DINOSAUR DITKA

Mike Ditka describes the last four years as the Life of Riley. What more could a man want? He was famous. He had money and plenty of time to golf.

What he missed is what he believes everyone wants--long hours, hard work and unbending discipline. In other words, football as Ditka knows and loves it.

“I just did what I wanted to do. It wasn’t bad and I’m not knocking it. I enjoyed it,” Ditka said of his life away from football. “But you don’t have a lot of direction when you do that. You just kind of float around.”

Ditka’s not floating anymore. And his return to the game as coach of the New Orleans Saints has made him happier than he’s been in a long time, his wife, Diana, said.

“He’s back where he ought to be,” she said.

Ditka, 57, who spent 32 years in football as a player and coach, has four NFL championship rings. He earned two as a player (Chicago in 1963 and Dallas in 1971), one as an assistant coach in Dallas in 1977 and one as coach of the Bears in 1985.

Chicago was 6-10 the year before Ditka took over in 1982. With him as coach, the Bears won six NFC Central titles, had three appearances in the NFC championship game and won the Super Bowl with an 18-1 record.

There was talk during those years of Ditka being the Bears’ coach for life. Instead, Chicago finished 5-11 in 1992 and Ditka left.

Suddenly, Ditka was labeled a coaching dinosaur, someone who did not understand today’s high-priced players. He was mentioned for other jobs, but they weren’t offered. He headed for the broadcast booth instead, becoming an analyst for NBC. He gave motivational speeches and spent the rest of his time playing golf and “floating” through life.

Ditka, elected to the Hall of Fame for his 12 seasons as a tight end with the Bears, Philadelphia Eagles and Cowboys, believes he didn’t get back into coaching sooner because he did not actively pursue jobs.

His wife was more blunt, saying nobody had the guts to hire a coach with a reputation for rages. That was until Saints owner Tom Benson came along.

With Ditka, the Saints acquired instant visibility after four nonwinning seasons, including last year’s 3-13 mark.

Ditka got a challenge he found irresistible: not just the chance to return to the Super Bowl, but the chance to do it with a team that has had only five winning seasons in 31 years and has never won a playoff game.

“Somebody asked me after we won the Super Bowl, ‘What’s the greatest thing that every happened to you?’ and I said it’s yet to happen,” Ditka said.

“To make this truly a respected, winning organization, I think that would be a truly satisfying thing, because that would give me the same satisfaction I had in Chicago in realizing that I was part of the architectural staff that created it.”

Although Ditka and Saints officials insist the creation is very much a team effort involving general manager Bill Kuharich and the coaching staff, everyone agrees the force behind it is the dinosaur mentality that Ditka now wears like a badge.

“We’re reshaping this football team in Mike Ditka’s image,” Kuharich said. “We want to get players who play every play for 60 minutes and play each game for 16 games.”

Character and winning attitude are now as much the Saints’ buzz words as speed and ability.

“Character is the biggest thing with him,” said Bruce Lemmerman, director of college scouting for the Saints. “He talked about it over and over when we were evaluating players.”

It was the word Ditka used to describe his draft picks and other additions, including Heath Shuler, the high-priced quarterback the Washington Redskins had relegated to a backup.

“He wants people you can count on not to quit or give up,” offensive coordinator Danny Abramowicz said. “Mike is an expert at evaluating the heart a guy brings to the game and he knows that if they don’t have it, nothing else counts.”

Ditka wasted no time letting the Saints know what he expected. Renaldo Turnbull, who walked off the field during a game last year, was told if he did it again he could keep on walking.

Mario Bates’ conditioning was always questionable and Ray Zellars got into a shouting match with former coach Jim Mora over being asked to block. Ditka told both backs to shape up.

Jim Everett’s attitude was good, but he was 34 and Ditka decided an unproven Shuler, 25, was a better bet. Then Ditka cut last year’s leading receivers Michael Haynes and Torrance Small and signed free agents Andre Hastings from the Steelers and Randal Hill from the Dolphins.

And, dinosaur that he is, Ditka told everyone he expected them to spend the off-season in New Orleans working and to report to training camp ready for a tough grind.

The game has changed since he left, Ditka admits. But he hasn’t.

“I’ve coped with free agency. I’ve coped with the cap. But I won’t cope with changing what I believe is right just to conform with society in the ‘90s, just because they say you have to do it this way just because it’s 1997,” Ditka said.

“If you look at what it takes to be No. 1, it’s the same thing. It’s the grind, the discipline, the perseverance. And players love it. They want it. They want discipline. Some of them can’t give it to themselves, but they want it, they crave it. That’s my job. Dinosaur or not, I’m not going to change.”