Opinion: Mike Ditka was an “American Original”
Jim Harbaugh, berated as QB on Bears sideline, reflects on another side of “Iron Mike”
Of all the tributes and testimonials, the statements, tweets and sound bites in the wake of Mike Ditka’s passing, nothing hit home for me like the reflections from Jim Harbaugh.
You see, long before Harbaugh became a coaching savant he was Ditka’s quarterback. And of all the images over many years that document Ditka’s presence as an NFL icon, there was that moment in 1992 when Harbaugh drew Iron Mike’s ire for the world to see.
With the Chicago Bears up 20-0 on the Vikings in the fourth quarter, Harbaugh audibled from the play sent in from the sideline and a bad thing happened. Harbaugh’s pass floated beyond intended
receiver Neal Anderson and into the arms of Todd Scott, who turned the game around – Minnesota won 21-20 – with a pick-six.
Ditka went ballistic. When Harbaugh came to the sideline, Iron Mike berated him before a national TV audience. It was old-school, in-your-face fury. And if you loved the Bears, it was another reason to revere your coach.
Harbaugh, the Bears first-round pick in 1987, held his usual Friday news conference as Los Angeles Chargers coach hours after Ditka’s family announced his passing at 86. As he reflected on his former coach there was no mention of that memory from the Metrodome.
No, Harbaugh’s memories are much better than that.
Instead, when someone asked him to share a favorite Ditka story, Harbaugh shared a private moment that spoke volumes about the coach he loved to the bone. He reflected on the time when Ditka called him into his office during the work week. Before they got around to the business of discussing the gameplan, Ditka had to finish up another task.
“He was writing out checks and signing checks,” Harbaugh said. “I could see that from across the desk.”
One check. Then another. And another.
“I finally said, ‘What are you doing, coach?’ ” Harbaugh recalled. “He had gotten a stack of letters. People in need. He was writing $500 checks to each.”
Harbaugh was stunned.
“Do you know these people?”
Ditka: “No, don’t know ’em.”
“That was all he said. He was never one to self-promote that,” Harbaugh added. “Just happened to witness it with my own eyes.”
Harbaugh was downright poetic as he reflected on the authentic coach that he loved to the bone, who reminded him of his father, Jack. He suggested that if anyone wanted to know Ditka’s essence, it could be found in Rudyard Kipling’s classic poem, If. Or with the slice of Teddy Roosevelt’s speech in 1910, known as “The Man in the Arena.”
“A true American hero,” Harbaugh said. “May he rest in peace.”
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Mike Ditka was Chicago
Ditka was Chicago, tried and true. Two decades after he broke into the NFL with the Bears as a first-round pick in 1961, he came back as head coach. It is fitting that Ditka led the franchise to its only Lombardi Trophy, which culminated with a Super Bowl 20 triumph for a team that might have been the greatest NFL champion ever. The ’85 Bears had so much swagger, so much personality – and a zany video, “The Super Bowl Shuffle” – and Ditka was perfect for keeping them on track for their special mission.
“Mike had a relationship with every player,” Jeff Fisher told The Tennessean, part of The USA TODAY Network, on Friday. A former safety, Fisher stuck as a seventh-round pick in 1981 and earned a Super Bowl ring while on injured reserve in 1985.
“He managed the personalities,” added Fisher, who went on to coach the Titans and Rams. “He let them unfold. He didn’t mold them. You have to be able to do that.”
The Bears flew the U.S. flag at half-staff at Halas Hall after Ditka’s passing and undoubtedly there will be moments of silence at other stadiums across the NFL on Sunday to commemorate one of the game’s legends.
Ditka was tried and true Pitt, too. He was a three-sport athlete – in addition to playing tight end and punting, he played forward on the basketball squad and outfield on the baseball team – at the University of Pittsburgh.
Mike Ditka's time with the Cowboys
For several years, he belonged to the Dallas Cowboys, too. He finished his 12-year NFL playing career as a player-coach and caught the last touchdown in the Super Bowl 6 win against Miami. Roger Staubach credited Ditka for his impact in bringing the team together as they meshed on their journey. Another player-coach on Tom Landry’s staff, Dan Reeves, said it was Ditka who suggested the Cowboys employ the shotgun formation that became a signature.
“He said, ‘It would give us a little more time. You know we got a quarterback who can scramble,'" Reeves once said, according to the team’s website.
During his stint as special teams coach on Landry’s staff for nine years, Ditka also provided a glimpse of his sideline fury. After Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ron Johnson drew a flag for slamming Drew Pearson to the turf out of bounds, Ditka retaliated by hurling the football and hitting Johnson in the head. And drawing a flag.
Ditka belonged to the Saints, too. He went 15-33 during a three-year stint in New Orleans marked by the ill-advised decision to trade his entire package of 1999 draft picks – and first- and third-round picks the following year – for the right to select Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams with the fifth pick overall.
Ditka also belonged to ESPN as a studio analyst, a lightning rod on the air.
And let’s not forget. As much Ditka’s political leaning turns me off – “He was MAGA all the way,” Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Friday – there’s so much to respect about the way he championed the cause for medical benefits and financial assistance for retired players through his Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund.
That was pure Ditka. He may have been a cultural phenomenon, but beyond that he was the man Harbaugh saw writing out checks to people in need.
Of course, Ditka also belonged to the community he drew up in near Pittsburgh. Ditka was not only the first tight end inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he was also the first Hall of Famer from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania – followed by Tony Dorsett, Darrelle Revis and Ty Law.
Mike Ditka revolutionized the tight end position
Here’s to the mark that Ditka left on the game as a player. For so many years, he’s been revered as an OG, a classic throwback defined by his grit. Yet when he broke onto the NFL season 65 years ago, Ditka was so cutting edge.
Before Gronk and Tony Gonzalez, before Kellen Winslow, Ozzie Newsome and Travis Kelce, there was Ditka. George “Papa Bear” Halas sought to reimagine the tight end position when he drafted the consensus All-America pick with the fifth pick overall. Did he ever.
Ditka caught 56 passes for 1,076 yards and 12 TDs in 14 games as a rookie in 1961. By today’s standards, those numbers don’t jump off the page. But consider that until Winslow broke out in the Chargers’ “Air Coryell” system in 1980 to break Ditka’s 1964 tight end record of 75 receptions, just one other tight end (Jackie Smith, 1967) topped 1,000 yards. And Ditka’s mark for receiving yards by a rookie tight end wasn’t eclipsed until Brock Bowers came along for the Raiders in 2024.
“Mike brought competitiveness and a hard-nosed style of play as he developed into both a fantastic blocker and someone who could punish would-be tacklers on his receptions,” Jim Porter, executive director of the Pro Football of Fame, said in a statement.
No, Ditka was not to be messed with on so many levels.
It’s no wonder that Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell, who played tight end in the NFL for 11 seasons, reflected Friday with such reverence. Campbell said it was an awesome experience, but also one of the most “intimidating” moments of his life when he met Ditka, then the Saints coach, for a one-on-one session during the NFL combine in 1999.
“I go in and there’s one little light on,” Campbell recalled during a news conference at Lions headquarters. “It's like a little lamp in the corner, you know? It's at the train station and there's nothing in there. There's no couches there. The room is totally cleaned out and there's one little table and the room is full of smoke.”
Campbell said he could barely see the legend as he conducted the interview.
“You just see this image off in the corner…and he’s got that big fat cigar,” Campbell said.
Classic Ditka.
There’s no blueprint for what it takes to become an American Original. You know it when you see it. In Mike Ditka, we saw it unequivocally, during his storybook life and career. He created the mold and broke it. And there will never be one another one quite like him.
Follow Bell on X: @JarrettBell
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mike Ditka was an American original who revolutionized football beyond Chicago | Opinion
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