Da Coach, Da City, Da Return

CHICAGO — More than three hours before kickoff, Mike Ditka sat relaxed and alone on the visitor’s bench across the field near the 50-yard line, a signature cigar stuck in the middle of his scowling face, the biggest, meanest, most loved man in Soldier Field.

He had reflected on this moment, joked that he might cry upon his return to Chicago, but now he was wearing sunglasses, and no one dared to suggest they be removed.

For more than an hour he lounged, oblivious to the cameramen who were focusing on his every twitch, dressed all in New Orleans’ black, but still very much the good guy here, soaking up the atmosphere that he had adored and fostered as player and then coach.

“He is what being a Chicago Bear is all about,” defensive lineman Chris Zorich had said in anticipation of the comeback, and now as Ditka waddled down the sideline, a crowd of 58,656 began to cheer for him as if he were still one of their own.

“Amazing,” Ditka muttered later after being asked about Chicago’s fascination with Da Coach. “Just amazing.”

He left Chicago four years ago--fired--and maybe these fans forgot that he had lost eight of his last nine games in his 11th season prowling the Bears’ sideline, but here he was again--their hero.

“He’s like Chicago itself,” said Sandy Minnich from nearby Alsip, one of two fans to draw a Ditka autograph as he made his way onto the field for Friday night’s exhibition finale between the Saints and Bears. “I called Baton Rouge. I went everywhere trying to get a ticket for this game. I had to be here for Da Coach, and now that I have his autograph, I don’t need to see the game. I can go home.”

Those who stayed got what they expected--another Ditka win, another loss for the Bears. They remember those 52 glorious wins--the most ever compiled by an NFL team in a four-year span--during the mid-1980s, and they are all too familiar with today’s Bears, a team showing no promise.

Friday night, the Saints gave Ditka a 13-7 victory. On Oct. 5, they will return to make it count in a regular-season matchup that could hold this team to ridicule.

“It wasn’t very pretty,” said Ditka after his Saints finished 3-1 in the exhibition season. “We have to get much better than that.”

Ditka, back on the sideline after four years as a broadcaster and being passed over while 30 other men received head coaching jobs in the NFL, charged into Chicago Thursday, earning a three-car police escort down the Kennedy Expressway at the height of rush-hour traffic, a fitting tribute for the man with the best winning percentage among present-day NFL coaches (.631).

He checked into a downtown hotel with his Saints, and boarding an elevator with surprised guests who recognized that mug immediately, they stood in awe, like Ditka ignoring the “thank you for not smoking” sign, although Ditka was puffing away.

Two hours later, accompanied by his bodyguard, he was driven down Chicago’s Magnificent Mile (Michigan Avenue) to his own restaurant--Iron Mike’s--for a welcome-home party. As if anyone would expect anything different, when a crowd of more than 30 people sat down for dinner, Ditka was sitting at the head of the table.

“I put no emphasis on coming back here, but then when I landed here, saw the city’s skyline and realized that I had spent a major part of my life in this city, well, you get a little sentimental,” said Ditka, the sirens sounding in the distance--a nice true-grit touch. “This city embodies a great work ethic, and I think that’s important.

“But this is a totally different phase of my life; I’m having fun again and I want to see this organization [the Saints] get some respect.”

Ditka has a three-year contract to coach the Saints, $300,000 to do three TV shows each week, and New Orleans, which needs no excuse to party, is all jazzed up. More than 55,000 turned out for an exhibition game--the largest crowd to watch the Saints at home since 1994.

Coming off a 3-13 campaign, the Saints have sold 3,000 more season tickets than last season, including 100 to Chicago-area fans. They have also sold two luxury suites [costing between $32,000 and $45,000] to Chicago-based fans.

“I’m starting from scratch,” Ditka told the Chicago Tribune earlier this week. “Somebody asked me about my legacy. I played hard. I coached hard. I left that mark. They can’t take that away. They can’t erase it.”

Only 20 coaches in the history of the game have won more than Ditka (112 victories), but will he ever win again coaching the lowly Saints, who opened each of the past two seasons 0-5?

“I’m not going to fall flat on my face,” said Ditka, who has Heath Shuler as his starting quarterback. “I never have and I don’t expect to start now.”

Ditka wore a T-shirt throughout the Saints’ training camp which read: “We will find a way, or we will make a way.” Looking at his personnel, he might also want to wish upon a star.

“We’re nobody,” Ditka said. “If we do something, that’ll be something. Well then, we’ll do something just to make it special, just because people said we couldn’t do it.”

There were difficult times in Chicago too, a slow start, talk of Ditka even being fired, and then all of a sudden one of the most dominating football teams in NFL history culminating in a Super Bowl win following the 1985 season.

“I don’t care if they [the Chicago Bulls] win nine NBA titles,” Ditka said. “The ’86 Super Bowl was the greatest thing to happen to Chicago sports. That’s the way I feel.”

Hired by George Halas, Ditka had difficulties dealing with team president Michael McCaskey after Halas’ death, and then hit rock bottom in 1992 in Minnesota after being seen on TV berating quarterback Jim Harbaugh for calling an audible, which resulted in an interception.

“I lost the team,” said Ditka, who shook hands with McCaskey before the game. “Under no circumstance will that ever happen again. I learned. You can lose everything you worked a lifetime to build over one thing.”

It appears now, however, that Ditka did nothing wrong while in Chicago. There were nine stories in the city’s two largest newspapers Friday extolling Ditka’s virtues. Reading between the lines, Bears’ Coach Dave Wannstedt has suffered poorly here in comparison to the man he replaced.

“It’s easy to be popular once you’re gone,” said Bear offensive lineman Todd Burger. “I talk to [former Bears] Mark Bortz and Steve McMichael, and as far as I know, Ditka’s last couple of years here were pretty ugly. People forget that. All they remember is ‘85, but what about ‘92?”

With the exception of the six remaining Bears from the Ditka years, the remainder of Chicago’s roster appeared none-too-happy with having the enemy hailed so fondly.

“I get mad when I pick up the paper and they got him [Ditka] all over it,” Bear linebacker Bryan Cox said. “That’s disrespect to me and my teammates.”

No more disrespectful than walking off Soldier Field--losers to Ditka’s Saints.

And after delivering one more lesson to the Bears in his team’s final tuneup, Ditka marched off with Bear fans hanging over the end zone wall screaming for Da Coach.

“What if it doesn’t work out?” Ditka said. “What if it doesn’t? It’s such a thrill to have a second chance to do what you really want to do. How many people can say that? I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”