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

[Day1]

Ditka was all about selling himself while in NO. He would endorse anything for a price. I can't remember all what he shilled for, but at one time I recall thinking that he had oversaturated the market.

 

[cajnwillie]

He gets way too much credit for that Bears team. Jim Finks build that team, without a salary cap, I might add. When Finks came to our team, the Bears went downhill fast.

This is the answer...Ditka was a folk hero but he was playing with a completely loaded team...talent at all levels on offense and defense.

 

[Mrpoplus]

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.

If I had a dollar for every-time I have said this I would be rich right now .

 

[NatureBoy]

Different time. He coached the way he was coached and played. He is from a generation of tough people. At one time it worked. In some cases, it still does, but for the most part the league and culture has "evolved". Some would say it did so for the better, some would say not. It’s the normal cycle of life, the more things change the more they stay the same.

In that particular clip what's exposed is the mistake he made in hiring Danny to be his OC. Danny was obviously lost and in over his head.

After watching that I thought it would be a lot worse. If thats "toxic"...you've probably missed some nuclear melt downs. That was tame.

 

[Judge_Smails]

One thing I will give him is that he wasn't afraid to make changes at all. If you weren't performing, he would yank you pretty quick. Unfortunately he didn't do the same for his OC.

That’s usually a sign of being a bad evaluator of talent, which he was. Lol.

 

[Saint Kamara]

I have hated Mile Ditka ever since that disastrous 3 year stint with the Saints.

 

[tarusman28]

Mike was old school, the game had past him by. His coaching tenure was the beginning of "you can't hurt anybody's feelings"

Mike Ditka was anointed the head coach of the Bears by George Halas. He never earned it. That 85 Bears team was ran by the assistant coaches. Ditka was just there for the ride.

 

[Saintman2884]

That's Danny Abramowicz -- not his fault we had doo doo at QB.

• In retrospect, asking Danny Abramowitz to make the quantum leap from special teams assistant to running an NFL offense as OC, for the first time in his career, was watching a slow-moving train disaster in the making occur very gradually. Ditka failed for many reasons, not least of all because the game and being a HC, had passed him by probably by the early 1990's when he was still Bears HC. His huge, oversized ego, holier-than-thou attitude and self-righteous hypocritical actions like telling his Bears players in late 80's to stop concentrating and focusing on doing commercials, when he himself goes out and stars in a Chunky Soup commercial. That decision, according to several longtime Bears defensive stars, usually diehard Ditka supporters, was where the team pretty much stopped listening to him and began ignoring him.
• Plus, Ditka really, in all honesty, didnt build those great 80's Chicago Bears teams. Some pieces of the puzzle were already in place before he got there, in 1982, like Dan Hampton and IIRC, Mike Singletary and Otis Wilson. Former Bears GM Jim Finks and an outstanding college scouting department chose those great players and Finks left because he felt Ditka wasnt the sort of NFL-ready HC who could successfully and consistently long-term run an NFL team with his firebrand, blustering yet confrontational attitude. Ditka succeeded in Chicago because he stayed out of the way for the most part until his last couple of seasons and that he had a great corporate franchise structure behind preventing him from screwing up and a large portion of the 85 Bears defensive talent was in place and already developing. Ditka didn't have those pre-existing factors in New Orleans when he was hired here after the 1996 season ended.

 

[Saintman2884]

Mike Ditka was anointed the head coach of the Bears by George Halas. He never earned it. That 85 Bears team was ran by the assistant coaches. Ditka was just there for the ride.

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.

 

[Saint Jack]

It seemed like it was just a paycheck. His legacy was already secure with the Bears and the 85 Super Bowl.
His Saints tenure was house money to him.

 

[RebSaint]

Different time. He coached the way he was coached and played. He is from a generation of tough people. At one time it worked. In some cases, it still does, but for the most part the league and culture has "evolved". Some would say it did so for the better, some would say not. It’s the normal cycle of life, the more things change the more they stay the same.

In that particular clip what's exposed is the mistake he made in hiring Danny to be his OC. Danny was obviously lost and in over his head.

After watching that I thought it would be a lot worse. If thats "toxic"...you've probably missed some nuclear melt downs. That was tame.

Bill Parcells, Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs were from the same coaching “generation” and were light years ahead of Ditka. It has absolutely nothing to do with any generation paradigm shift.

 

[NatureBoy]

Bill Parcells, Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs were from the same coaching “generation” and were light years ahead of Ditka. It has absolutely nothing to do with any generation paradigm shift.

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.

 

[rsmith2783]

That’s usually a sign of being a bad evaluator of talent, which he was. Lol.

Lol true. In the video I posted, he admitted that he was wrong. Then he also said that he's probably the wrong man for the job.

 

[Groovepro]

Ditka definitely was more of a "figurehead" type of coach. He always wanted to "fire up the troops", instill the culture and entrusted his coordinators to run their respective areas. That could work in the old days if had good coordinators. Most of the players really did like Ditka in his tenure with us. His blind devotion to Danny Abramowicz was the downfall (if it ever had a high point) for the offense. He was very loyal to his people and almost thought he could just WILL greatness from them...same as his players. Danny A made Carl Smith look like Bill Walsh. There was a lot of HEART on those teams. Look at how many snaps and playing through injury Ricky endured his first season. If he had a top flight offensive staff, we would have had some success. The QB carousal was a joke. There were still some "bad luck" that went on...Shuler's foot, etc. I don't think Ditka felt like he was "phoning it in" at the time, but when look back at it and what it takes to be a successful head coach in this league, you need more than a cheerleader/mascot. He knew he was a "duck out of water" in the end, though...it humbled him greatly. Our lack of success, minus the first year, with Haslett was he wasn't HC material either. He wanted to be the players' friend. McCarthy was a control freak to a counterproductive degree. I had a few friends (players and staff personnel) I talked to often during the tenures of Mora (the last 3 years), Ditka and Haslett...the stories and underlying things the public didn't know really were serious issues causing the team to not succeed.

 

[bouxdag]

If thats "toxic"...you've probably missed some nuclear melt downs. That was tame.

I don't really care about it being "toxic" but for me the problem with that style is the assistant is clearly searching for an answer that will make Ditka happy, and not just answering the question honestly.

Now judging by what I've learned in this thread about the assistant, the honest answer may well have been "I have no clue because I'm in way above my head."

But if that's the case, my assumption would be he probably got the job by being a yes man and giving Ditka what he wanted to hear for a very long time.