Ditka Not Changing for Anyone

His face is one of the most recognized in sports--close-cropped hair brushed straight back, glaring blue eyes, bristly mustache, jutting jaw.

For a man who coaches a losing team in the NFL’s second smallest market, nobody gets more ink or air time than New Orleans Saints coach Mike Ditka. Not surprising, given his sometimes wacky behavior.

Shortly after landing Ricky Williams, Ditka wore a black dreadlocks wig as a tribute to his new player and promised a Super Bowl to the fans of a team that has never won a playoff game. He later appeared on a magazine cover in a tuxedo along with his burly first-round draft pick, who was decked out in a wedding dress.

“Mike is not a simple man,” said Danny Abramowicz, the Saints offensive coordinator and a longtime friend. “He acts on impulse a lot. He is emotional. He’s flamboyant. And in spite of his intensity, he doesn’t take himself too seriously. People don’t always realize it, but he’s got a good sense of humor.”

How many other coaches have ever been seen paying off a $10 bet on the sideline or appear in a “Saturday Night Live” skit saying of his team, “We suck”? How many would try to fine his coaches and players for not saying “Praise the Lord,” in place of swear words?

Ditka was chastised by the NFL for his sideline bet with defensive coordinator Zaven Yaralian, but nothing was said when he jokingly told a room full of reporters that Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel would be taken in the top 100 draft picks and then made him the 99th player taken.

Add that to a fiery temper, an unbridled tendency to say what’s on his mind, ever-shifting emotions and an image forged in the days of blood and guts football.

The 59-year-old Ditka still roars around town on his Harley Davidson or in one of his vintage cars. He now owns restaurants in Chicago and New Orleans, has all the money he’ll ever need, a six handicap in golf and is in constant demand to do everything from motivational speaking to TV shows.

In the next month there will be stories on Ditka in publications as varied as Esquire and The Naples (Fla.) Illustrated. Although demand for interviews has tapered off since Ditka put two 6-10 seasons behind him with the Saints, they still run in the hundreds.

“I have 12 requests on my desk right now. And that’s true just about every day,” Saints spokesman Greg Bensel said. “I think he’s kind of a standard for a lot of people. They love to talk to him. People request interviews with Mike 10-to-1 ahead of Ricky.”

No one questions Ditka’s knowledge of the game, but that’s not why television networks, magazines, newspapers, radio stations and Internet chat rooms want him.

“Say what you want about him, he’s never dull,” said Vince Wladika, a senior vice president at Fox Sports. “We love him because he’s very quotable, very blunt and to the point, and he doesn’t talk in coach-speak. He says the things everyone thinks but no one else says.”

Ditka outraged many in New Orleans by telling Sports Illustrated the city had dirty streets, panhandlers in the French Quarter, and no good places to shop.

“The things I said that were printed last year were a little bit unfair,” Ditka said. “If anybody would have heard everything I said, I complimented so many things. And yeah, I said ‘I wish they’d pick up the trash more, clean the place up some,’ but I was only being honest.”

Then there was the cover of ESPN Magazine, with Ditka playing groom to Williams’ bride, which stirred another controversy.

“I don’t feel bad about doing it. I don’t think Ricky should feel bad about doing it,” Ditka said. “The main thing is, if we just go ahead and do what we’re supposed to do and he plays the kind of football he’s going to play, it’ll just be what it was meant to be--humorous.”

Ditka shook up things at this year’s draft by trading all his picks plus a couple next year for Williams, last year’s Heisman Trophy winner. He tried to do the same thing the year before to get quarterback Peyton Manning.

“Yeah, the so-called experts said I was crazy,” Ditka said. “That’s OK, they’re entitled to their opinions. But I know what this team needs, and believe me, one Ricky Williams is worth a lot more than a load of other guys.”

Ditka, who takes medication for an irregular heart beat, had a heart attack more than a decade ago while coaching the Chicago Bears, with whom he won the Super Bowl in 1986.

He claims to have mellowed, citing religion as a major influence on his life. Indeed, Ditka was meditating at a religious retreat when he decided to cut quarterback Jim Everett just before minicamp in 1997.

But if he’s mellowed, many of those around him haven’t noticed.

“I think he’s just as intense as ever,” defensive line coach Walt Corey said. “The thing is, he hates to lose. He hates to lose at anything, football, golf, checkers, anything.”

It’s lack of effort that sparks his sideline tantrums, Ditka said. He’s changed his starting quarterback seven times in two years.

“He cut me every time I came off the field,” former quarterback Heath Shuler said.

He benched his running backs and receivers repeatedly and traded Andre Royal after a shouting match with him during training camp in which Ditka questioned Royal’s toughness.

“You don’t back down, ever,” Ditka said. “And if I ever see the trend that somebody is doing that, I’ve got to get them out of there. Maybe it’s a defensive corner, and I call him on the side, ‘Listen, that’s him and you. Who’s the better man?’ You’ve got to prove it. That’s how I am, I can’t change it.”