Despite loss, Ditka has a good day
Mike Ditka was in his element Sunday afternoon at Allstate Arena.
He's a football man, this was a football game, and these were football fans surrounding him.
"There are a lot of things I could've done today," Ditka said, "but I'd rather be here."
Of course, he wasn't exactly a casual observer during the Arena Football League playoff game between the Chicago Rush and the Grand Rapids Rampage.
Ditka is an investor in the Rush, which was trying to advance toward the AFL championship game scheduled for July 27 in New Orleans.
You might recall Ditka won Super Bowl XX there as head coach of the Bears.
"It all was in New Orleans," Ditka said.
By all he means his Super Bowl victories down there as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
"That's in the past," Ditka said.
Still, adding an Arena title as a part owner - nobody is revealing what percentage Ditka owns in the Rush - would complete a significant football grand slam.
Ah, but it wasn't to be, at least not this season. The Rampage eliminated the Rush 58-41.
"We didn't play well enough in any phase of the game," Rush coach Mike Hohensee said.
Anyway, Ditka is involved with the Rush long term, so he has time to win an AFL title. However, he's quick to point out that his role doesn't include interfering with the coaching staff or general manager.
Let's just say Ditka is sort of a cross between consultant and conscience.
"Player conduct," Ditka mentions as something he's interested in. "This is a team sport. In the NFL they call attention to themselves and to me that gets tired after awhile."
Ditka likes the AFL because it's old-time football, tough and rough and rough and ready.
Another area in which Ditka is involved, without even trying, is public relations. He's still Da Coach around town, and an audience with him is precious.
Ditka was like a religious figure a few minutes before Sunday's kickoff. He sat in front of a suite, and the line of fans approaching him trailed nearly down to the field.
All received autographs, on hats and footballs and programs and towels and ticket stubs. Meanwhile, phone cameras captured the scene.
Then Ditka sat for a newspaper interview. A couple of days ago he went on WGN-AM to promote the game. He's providing the Rush with more exposure than it would have commanded if, say, Sam Zell was an investor.
"Anything they ask me to do.ˆ .ˆ . why not?" Ditka said.
He is a fan once the game starts, though he doesn't exactly fit the AFL fan demographic of young and younger.
Ditka does fit the league's ownership demo, however. Former NFL players John Elway, Ron Jaworski and Bernie Kosar are others invested in Arena teams.
Of them all, Ditka is best suited to represent this sport. Tanned and tight, he looks like he still could bounce off tacklers on the AFL's short field the way he did as an NFL tight end.
"I was a football player," Ditka said. "If this was a game available to me, I probably would've played it."
This football player enjoyed some July football Sunday, if not the result.