situation late in the third quarter with the Bears ahead 37-3, the Bears gave the ball to defensive lineman William "Refrigerator" Perry instead of Payton, who at that time was the NFL's all-time leader in rushing yards and who later held the all-time rushing touchdowns record for nine years. Although Perry scored three rushing touchdowns during the regular season, many people--including Payton himself--thought that the play should have been designed for Payton. Ditka later said,  "It never, ever crossed my mind. Now is that wrong of me? Yes, probably. It should've crossed my mind, but it didn't. I didn't think it would ever mean anything to, I think, the greatest Bear ever. But then it did, so I was wrong. That, I regret a lot. I really do regret it a lot, because I didn't realize it was important to him, and it was very important to him."

Ditka was twice selected as the AP NFL Coach of the Year (1985, 1988) but all good things must end, and the Bears fired him after a 5-11 season in 1992, just one year after the debut of the famous "Saturday Night Live" skit about "Da Bears" that is still fondly remembered to this day.

Ditka spent four years as a football commentator for NBC Sports before returning to the sidelines in 1997 to coach the New Orleans Saints. The Saints did not come close to having a winning season with Ditka at the helm and they fired him after three losing seasons. That period is most remembered for the Saints' infamous decision to trade all of their draft picks for 1999 and 2000 in exchange for the number five pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, which they used to select running back Ricky Williams. Williams rushed for 884 yards as a rookie in Ditka's final season on the sidelines. Williams won the 2002 NFL rushing title with the Miami Dolphins and he finished his career with five 1000 yards seasons and 10,009 career rushing yards, but it is impossible to build a winning team after trading away that much draft capital. 

After his coaching career ended, Ditka became a popular NFL commentator on ESPN. He was known for his direct manner of speaking as both a coach and as a commentator. Perhaps the best example of this is what he told the Bears' players after becoming the team's coach in 1982: "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is we're going to the Super Bowl. The bad news is half of you guys won't be here when we do." Ditka was blunt--and he was right: the 1985 Super Bowl champion Bears had just 14 players who had been on the team in 1981, the year before Ditka became the team's coach.

Mike Ditka will be remembered as a Chicago icon, an all-time great tight end, and the coach of one of the NFL's greatest single season teams.

Dick Butkus: Quintessential Bear, Quintessential Linebacker

The Chicago Bears and the Arizona Cardinals are the only two original NFL franchises that still exist. The Bears were dubbed "Monsters of the Midway" during their glory years in the 1940s when they won four NFL titles (1940, 1941, 1943, 1946) in a seven year span, but no player embodied that "Monsters" ethos more than Dick Butkus, who passed away in his sleep yesterday at the age of 80. 

Chicago native Butkus led the University of Illinois to a 17-7 Rose Bowl win versus Washington in 1964 before being drafted by his hometown Bears as the third overall selection in the 1965 NFL Draft, one pick ahead of fellow future Hall of Famer Gale Sayers. The legendary George Halas--who at various times played for, coached, and owned the Bears--was the team's coach and owner at that time, and he remained the coach through 1967. Butkus made the Pro Bowl in eight of his nine NFL seasons, missing out only in his last, injury-riddled campaign during which he played in just nine of 14 games. Butkus injured his right knee in high school, but he battled through the pain and limitations caused by that injury until he had nothing left and retired from the NFL at the age of 30; prior to his final season he played in 110 of a possible 112 games. Butkus was selected First Team All-Pro five times (1965, 1968-70, 1972). He finished his career with 22 interceptions, 27 fumble recoveries, one touchdown scored, one safety and two extra points; the last number requires some explanation: before the NFL added a two point conversion rule in 1994, if a team passed or ran the ball into the endzone on an extra point attempt that counted as one point. On November 14, 1971, the Bears beat the Washington Redskins 16-15, with Butkus providing the winning margin by catching a Bobby Douglass pass in the endzone after the Bears botched the snap on an extra point attempt and were forced to go into scramble mode. You can see a video of the wild play here. In 1972, Butkus caught another extra point pass. 

The numbers do not tell the full story of Butkus' impact--literally and figuratively. He was renowned--and feared--as perhaps the hardest hitting NFL player, and he took pride in the fact that after he hit someone the player did not have to try to figure out who made the play: a Dick Butkus tackle felt like no other. Although Butkus was a fierce player, he also took pride in playing within the rules, and when some Detroit players accused him of being a dirty player Butkus deeply resented the accusation, declaring, "No one but those jerks has ever called me a dirty player. I play as hard as I can. I try to hit as hard as I can. To me that’s what the game is all about."

Butkus never played for an NFL champion or even for a playoff team. The lack of playoff success by a Chicago team that featured Butkus on defense and Sayers on offense is a stark reminder that football is perhaps the ultimate team sport: in basketball one dominant player can carry a team, and in baseball a dominant pitcher can have a tremendous impact, but in football even an elite player needs a lot of help in order to enjoy team success. Jim Brown is arguably the greatest football player of all-time, and his Cleveland teams posted a 1-2 record in the NFL Championship Game during his fabulous nine year NFL career.

Despite the lack of postseason success, in his nine NFL seasons--all spent with the Bears--Butkus earned recognition as the prototypical linebacker. NFL Films President Steve Sabol called Butkus the greatest defensive player of all-time, describing him as "A force of unmanageable proportions, he was Moby Dick in a goldfish bowl. His career as the middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears stands as the most sustained work of devastation ever committed on a football field by anyone, anywhere, anytime...No one played harder or better than Dick Butkus."

Butkus was selected to the NFL's All-Decade Teams for both the 1960s and the 1970s, he was inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979 (the first year that he was eligible), and he was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983. Starting in 1985, the Butkus Award has been presented to the best linebacker in college football; since 2008, the Butkus Award has also been presented to the best NFL linebacker and the best high school linebacker. 

After he retired, Butkus became an actor in TV shows, TV commercials, and movies, and he did some football commentary as well. I suspect that the first time I ever saw Butkus was probably in a Miller Lite commercial during an NFL telecast! I am too young to have seen Butkus play during his career, but I saw a lot of NFL Films footage of him, so I understand why he was so respected and so feared. I cannot find the exact quote, but I remember reading something to the effect that it was not possible to block Butkus head on, so players resorted to chipping him low, which infuriated Butkus because he already had a bad knee. It is remarkable that Butkus played nine seasons at such a high level under those conditions. 

It is disconcerting to see so many people from my parents' generation--people who were in the prime of their lives when I was a child--getting old and passing away. For me, the 1970s and 1980s were a golden age in many different sports, even though I only remember the second half of the 1970s: when I think of great basketball I think first of Julius Erving, Pete Maravich, George Gervin, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird; when I think of great baseball I think first of the Big Red Machine teams, of Reggie Jackson's clutch play with the New York Yankees, and of Eric Davis' early career brilliance; when I think of great football I think first of the dynastic Pittsburgh Steelers (even though as a Cleveland Browns fan I hate them); when I think of great tennis I think first of Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, and John McEnroe; when I think of great boxing I think first of Muhammad Ali. That does not mean that each of the listed players and teams was the greatest of all-time (although a strong case could be made for several of them), but rather just that my deep love of sports was forged by watching and admiring them. That time is long past, but the memories and the historical impact will live forever.

Butkus was from just before that time, but I have great respect for icons like Dick Butkus, Jim Brown, and Sandy Koufax who made such indelible impacts on the sports world despite having relatively brief careers. Today, the sports world generates more money than ever, and new technologies make it possible to watch more games in more ways than ever, yet it feels like something is missing.

Rest in peace, Dick Butkus, and enjoy your reunion with George Halas and the other legends from the past.