Rumors of a Mellow Ditka Are Only That

Welcome back, Iron Mike.

From time to time, there are reports that a new, mellow Mike Ditka has arrived on the scene.

The good news is that the reports never turn out to be true.

It’s only a matter of time before the old feisty Mike Ditka emerges.

It didn’t take long to happen this year.

The outspoken Chicago Bears coach is squabbling with his best running back, Neal Anderson, in training camp.

“Neal doesn’t talk to me,” Ditka said last week. “I think he’s mad at me. I’ve had strained relationships all my life. I couldn’t care less.”

Over to Anderson:

“My idea is to go out and play the best football I can and try to cause no problem on the team,” he said. “Nothing has happened (with Ditka) to detract from the way I do my job.”

Nobody is sure why they’re on the outs. There doesn’t have to be a reason when Ditka is involved, although he accused Anderson of running with his head down and not bursting through the hole last year. It turned out Anderson played hurt last year without telling the team.

Meanwhile, Ditka was amused that offensive lineman Stan Thomas, the team’s top pick last year, has complained about being jerked back and forth between left and right tackle.

“We were in the coaches’ room when that tape came on TV and it was better than watching the Three Stooges,” Ditka said.

You didn’t think Ditka was going to be sympathetic, did you?

Anyway, Ditka is so entertaining that you hate to bring up the fact his overall playoff record is 6-6 and he’s 2-5 in the playoffs since winning the Super Bowl after the 1985 season.

Has Bill Walsh changed, now that he’s back at Stanford? Even as a TV analyst, the former San Francisco 49ers coach could be grating because of his harping on the mistakes on the field. But now that he’s in his second stint as the Stanford coach, he seems more tolerant.

At the team’s first practice for the Pigskin Classic against Texas A&M; on Aug. 26, Walsh said, “There were just God-awful mistakes sometimes. I don’t know if you could see me laughing out there. . . . It’s cute, really.”

Laughing? Cute?

Will it still be cute when he loses his first game?

One of the most surprising games of last year was played by Michael Irvin, the Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, when he caught nine passes for 130 yards and a touchdown against Darrell Green to enable the Cowboys to upset the Washington Redskins, 24-21, and spoil their bid for a perfect season.

The Green-Irvin rematch is supposed to be a highlight of the Sept. 7 Monday night opener between the two teams, but it’s likely neither player will be in top shape--even if they play. Both are holding out.

Quarterback Troy Aikman misses Irvin and two other offensive stalwarts, tight end Jay Novacek and center Mark Stepnoski.

“Our offense can’t be ready until we get those guys back,” he said.

Since the Redskins defense can’t be ready until they get Green back, it may even itself out.

The tension between the college football coaches and the NFL scouts is increasing. The members of the American Football Coaches Assn. discussed in a conference call last week further restricting the access pro scouts have to their programs.

What the coaches are really upset about is that juniors keep opting for the NFL draft. There’s nothing the NFL can do about that because it would certainly lose a lawsuit if it tried to bar juniors.

On the other hand, the NFL probably is guilty of overkill on scouting. Jim Finks, the president of the New Orleans Saints and the head of the competition committee, has proposed the league establish one central scouting bureau to cut down on all the duplication, but can’t get support for the idea.

Charlie McLendon, the LSU coach, said the days that NFL scouts could “walk in and walk out” of college campuses with a coach assigned to them are over.

Cleveland Brown Coach Bill Belichick sent a signal to his team that he won’t tolerant off-the-field problems. When rookie cornerback Tim Hill, who was recuperating from a pulled hamstring at his home in Columbus, Ohio, was shot in a bar, Belichick cut him while he was still in the hospital.

“We sent him home to get his leg better . . . and he’s screwing around in a bar,” he said.

Owner Art Modell backed Belichick’s action. “You can’t win on the field when you have problems off the field,” he said.

Hill and the man who shot him were apparently arguing about a woman.

Kenneth Simms, the first player taken in the 1982 draft by the New England Patriots, was waived by the Buffalo Bills, ending a comeback attempt after two years away from football.

Simms broke his leg twice, ruptured an Achilles’ tendon and never lived up to his reputation in eight years with the Patriots.

The Patriots won the right to Simms when they lost to the Baltimore Colts in the “Stupor Bowl” in the 1981 season finale. The Colts wound up with the second pick and took Johnie Cooks, who also never wound up being the player he was supposed to be.

When the Seattle Seahawks had their exhibition opener -- viewed by the team’s third-smallest preseason crowd (52,360) -- the cheerleaders unveiled new, revealing one-piece uniforms. By the end of the first quarter, seams were starting to rip and the Sea Gals had to wear jackets the rest of the game. Maybe the Seahawks should stick to football.

Remember when Alan Page was a Purple People Eater? The Hall of Fame defensive lineman may have a new name: Minnesota Supreme Court justice. He’s running against two other candidates and could become the first black member of the state Supreme Court. A Notre Dame graduate, he got his law degree in 1978 from the University of Minnesota and is an assistant state attorney general.