Ditka Says He Wants to Return to Work

As Mike Ditka’s condition improved from serious to fair Thursday, the Chicago Bears coach grew more impatient about returning to work very soon, even though that appeared most unlikely following the mild heart attack he suffered Wednesday morning.

In the meantime, Bears President Michael McCaskey named defensive coordinator Vince Tobin as acting coach while Ditka is out of action. Tobin, who replaced Buddy Ryan after Super Bowl XX, has the Chicago defense ranked No. 1 in the NFL. “To be chosen,” Tobin said, “certainly makes you feel privileged. I’m there until Mike comes back. I have to make the decisions during the course of the game like a head coach, but it might be a one-week thing or it might be a two-week thing.”

Ditka certainly plans for it to be one week, at the longest, and has let his doctors know that. “He looks well, he’s feeling terrific. He wants to get going primarily because he feels healthy,” Jay Alexander, a staff cardiologist at Lake Forest, Ill., Hospital said Thursday. “When you take a man that is as active as he is and put him in a bed, he’s certain to get frustrated. ...

“He’s very much like a person who went through something yesterday, feels wonderful today and is wondering what all the fuss is about. He’s doing so well today he feels ready to get going back to work, but we’re going to pull in the reins a little bit.”

The next big question appears to be whether Ditka will be allowed to watch Sunday’s game between the Bears and Tampa Bay at Soldier Field on television.

“It depends on how he answers some questions for me,” Alexander said. “I’m going to ask him straight out whichever creates more anxiety for him, watching the game or not watching the game.”