DITKA vs. RYAN : War of Words Moves Saturday to Soldier Field

Some people want to see the Chicago Bears win their National Football Conference playoff game Saturday at Soldier Field. Some want to see the visiting Philadelphia Eagles win.

But everybody wants to see what happens when the final gun sounds and Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan, the two head coaches, meet for the traditional postgame handshake.

That ought to generate about as much warmth as the winds that will whip through Soldier Field all afternoon.

In the Ditka-Ryan feud, all the blows have been verbal. But what zingers they’ve been--material that would make David Letterman proud:

Example: After Ryan left his post as defensive coordinator of the Bears under Ditka in 1986, the Chicago head coach said, “Never again in history will an assistant coach get as much credit as Buddy did. I handled it well.”

Counterpunch Ryan: “I should be so lucky to have a Buddy Ryan around. I’d like to have somebody around to take care of me.”

Example: Ditka on Ryan’s new coaching position at Philadelphia: “He’ll find it tougher being a head coach giving orders than taking them.”

Counterpunch Ryan, a master sergeant during the Korean War: “I’ve been giving orders all my life. I never took orders from him anyway. The old man (the late George Halas) hired me before he hired him.”

Example : Ditka, speaking about Ryan’s method of coaching the Bear defense: “He had a buddy-buddy system. I believe in playing the best 11 players. I don’t believe in having favorite players. I want challenges. Not preconceived situations. I want everybody to have a chance to play. He took a lot of bows and I let him take them. But he didn’t let any of his assistants take any bows. Some people don’t give credit to anyone else. Why doesn’t (offensive line coach) Dick Stanfel get more credit? We led the league in rushing 3 years in a row.”

Counterpunch Ryan: “I never favored any players. I treated them all alike. I’d jump on an All-Pro as quick as I’d jump on a rookie. Some you have to pat on the back. Some you have to kick in the butt. I never had any buddy-buddy system.”

And on it goes.

This family feud began 7 years ago when Halas fired Neill Armstrong, coach at the time. That turned out to be one small step for Ryan, one giant leap for Ditka.

Halas went outside his organization to hire Ditka, his former tight end.

Ditka may have been a hero to Halas and the Chicago fans, but all Ryan knew was that suddenly he was going to have to take orders from a guy who was just an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys at the time, a guy with no previous head coaching experience.

And all Ditka knew was that he was locked in with Ryan. Halas insisted his defensive leader remain.

For 4 years, Ditka and Ryan co-existed under an uneasy truce, their feelings largely left unspoken.

There were minor eruptions. Ryan once called William (The Refrigerator) Perry a “wasted” draft choice.

“Things like that affect the whole organization, the coaching staff, the scouting staff,” said Ditka in response. “It’s a slap at the entire organization. I backed him up, but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with him.”

In 1985, however, the rift went public. En route to a Super Bowl title that season, Chicago lost only 1 game, falling to the Miami Dolphins, 38-24.

Ryan had been using Wilber Marshall, a linebacker, to cover Dolphin running back Nat Moore. Ditka thought that with Dan Marino at quarterback, Ryan should have been using a cornerback.

And he said so in a heated halftime exchange that ended with Ditka offering to step outside and settle the issue with his assistant.

It didn’t come to that, but, having thrown down the gauntlet, Ditka wasn’t about to retrieve it.

The split had been made and even the eventual Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots that season couldn’t put the Bears back together again.

The Super Bowl victory scene was about as strange as they come. When the game ended, some of Ditka’s players lifted their coach on their shoulders in the standard expression of triumph.

But seconds later, another body came rising out of the crowd. The Chicago defensive players, not to be outdone, lifted their “coach,” Ryan, on their shoulders.

Dueling coaches.

Dueling egos.

It couldn’t last.

Nor did it. In the offseason, Ryan left after 8 years with Chicago.

As might be expected, he didn’t leave quietly.

“I’m not happy he’s gone,” Ditka said of Ryan. “I’m elated .” He later claimed what he had meant was that he was “elated one of my assistants got a job.”

Too late.

Responded Ryan of Ditka: “He’s a jerk. He didn’t know what was going on on defense.”

One of the Bear safeties, Dave Duerson, supported Ryan.

“Buddy ran the defense,” Duerson said. “He was the one that made it go, made it tick.”

Said Ditka: “Hell, the defense should have been great. They were on the field 20 minutes of the game. The offense was on the field for the other 40 minutes.

“The Bears have always had a strong defense. That didn’t happen just when Buddy Ryan arrived.”

When a reporter asked Ditka a question in the post Buddy era, Ditka replied, “I don’t know. All the geniuses have left our staff.”

In 1986, the first Buddy Bowl was held. Philadelphia, under Ryan, came into Soldier Field and lost to the Bears, 13-10, in overtime.

Ditka was less than magnanimous in victory.

“For a defense that’s supposed to be tough on the run,” he said of the Eagles, “we sure shoved it down their throats.”

Ryan broke down in the postgame news conference, fighting back tears as he waved off reporters and retreated into a dressing room.

When he returned later, Ryan tried to laugh off the whole thing. “What emotion?” he asked reporters.

Three years later, Chicago is still using the same basic 46 defense that Ryan devised, though they rarely attack now with an army of blitzers the way they did under Ryan.

But Ditka refuses to refer to it as the 46 defense anymore. It’s just the Bear defense under Vince Tobin.

Call it what you will, it remains as highly effective as it was in the 1985 season, Ryan’s heyday. In the playoffs that season, the Bears shut out two opponents and nearly shut down the Patriots in the Super Bowl, recording a record-tying 7 sacks and limited New England to a record-low 7 yards rushing.

Chicago had the league’s No. 2 defensive unit this season despite serious injuries to defensive linemen Richard Dent, Sean Smith and Perry, and linebackers Otis Wilson and Jim Morrissey. Marshall was lost to free agency before the season began.

After a shaky start (Philadelphia was 5-10-1 in ’86 and 7-8 last season), Ryan has also found success in his new position, leading the Eagles to their first divisional title in 8 years this season.

Which brings us to Saturday’s game.

The stakes are a lot higher now, with a possible Super Bowl berth and perhaps vindication on the line. Ditka would love to show he can get to the Super Bowl without Ryan. And vice versa.

Ryan has fired the first shots in the latest round of this feud, saying that his Eagles are better at every position than the Bears except middle linebacker where Mike Singletary, a Ryan favorite, anchors the Chicago defense.

Most of the Bears just smile and say, that’s Buddy. But Singletary is quick to stick up for his old mentor.

“To me, friendship is a long time,” Singletary said. “You don’t forget people when they go somewhere else. That’s life.”

This week, Ditka seemed tired of the 7-year feud that began in 1981.

“The whole thing has nothing to do with us,” he said of Ryan and Saturday’s game. “It comes down to the players. Our team will play his team. I don’t think he will make a tackle and I don’t think I’ll make any catches.”

And Ryan? He still doesn’t seem ready to bury the hatchet anywhere other than Ditka’s head.

Asked his feelings about working for Ditka, he said, “I didn’t work for him. I worked for Mr. Halas.”

And does he speak to Ditka these days?

“No, and I didn’t speak to him when I was there.”