#53

 

MIKE DITKA

Some may know him as the sleepy analyst who pontificates while doing a pregame show every Sunday on ESPN. Others may know him as a pitchman who has hustled every product offered to him.

Even more know him as head coach of the 1985 Chicago Bears, one of the NFL’s most legendary teams. That Bears team marauded through the NFL with a 15-1 regular-season record and then won the only Super Bowl in the team’s history. The 1985 Bears are often looked at as the greatest one-season champion in NFL history.

But before he became a coach and a personality, Mike Ditka was one of the most important players in NFL history. He basically invented the modern tight end position.

Ditka was a powerful player who could muscle and punish when he was asked to block. He came to the Bears as a much-celebrated tight end out of Pittsburgh in 1961 as the fifth overall pick in the draft, and head coach George Halas saw that Ditka was a far greater receiving weapon than the NFL had ever seen at the tight end position. In addition to his toughness, Ditka had the speed to get downfield, knew how to get open, and didn’t drop the ball when he got his hands on it.

He caught 56 passes for 1,076 yards and 12 touchdowns in his rookie season, starting a run of four straight seasons as the best tight end in the game. He was the team’s best offensive weapon during their 1963 championship season, catching 59 passes for 794 yards and 8 touchdowns.

Ditka credited Halas with helping to make him the team’s key receiver. Many expected Ditka to become a linebacker because of his size and strength, but Halas decided to break the mold and turn tight end into a position that could produce big offensive numbers.

Halas, one of the game’s founding fathers, was never known for his visionary ideas. But in this case, he saw a player who had the speed, hand-eye coordination, and talent to make big plays from a position that had rarely been used for anything but blocking.

Ditka would remain one of the team’s major offensive forces for the next four seasons, and he was on top of his game during the 1963 season. The Bears were largely a defensive juggernaut that year, but Ditka was able to give them a spark that season with 59 receptions for 794 yards and eight touchdowns.

He made the most famous play of his career that season. The Bears were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers November 24, two days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. While NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle would face intense criticism for allowing games to be played that day, Ditka would make the most of it.

With the Bears trailing the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-14 late in the fourth quarter, Ditka took a short pass on a 3rd-and-33 play, and he started chugging upfield. Ditka was hit full force by five different Steeler defenders, but he did not go down until he had gained 63 yards. The Bears tied the game on a field goal, and that was a vital development as they were able to maintain their lead over the Green Bay Packers in the NFL’s Western Conference.

Ditka would play through the 1972 season. Halas traded him to the Eagles after the 1966 season, and he had two miserable years in Philadelphia before resurrecting his career with Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys. While Halas would undoubtedly be the biggest influence in Ditka’s football career, Landry was a close second. He caught 30 passes for 371 yards in the Cowboys’ Super Bowl season of 1971, and he caught a touchdown pass from Roger Staubach in Super Bowl VI. Ditka’s desire to become a coach may have started as a player under Halas, but he learned the intricacies of the profession from Landry.

Ditka’s early years with the Bears are highly underrated. Not only was he incredibly productive at his position, but also he did it with the most pedestrian of quarterbacks throwing him the ball. Billy Wade and Rudy Bukich had plenty of heart and toughness, but neither one could throw the ball more than 20 yards without some kind of wobble. To average 62 receptions with those two at quarterback speaks of Ditka’s fire, ability to get open, and competitive streak.

Ditka became the first tight end inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. While generations of fans would know him as a coach, analyst, and pitchman, Ditka’s ability to carve out a niche for himself at a position that was largely ignored before he got there makes him one of the most influential players in the game’s history.