Friendship Sustained, Not Strained : Wannstedt Accepts Bears Job, Where He Won’t Coach in Same Division as Dallas

Hours after he replaced a Chicago football folk hero, Dave Wannstedt returned to Dallas on Tuesday night, saying he felt relaxed and ready to prepare for his final game as the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator.

In what is believed to be an unprecedented situation, Wannstedt will stay with the Cowboys through Super Bowl XXVII against the Buffalo Bills in Pasadena Jan. 31 before departing to take the Chicago Bears’ head coaching job.

That job was made vacant when Mike Ditka was fired earlier this month. Wannstedt, who flew to Chicago on Monday, was offered the job that night and was announced as coach by the team Tuesday.

At the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport on Tuesday night, looking a little worn by the events of the day, Wannstedt said he was glad to get the decision-making process over before the Cowboys were involved in serious game-planning for Buffalo. He said there was no doubt he could refocus his attention and energy to the Cowboys.

“I feel more relieved and better than I did last week when my name was all over the paper. There was lots of speculation and all that,” Wannstedt said. “Last week was the really tough week, getting ready for San Francisco with all that happening.

“It’s done now. The way it worked out, the timing was right. And Jimmy (Johnson, the Cowboys head coach) and I both thought this way there would be less distractions for the team as we prepare for the Super Bowl.

“Now that the pressure’s off, I feel relaxed, I feel great. It’s time to get the benefit of some of the blood, sweat and tears we’ve shed for the last four years to get to this point.”

Wannstedt, 40, one of Johnson’s closest confidants, confirmed that last week he had been all but offered the top job with the New York Giants, saying that he had had “intense, intense” discussions with Giants General Manager George Young.

But Wannstedt, citing the area, owner Michael McCaskey and the Bears’ use of his favored four-man-line defensive scheme, said Chicago was his clear choice.

Johnson had said that part of the reason Wannstedt opted for the Bears over the NFC East Giants was that he thought playing in the same division as Johnson might jeopardize their friendship.

“We talked about that some,” Johnson said Tuesday. “Our relationship probably would’ve deteriorated had he been in this division. I think he understands me, sometimes a little better than most people do, and sometimes better than I understand myself.

“He realized that our relationship would diminish had he been in this division. . . . I think that we will still be able to keep the relationship with him being with the Chicago Bears.”

McCaskey acknowledged the transition from Ditka to Wannstedt. “This is a historic day for the Chicago Bears, the passing of the torch,” he said at Tuesday’s news conference.

But there are similarities at both ends of the passing.

Wannstedt, like the man he is replacing in Chicago, was born in Western Pennsylvania and is known for his intensity. Ditka was offered a consulting job with the Bears after he was fired.

“It’s kind of funny,” Wannstedt of the similarities between the two men. “I can’t say enough about the respect I have for Mike Ditka. The Bears have a great deal of tradition, and Mike Ditka will always be a part of that. I’m sure he’ll be around a lot, and I’ll see him soon after I get there.”

Johnson first hooked up with Wannstedt in the late-1970s, when both were assistant coaches at the University of Pittsburgh. He took Wannstedt along to Oklahoma State as an assistant, and Wannstedt joined Johnson’s staff at Miami in 1985 after two seasons as an assistant to Ted Tollner as USC.

Johnson spoke with McCaskey early this week to make sure the situation was right for his right hand man to accept his first head coaching job.

“He’s excited about the talent there in Chicago,” Johnson said. “We felt like that they were a talented football team. They’ve got some good young players. I think he’ll have a good relationship with Mike McCaskey.”