Could it be that the man known as “Iron Mike” has gone soft in his advancing age? Consider Coach Ditka’s recent comments to Dan Le Batard of 790 The Ticket in Miami, regarding the controversial question posed by Dolphins G.M. Jeff Ireland to receiver Dez Bryant.
“I think the individual who asked that question, somebody ought to whack him in the head,” Ditka said, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “You don’t ask that question. If you think you know it, you know. What are you going to confront a young man with that situation for? He probably loves his mother no matter what she is or who she is. Why would somebody do that? I don’t understand things like that. Maybe I’m naive or I’m old. I don’t understand that. Why? What do you get from asking that question? What’s it all about? Every bit of information has to be spread out on the table now? Is that it? Everybody’s dirty linen has to be out? I disagree with that. I’m sorry.”
So what is it that Ditka wants to know about a player?
“I want to know what kind of character that individual has,” Ditka told Le Batard. “That’s what I want to know. I want to know if he is a stand up guy. Will he get in the foxhole with me and stay in that foxhole until the battle’s over. That’s what I want to know. Is he going to give me everything he has. That’s all I care about. If he has other social problems, I can’t really worry about that. But if he’s a good teammate, he’s a good team player, he’s a guy who is going to give me everything he’s got, that’s all I want to know.”
We agree with Ditka, but we also understand why a team would want to throw a player off guard. All of the top prospects use consultants now; it’s hard to get to the truth about a player in the limited exposure provided during pre-draft interviews. And then if someone gets under a guy’s skin on a key drive late in a playoff game and the guy swings a fist, the game -- and the season -- could be lost.
Still, there’s got to be a better way to move past the exterior. And we continue to hope that the NFL counsels the Dolphins and others that there are limits on the questions that should be posed to a potential draft pick.
That said, we’re surprised that Ditka, who was never known to be soft on a player, would come out so strongly against the question. And it makes us wonder whether Ditka simply wants to twist the tail of Ireland’s boss, Bill Parcells, who once was a Ditka rival during the mid-1980s.
