Mike Ditka was one toxic man as Saints coach (1 Viewer)

I'm not comparing success, I'm comparing approach. Hard nosed is hard nosed. It worked in Chicago but not here. Ditka had a great staff in Chicago and caught lightening in a bottle.

So what's "hard nosed?" Tough training camp? Holding players accountable? Yelling and screaming at players and assistants? Walsh's and Parcells's teams exemplified "hard nosed" Ditka just seemed to yell and scream; he was mostly all sizzle and no steak.
 
Still can’t believe the Ricky Williams trade!!! It’s been how long and I’m still shocked every time I think about it

Oddly this was one of the few things that Ditka did that I didn't have a huge issue with. I felt like he was not a good talent evaluator anyway and wasted draft picks on players that would eventually get cut... never to play in the NFL again. Figured I would rather have 1 'sure thing' franchise pick than 5 or 6 mehs that would never see an NFL game. The flaw in this was that Ricky wasn't a 'sure thing.' He had all the physical tools but something was loose upstairs.
 
Ditka always had weird relationships with his QBs. Even in Chicago, where McMahon was really solid, though often injured - Ditka always seemed ready to yank him out for someone like Flutie or Steve Fuller.

In New Orleans, he rolled the dice early with Heath Shuler and when it was clear that was a bad choice, it was a revolving door of Billy Joe's. But he always wanted Danny Wuerffel to be "the guy" - mostly because I think he respected him as a person - not because he thought he was the best QB option.

I've always been perplexed by Ditka's handling of Kerry Collins. Collins get's cut by Carolina - Saints pick him up. He's not the greatest - but clearly better than anything we'd had in the black and gold in ages. He get's a below average team in contention for the playoffs and despite a fizzle out at the end - the Saints make no effort to re-sign him (as I recall...).

I think it had to do with the fact that Ditka didn't like that he had demons and a guy like Wuerffel didn't.

I think Ditka just wanted a QB that he liked as a person and could hand the ball off to the RB 40 times a game. Sadly, the NFL was evolving and Ditka wasn't. By comparison - Dick Vermeil was similar in his return to coaching but he evolved and as a result had the people in-place who could build one of the greatest offenses the NFL has ever seen.
 
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Ditka always had weird relationships with his QBs. Even in Chicago, where McMahon was really solid, though often injured - Ditka always seemed ready to yank him out for someone like Flutie or Steve Fuller.

In New Orleans, he rolled the dice early with Heath Shuler and when it was clear that was a bad choice, it was a revolving door of Billy Joe's. But he always wanted Danny Wuerffel to be "the guy" - mostly because I think he respected him as a person - not because he thought he was the best QB option.

I've always been perplexed by Ditka's handling of Kerry Collins. Collins get's cut by Carolina - Saints pick him up. He's not the greatest - but clearly better than anything we'd had in the black and gold in ages. He get's a below average team in contention for the playoffs and despite a fizzle out at the end - the Saints make no effort to re-sign him (as I recall...).

I think it had to do with the fact that Ditka didn't like that he had demons and a guy like Wuerffel didn't.

I think Ditka just wanted a QB that he liked as a person and could hand the ball off to the RB 40 times a game. Sadly, the NFL was evolving and Ditka wasn't. By comparison - Dick Vermeil was similar in his return to coaching but he evolved and as a result had the people in-place who could build one of the greatest offenses the NFL has ever seen.
If Jim McMahon hadn't indeed been injured all the time, even while he was playing solid (and that wasnt always the case), maybe Ditka wouldn't have tempted to pull him out of games because Jimbo had a nagging little problem of getting and staying injured. Some of his injuries were due to his reckless, proto-Favre rough-and-tumble style of play, unlike Favre, McMahon never could quite play through those injuries. Did McMahon ever play an entire season in Chicago without getting injured, knocked out of the game, sent to the hospital for staph infections? Considering those circumstances, Ditka probably wasnt being too rash for wanting to have quality backups around in case his starting QB got hurt again. Plus, when you have great legendary RBs like Walter Payton, a lot of HCs might be tempted also to be over-reliant on such a phenomenal, powerful, inspirational HOF player Payton was.
 
You do know that Ditka and George Halas had a falling out in 1966-67 when Ditka upset penny-pinching, perceived cheap NFL owner Halas in a Chicago Tribune article insinuating, "He throws nickels around like their manhole covers". Ditka was traded to Philadelphia maybe a week later. I don't think even 15 years later, even as a Cowboys special teams coach, Halas ever forgave him. In fact, when Ditka was hired in January 1982, his coaching salary was the lowest among all other then-28 NFL HC's.
Ok and so what. Halas still made Ditka his head coach of the Bears and he (Mike) accepted the job. Besides Ditka didn't have to accept the job if he really hated Halas and vice versa.
 
Ok and so what. Halas still made Ditka his head coach of the Bears and he (Mike) accepted the job. Besides Ditka didn't have to accept the job if he really hated Halas and vice versa.
Ditka sort of went out of his way to apply in late 1981 while still a Cowboys assistant for the Bears job. I think perhaps Ditka wanted to make things right because he felt he was partly responsible for Halas shipping him off to Philly in 1967 for spouting off about how cheap Halas and the Bears FO were back then(and in many cases they were cheap). Back in the old NFL or American sport’s ownership player/coach hierarchy, it wasn’t necessarily essential a team’s owner had to be on the best terms with his HC’s, FO, or many of his own players. The long-running sense of animosity and bitterness between NFLPA/ownership over salary cap, limited free agency, larger salaries, better retirement benefits during the 1970’s, and in 1982 and 1987 work stoppages and MLBPA finally getting the decades-old, hated “Reserve Clause” overturned is evidence of that.
 
Really bad hire from the outset. What's worse is TB gave him another 3 year deal on top of the original deal after he finished 6-10 in his 1st year as coach. The franchise went though a real horrid time back then. He brought in horrible QBs and then the RW trade/draft. Man those were really tough years to watch.
 
No disrespect to Iron Mike but he was a “has been” when he came to the Saints. The game had already passed him by and his coaching style had faded we'll into the past.
I played blackjack with him for a few minutes while he was waiting to get a open chair to play poker one night at casino Magic in Bay St Louis. He was pretty cool that night and even told the dealer he was only a arse when he steppEd on the field.
 

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