Ditka comes from an older America

[oldecapecod11]

Nice article re Iron Mike - probably not for the kids with runny noses...

Ditka comes from an older America, a nation rusted over, gone.

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/12/21/mike ... eff-fisher

[rhickok1109]

Nice article re Iron Mike - probably not for the kids with runny noses...

Ditka comes from an older America, a nation rusted over, gone.

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/12/21/mike ... eff-fisher

Interesting. I never thought about a Ditka coaching tree. And, frankly, I have my doubts about it, but it's still an interesting article.

[Rupert Patrick]

Ditka is living football history, having played for Halas and Landry along with being a man's man in a world where they have become an almost extinct species. I think it would be interesting to compare the Ditka coaching tree to other trees of his coaching era (such as Joe Gibbs or Marty Schottenheimer) and you can see where he would surpass them in the number of players who have turned into coaching and assistants who went on to coach. It is interesting that an inordinate number of players who were in Chicago in the mid 80's have become head coaches in the NFL, and they all, to different degrees, emulate his hard-nosed style. Ditka should have been more successful in Chicago, should have won at least one more Super Bowl in the 1986-88 window. The problem was he had too many different options at QB and the one he chose, McMahon, was injury prone, which in the post-1985 years forced him into a QB by committee, and the team didn't rally around the other QB's like they did McMahon.

[BernardB]

Cohen's misuse of Nietzsche's will to power made me laugh. It's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's uber-Ditka.

[mwald]

How can you not love Mike Ditka? He's one of those guys who, regardless of your political affiliation, seems to resonate with most folks. He's also a guy, like Charles Barkley, who gets away with saying politically incorrect things without being excoriated for it. Gotta love that, even if you don't agree with it.

As for the coaching tree, I'll buy Rivera to a certain extent. But Fisher is all Buddy Ryan, and Sean Payton was far more influenced by Parcells.