Ditka tops Guillen in ranks of former Chicago sports guys turned goofs?

There are those people who like to rag on one-time Chicago White Sox shortstop and manager Ozzie Guillen as some sort of irresponsible goof – somebody who despite his significant athletic accomplishments for Chicago ball clubs is just too much of a goof to have around.

How does not seeing racial oppression ...

But after learning of one-time Chicago Bears tight end and head coach Mike Ditka’s latest railing on national television, I can’t help but think that Ozzie is nowhere near as absurd.

FOR THE RECORD, Ditka (who led the Chicago Bears to their only Super Bowl victory ever back in 1986) was on the Westwood One pregame show prior to the Monday Night Football game featuring the Bears against the Minnesota Vikings felt compelled to ignore the questions about the Bears’ ongoing struggles to find a competent quarterback.

Instead, he wanted to rant about the fact that many professional football players feel compelled to SUPPORT the protests taking place in recent weeks during the National Anthem rituals that take place prior to pro football games.

Those protests started last year with one player trying to express his concern about harassment of individuals based on race. When President Donald Trump felt compelled to get involved in this issue with his nonsense talk about “firing” football players, those players started showing solidarity with their colleague.

Ditka made a point of saying he’d “bench” anybody who dared do such things on any team he coaches. But the part that gets the national attention was Ditka’s claim that, “There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of,” adding later, “I don’t see all the social injustice that some of these people see.”

... compare to 'respect' for Fidel Castro?

IT’S NOT SURPRISING to learn that a professional athlete lives his life in a cocoon that isolates himself from the daily realities of our existence. I also don’t doubt these guys think their physical skills in playing a ballgame at a high level somehow makes them worthy of living life in such isolation.

He may be the guy who doesn’t read the papers, except for the sports section so he can know which sportswriter to complain about for writing something he chooses not to agree with.

But it would be an exaggeration to say we haven’t had oppression in the past 50 years – although at least now the law is such that the people who try to pull off the most extreme instances can be prosecuted, rather than thinking the law is on their side.

These two youngsters likely never realized ...

Or maybe Ditka is just one of those types who thinks that certain people are supposed to accept the fact that they’re entitled to receive a certain level of harassment from society as a large?

I THINK THIS puts Ditka in a comparable category with Guillen, who led the White Sox to a World Series title back in 2005 – a moment that for some Chicago sports fans is more significant than that Bears Super Bowl title.

Remember all the loudmouth incidents when Ozzie played for, and managed, Chicago. Like Ditka, Guillen later got a one-year stint managing/coaching elsewhere (Miami for Ozzie, New Orleans for Ditka) and now is to the point where his only sporting value is as an occasional commentator for broadcasts.

Sports fans in Miami still haven’t forgiven Ozzie for his saying all those years ago that he actually had a certain level of respect for Fidel Castro – which I’m sure they feel is as absurd as Ditka trying to claim that no one has been oppressed in this nation. Personally, I always thought of Fidel as more of a third-rate, petty tyrant than a true world threat.

Just because many of the individuals who are oppressed belong to groups whom Ditka and people like him would prefer not to have to acknowledge. Which is the truly offensive part of all this cheap talk.

 

... the highs, and lows, they would reach

PERSONALLY, I’M MORE offended by Ditka, merely because his rant is so ridiculously simplistic – as in it’s difficult to believe anybody could think of life as being so basic. I couldn’t help but notice a report that one-time star quarterback Joe Namath responded to Ditka by saying “da coach” ought to look up the meaning of the word “oppression” to realize it has occurred.

It makes me wonder if Ditka is now material for Saturday Night Live – the show where he once was idolized in those “Super Fans” sketches. Would those same fans now ponder whether Ditka has gone goofy in his old age?

Just like some are pondering whether Guillen has lost it in his middle age, to the point where the most recent report I saw about Ozzie was speculating whether he’d be considered for the Detroit Tigers managing job that is now open.

He’s not in line for it, no more than any team would seriously want Ditka hanging around their sidelines during game time. A sad ending for two of the most intriguing ballplayers-turned-coaches to be a part of the Chicago sports scene in our lifetimes.

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: One major Ditka/Guillen difference -- Ditka is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, whereas few people took seriously Guillen for the Baseball Hall of Fame the one year he was actually on the ballot. Which most likely is evidence that the baseball version in Cooperstown, N.Y., deserves more credibility than the football version in Canton, Ohio.

EXTRA: How about Bob Knight for Prez? Nah, he'd get whomped by Ditka!

I’m not the kind of individual who thinks it’s cute or interesting or in any way appealing for non-political people to start mouthing off about government, something they usually don’t have a clue about!

So the idea that one-time Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight came out in support of Donald Trump’s presidential aspirations seemed nothing but silly to me.

IN ALL HONESTY, it would have made more sense if Trump, the New York real estate developer nationally reknowned for his garish public behavior, had been on hand to endorse the presidential aspirations of Bobby Knight.

That would make about as much sense, since I suspect Knight is beloved enough amongst the Hoosier crowd that he’d still be the Indiana basketball coach if not for that 2000 incident where he is alleged to have choked one of his ballplayers.

Not that Knight, who called Donald “the best man for the job,” is the first sports celeb to get behind Trump. One-time Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman has backed him publicly.

Let’s also not forget earlier this year when one-time Chicago Bears player and coach Mike Ditka bad-mouthed President Barack Obama and said he’d gladly vote for Trump as his replacement.

PERHAPS WE COULD put some sort of head-to-head battle between Knight and Ditka, to see which one would be a more favorable fantasy candidate for public office.

Knight may well take Indiana’s 11 Electoral College votes.

Yet I somehow suspect that “Da Coach” would clean Bobby’s clock – much to the disgust of those of us who prefer to take this presidential election process seriously.

  -30-

Can ‘da Coach’ jolt Harold to victory?

The phenomenon of Erika Harold as a political entity has taken on another chapter – she has the backing of one-time Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka.

HAROLD: Will she ever win again?

As though the only Bears coach to lead the team to a Super Bowl victory is the key to the one-time Miss America (back in 2003) actually achieving her dream of becoming an elected official of sorts.

FOR THERE ARE now radio spots that will air on central Illinois radio stations in which Ditka tells us that Harold deserves to be in Congress because she’s a leader, a conservative and “tough.” Coming right before her national appearance Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, to be held in Washington.

Whether that’s enough to give her a victory in the March 18 Republican primary is questionable; she’s lagging behind the incumbent Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., has no campaign cash to note and has a political establishment that wishes she’d wither away.

That’s usually what political establishments think of anyone who dares to challenge an incumbent – even one as un-noteworthy as Davis.

The reality is that Harold is the Urbana native who stayed at home to attend the University of Illinois doesn’t fit into the vision that the local Republican Party has. Which is why she may have enthusiasm, an appealing personality and ambition.

BUT SHE’S PROBABLY never going to be the favorite of the GOP officials from the greater Champaign-Urbana and Danville area. She’s always going to be the candidate looking in to the party, rather than being a part of it.

Even if ideologically, she has given a consistent spewing of rhetoric on social issues consistent with the modern-day Republican Party. She’s the type who could easily apply the “Republican In Name Only” label to others – except that those people are being motivated by the GOP establishment to think of Harold herself as the RINO.

DITKA: Is he really a political maker?

A part of me has always wondered if Harold would have a better chance of political success if she were running for office in the Chicago area. The fact that she’s a black woman would not be seen as being as much of an aberration as it seems to be perceived in a central Illinois congressional district.

Of course, her talk about abortion (she opposes it strongly, which is why the Family PAC activist group is one of the few GOP-leaning organizations to endorse her) and other social issues would make her the misfit here.

WHICH IS WHY after living a few years in Chicago (working for law firms – she is a Harvard Law School graduate, paid for with all that Miss America scholarship money), she returned to her native central Illinois.

She’s not about to renounce her beliefs. But some don’t see her as the type of person they want representing him. I’m stating that mildly. One ought to check out the rancid (and anonymous) rhetoric that gets spewed on various conservative-focused websites to see just how hostile our society can be.

I don’t know that Harold will ever get elected to public office. She seems to be “ahead of her time” no matter which part of Illinois she were to try to run for. I do have to admit to having a bit of respect for her for choosing to run from her home community – knowing full well she’d have to face the “outsider” label if she tried to become a Chicagoan and suddenly adopt the “D” label.

DAVIS: The preferred Rep.

Then again, she’s getting treated like an outsider by the political operatives in her home community.

ALTHOUGH AT LEAST if she were running in the Chicago area, the fact that the Chicago Tribune chose to endorse her might mean something.

As would the fact that Ditka (the man who fantasizes he could have stopped the Barack Obama phenomenon if HE had run for the U.S. Senate back in 2004) wants Erika to go to Washington.

  -30-

Celebrity candidates a unique breed. Would you vote for Ventura for Prez? What about Erika for Congress?

I’ll confess to not fully understanding the concept of “celebrity” political candidates.

Sen. Ditka? Who's kidding whom!

 
By that, I mean the type of person who has accomplished something in some field that put them in the public eye. Which makes them think they can turn that public attention into votes to get themselves elected to political office.

HECK, THE PEOPLE of Minnesota got one-time pro wrestler Jesse Ventura for four years as their governor – and he’s inspired enough by that victory that he’s now going around talking about wanting to run for president come 2016.

With broadcaster Howard Stern as his vice-presidential running mate, nonetheless. Although I’ve also heard speculation that rocker Ted Nugent also is contemplating a presidential bid to espouse his love of firearms.

I don’t see either one of them seriously being capable of holding elective office, although I’m sure there are some knuckleheads in our society who will cast ballots for them just for kicks.

Which is what it all comes down to with these types of campaigns. I’m sure some will try to claim that Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns are the same thing in that he developed celebrity status while on the campaign trail that encouraged some to vote for him – but they really aren’t.

BUT THE FACT remains that we occasionally get these types of people thinking they are somehow fit for public office. And I can’t always predict how seriously they will be taken.

Take Mike Ditka, who actually had some Republican operatives back in 2004 trying to encourage him to run for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois after GOP nominee Jack Ryan’s campaign fizzled out (due to the actions that occurred during his marriage to celebrity actress Jeri Ryan).

Ditka didn’t take the bait – thereby sparing himself a likely defeat to the very same Obama in his pre-presidential days who had already begun to establish the aura that has persuaded many people to cast their votes for him.



The Libertarian duo?

Although I find it humorous that Ditka in recent days has felt compelled to spew rhetoric implying he should have run – because he could have somehow spared us all the concept of a “President Obama.”

DOES DITKA THINK that sucking up to the ideologues by feeding their fantasies will somehow encourage the political operatives to consider him as a candidate for office in some future election cycle?

Or was Ditka just bored enough to the point where he felt compelled to share his fantasies with all of us. My own fantasies involve a Pulitzer Prize or two, but I don’t feel compelled to write rants telling you about the stories I could have covered that might have won me that top prize!

It makes me wonder why some people feel compelled to spout nonsense. Although I realize they’re trying to appeal to the kinds of people who don’t really understand government operations and probably resent the fact that government has influence over their lives.

Dumbing it down to the level of voting for a Ventura, or contemplating a Ditka may simplify it in their own minds – even if it would do nothing for public policy.

YET THE STANDARDS of fluff fluctuate.

 

I suspect many of the same people who want to take seriously the idea of a “Sen. Mike Ditka” are the same ones who are dumping on the congressional campaign of Erika Harold.

HAROLD: Seeking a higher title

She is the Miss America from 2003 (2002’s “Miss Illinois”) who has since graduated from Harvard, worked for a time as an attorney in Chicago, and has since returned to her hometown of Urbana so that she can seriously run as a Republican for Congress.

We in Chicago would have treated her like a complete joke if she had run a GOP campaign for one of the city’s congressional districts.

THE DENIZENS OF east-central Illinois are getting all worked up over the thought that Harold would take on freshman Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill. The ideologues want him to be able to build up seniority instead of having Harold dump him – even though any serious reading of her own philosophical beliefs indicate she sides with them on so many issues.

Davis, of course, is one of the GOP Congress members who faces harm due to the federal government shutdown. Which makes me wonder if Harold could capitalize on this.

 

Too bad she didn't wear an Illini t-shirt

Or will it be one of the Democrats seeking that post who will manage to prevail.

Because it seems that some people are just having too much trouble taking seriously the notion of a “Miss America” in the House of Representatives. I can’t figure if it’s her racial background (she’s not lily white) or just her gender (they’d love her as a politician’s spouse).

ALTHOUGH IT PROBABLY makes as much sense (if not more, considering Harold’s actual education and work experiences) than having a one-time New Orleans Saint coach in the Senate – which would have only one possible benefit.

It is about the only way we in Illinois would ever get a “Saint” amongst any of our government officials.

  -30-

EXTRA: Does Ditka number retirement mean Ozzie must wait a few decades?

I find it intriguing that the Chicago Bears finally felt compelled to retire jersey number 89 – which was worn by Mike Ditka back in the days some five decades ago when he was a tight end for the Monsters of the Midway.

It has been a looong time since he actually wore the jersey, and it has been more than 20 years since his days as a Super Bowl-winning coach – which is the reason most Bears fans remember him anyway.

DITKA, OF COURSE, left the team’s actual employ having suffered the fate of just about every professional athletic coach or manager – He was fired!!!

Meaning there was a time in which no one would have wanted to think about honoring him. But the passage of time has allowed for his athletic accomplishments (coaching the only Super Bowl-winning Bears team, and playing for the last NFL champion Bears ball club before that) to stand above the personality conflicts.

Many of us probably don’t remember what provoked Ditka’s dismissal, and really don’t care anymore.

He’ll get his honor, meaning that he’s one of the most interesting personas in the history of the Chicago Bears – for what that’s worth.

WHICH MAKES ME think to the Chicago White Sox, who this very weekend are playing the Miami Marlins. I think it’s a shame that we don’t have their former manager, Ozzie Guillen, at work at U.S. Cellular Field this weekend.

Because the very act of Ditka’s tribute could have stirred up talk of how long it will be until the White Sox put jersey number 13 on their retired list – and put Ozzie’s grinning visage on their outfield wall?

Ozzie, of course, came out on the short end of a personality dispute with then-General Manager Kenny Williams, causing his own dismissal even though he is a former All Star shortstop for the White Sox AND manager of the only White Sox team to win a World Series in the past eight decades.

One can easily argue his persona is as significant to the White Sox organization as Ditka is to the Bears.

HECK, ONE COULD argue that Ozzie personifies the White Sox – that aggressive attitude that can easily spill over to obnoxiousness to the point where many people wish they could just ignore him.

But they can’t. Which really does describe the White Sox franchise that so many Chicago Cubs fans like to pretend doesn't exist at all in so many ways.

But even though Williams is also gone from his position, we probably still need the passage of more time before the moods have settled to the point where the idea of honoring Ozzie seems befitting.

If it takes as long as the Bears took to honor Ditka, we may well be talking about the year 2033.

JUST ENVISION IT.

An aging Ozzie (he’ll be 69 that year) getting his youthful mug on the outfield wall at the same time the White Sox are likely hosting the All Star Game – which will be celebrating its 100^th anniversary of the first all-star game ever, held at Comiskey Park.

Let’s just hope that spouse Ibis is on hand to give him a silencing nudge when his “speech” that day becomes so long-winded that they can’t get in the All Star game itself any other way.

 

And if White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is to be believed, even he'll be on hand to see the great moment.

  -30-

Does Payton knowledge change Super Bowl Shuffle memory? Not one bit!

Depending on where in the country you live (some people are going to be deluded into thinking that either the Philadelphia Phillies or the Buffalo Bills are more important), Walter Payton is once again on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine.

No, he hasn’t done anything new. He hasn’t done anything, period. To riff on Chevy Chase for a moment, Walter Payton is still dead.

IT’S JUST THAT there’s a new book being published – one that purports to be the definitive biography on the one-time star running back of the Chicago Bears. And one that tells us that Payton abused drugs, experienced mood swings later in life that had him contemplating suicide and was less-than-faithful toward wife Connie during their marriage.

Now all of this stuff may be true. Not that I care much. For I didn’t know Walter Payton as a person. Nor did many of the people who are now getting all outraged and claiming that it is somehow disrespectful to report on Payton’s failings as a human being.

They want the illusion maintained that Payton the person was somehow as gifted as Payton the athlete. Which in the case of 99 percent of professional athletes is a serious miscalculation.

I’d argue that it doesn’t really matter. In fact, we’re probably better off realizing that the people on the playing field of the various games we enjoy watching for our entertainment are really just human beings like you and me.

BEING CAPABLE OF throwing a curve ball with a sharp break on a reliable business or being able to stuff a basketball into the hoop isn’t what makes one a preferable excuse for a human being.

It isn’t even the discipline that it takes for one to develop such athletic skills through constant (and single-minded) practice throughout the years. If anything, you could argue that it is a flaw that a person didn’t use such dedication to develop some skill that could better benefit humanity.

My point is that Walter Payton was a ballplayer. For those of us who didn’t know him personally, that’s all he was. Why we should feel compelled to make him into more than that probably says more about our flaws than Walter’s.

So those people who want to “spit” on Jeff Pearlman (or commit more severe bodily attacks) because he would dare to take down “Saint Walter” are being absurd. When Mike Ditka said he would plant a hocker on Pearlman if he ever saw him again, all he did was showed that Ozzie Guillen is far from being the biggest ball of hot air to ever be involved with Chicago sports.

NOW BEFORE ANYBODY starts saying that I’m not appreciating what Walter Payton meant to Chicago, I’d argue that I really do. I was in junior high school when Payton was a rookie out of Jackson State University, was in college back when the Bears won their only Super Bowl title with Payton and was in the early years of my time as a reporter-type person in Chicago when he finally quit playing.

I’d say the only reason Michael Jordan gets a bigger rep than Payton is those six NBA titles, compared to only one NFL title for Walter.

But do our memories of what happened on the turf at Soldier Field really get impacted because of what we know about Walter as a person? I’m not downplaying the significance of abuse of prescription drugs (the death of Michael Jackson easily shows us what can go wrong).

Although with all the battering that a professional football player takes during his career, I’d be amazed if Payton was NOT taking some form of pills to cope with the pain.

AND AS FOR the part about infidelity, he’d hardly be the first professional athlete to cope with life on the road by cheating. I’d argue that is an issue for his wife to deal with in whatever way she is most comfortable doing (and my understanding is that Connie and Walter came to some sort of forgiveness just before he died in 1999).

It doesn’t change the recollections I have every time I hear the “Super Bowl Shuffle” and think of that one Bears team that actually managed to “win the whole thing” during the past half-century.

If anything, I’m more offended by Payton’s one-time teammate, Dan Hampton, saying he plans to blow off the ’85 Bears visit to the White House on Friday, in part because he doesn’t approve of President Barack Obama’s politics.

Which means he just politicized an event that could easily have been about fluff – a sin bigger in my book than acknowledging athletes as mere people.

BESIDES, BASED ON the excerpts of Pearlman’s book, I have to admit to getting my biggest kick out of something other than the so-called salacious stuff.

For it seems the post-football Payton had an appetite that could have put William Perry to shame. “Pilgrimages” to Bob Evans for eggs and bacon (with side orders of sausage) and taking advantage of a card offered to him by a Wendy’s corporate executive for free food.

“Let’s just say they knew him at the Wendy’s drive-thru,” Pearlman quoted someone as saying. “He loved those free burgers.”

Be honest. Isn’t at least a part of you wondering how many patties (single, double or triple) Walter had on his burger, along with what toppings?

  -30-