Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2016 11:02:52 GMT -6
Dec 18, 2016 2:12:01 GMT -6 @soulman said:
It's pretty established that Ditka lost the team after the strike by the players. The team - especially the great leaders on that team - turned their back on him. The statements from the players of that time have been posted many times over the years.
He lost his team.
And frankly he wasn't that good of a coach. He was gifted with (arguably) the most talent of any coach in the super bowl era, and with a brilliant defensive coach. Buddy Ryan and Ed Hughes (his coordinators) were brilliant coaches. All Ditka had to do before he lost the team's players trust was to chew gum and spit on the sideline. I've always liked Ditka, and I think he is a good man, but he was anything but a brilliant coach. It was time to fire him - and then he went to New Orleans and crapped the bed down there.
The battle between Ditka and Mikey was joined in 1986 when Jerry Vainisi was fired and replaced by that asshat Mikey. From then on it was only a matter of time until Mikey would eventually find an excuse to fire him even though GSH had assured him of the job for as long as he wanted it. That came after the '92 season when he went 5-11 but that was preceded by 4 years of going 40/24/.625 which is pretty damn close to his career W/L percentage of .631 as the Bears HC.
If players turned on him after the strike in 1987 his record doesn't indicate that.
Ditka was a motivator not a strategist but that's not to say he didn't know football and had no coaching talent at all. Hughes and Buddy were difference makers no doubt as were others like Dick Stanfil but the Bears kept on winning even after Buddy and Hughes were gone. Give Mikey's choice to replace him you'll never get me to agree it was time to fire him and I'll take the Ditka era over any I've experienced since. The guy won.