Mike Ditka Neutral Over Sunday's Saints Vs. Bears Game?

One term never used to describe Mike Ditka -- before now -- is "wishy-washy." This was the coach, after all, who decisively traded an entire year's worth of draft picks for a single running back in 1999.

But this morning, listeners to The Mike North Morning Show on Chicago's AM-670, The Score, heard Mike Ditka tell the popular sports radio host the unimaginable.

"If the Saints win, I'll be happy" Ditka revealed. "If the Bears win, I'll be elated. I'm not going to be sad if either one of them doesn't win -- believe me."

This follows a column by Rick Telander in Wednesday's Chicago Sun-Times in which Ditka, who coached both the Bears and the Saints, refuses to play favorites. He confirmed with North, "If you're asking me to pick a team - I can't do that."

Chicago is stunned.

To many ears, this means that Mike Ditka -- Da' Coach -- the man who personifies all that it means to be a Chicago Bear -- does not care who wins Sunday's NFC Championship.

It is an intolerable thought to legions of Bears fans. Mike Ditka, who led the 1985 team to victory in Super Bowl XX, has become a local football icon since leaving the Bears organization after a disappointing 1992 season.

Chicago Bears fans tend to look back upon Mike Ditka's years at the helm with longing. It's a nostalgic and uniquely-Chicago fanaticism captured so well by the Saturday Night Live "Superfans" of the early 1990s. To this day, otherwise disconnected passers-by on the city's streets will share a simple, four-word exchange that has all the meaning in the world to a Chicago Bears fan:

"Da' Bears" ... "Da' Coach"

Mike Ditka also starred with the Chicago Bears as a player. As a tight end he helped lead the Chicago Bears to a 14-10 victory over the New York Giants in the 1963 NFL Championship Game. He was 1961 NFL Rookie of the Year with Da' Bears. He was a five-time NFL Pro-Bowl selection (1962-1966) with Da' Bears. As head coach, he led Da' Bears to six NFC North titles from 1984 to 1990. And it was as a Chicago Bear that Mike Ditka was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 1988.

What has he ever done for the New Orleans Saints? Not Much. The team was a dismal 15-33 during Ditkas' three-year stint (1997-1999) as their head coach. "The coach," not "Da' Coach."

And now, almost sacrilegiously, Da' Coach doesn't care if the Da' Bears win on Sunday? He can't pick a team -- the Chicago Bears or the New Orleans Saints -- who he'd rather see shuffle their way to the Super Bowl in Miami, Florida, with a big win in the NFC Championship this Sunday?

Simply unimaginable.

Also see "Da Coach Declines to Play Favorites" by Rick Telander.