ON THE SIDELINES : Ditka Will Bear It One More Year

Chicago Bears Coach Mike Ditka, who startled an audience at a sports luncheon by saying he would not be around much longer, now says he’ll be back next year in the final year of his contract--”if they want me.”

Ditka, whose team has lost four of its last five games for a 5-4 season record, said Wednesday he’s been wondering about the maxim that coaches burn out after 10 years.

But he took one small step backward from the comments he made Tuesday in Merrillville, Ind., where he had said of his job: “I’m not going to do this very much longer anyway. They can get somebody else and continue about their own ways.”

“When I made the comment (in Indiana), it was a general comment,” he told reporters. “It was not meant to excite anybody. I stated a fact.”

He was asked specifically if he’d be back for the final year of his three-year contract in 1990. “Yeah,” Ditka said. “I have a contract next year if they want me.”