At a Grand Avenue restaurant called Rock Bottom, on the second Sunday of this NFL season, a man with a red face and ample belly was shouting at a waiter.
“The Saints game,” he shouted. “Turn on the Saints game!”
The waiter calmly tried to explain to the agitated fellow that the restaurant’s many sets were tuned to other games and sporting events previously requested by customers.
The man, after fuming and muttering many bad words, was last seen on the phone, calling bars and restaurants in order to find a place that had the New Orleans Saints game on the tube.
“I am desperate for Ditka,” he said.
This was, of course, before the Saints lost their third game, giving the team’s coach–former Bears coach Mike Ditka–the same unenviable 0-3 season-start as current Bears coach Dave Wannstedt.
“It’s strange the hold Ditka has on people,” said the Rock Bottom waiter. “It’s like a love affair that won’t die.”
He is right, no doubt. But our affection for Ditka–of course, not everyone is smitten, including my mother–is a complex thing to analyze.
Still, one need have looked no farther than the sports pages in the wake of each coach’s third defeat to see distinct differences in their postgame personalities.
Wannstedt: “I don’t know what to say.”
Ditka: “Am I looking forward to (the Bears-Saints game on Oct. 5)? Hell, I’m looking forward to a first down.”
On a recent Sunday at Iron Mike’s Grille, in which Ditka is a partner, more than one TV set was tuned to a Saints game.
And a 50-ish fellow freely admitted, “Am I looking forward to the Saints-Bears game? It will be thrilling to see the coach in the flesh again.”
