Chicago Bears fans are often criticized for never fully getting over the 1985 Super Bowl winning team that dominated opponents on the field while also topping the charts with the Super Bowl Shuffle but one couldn't blame them for getting a little nostalgic when former coach Mike Ditka prowled the sideline watching practice on Tuesday, according to CBS Chicago.
After Ditka was fired in 1993 he has not made many official appearances with the team despite remaining one of Chicago's most loved sports figures. Current Bears coach Marc Trestman reached out to Ditka shortly after becoming coach and the organization has started to repair the relationship, according to CBS Chicago.
"I called him last week with the idea to bring him to come by and see Halas Hall and the new facility and spend some time with our players and say hello to them and he graciously agreed to do that and we certainly appreciate the fact that he came out here today to be with us," Trestman told CBS Chicago.
Ditka appeared on ESPN Radio and explained that while his relationship with ownership may have been a bit rocky his love for the franchise never wavered.
"There was a perception for a long time - it wasn't perpetrated by me - that I was not a Bears fan," Ditka said. "I don't care if I was fired or traded, I was drafted by Mr. Halas, I played for him, the last two championships [the Bears] won I was a player and a coach on them. Is that the best thing in the world? No, but I'm just saying nobody has more of a right to be a fan than me."
After watching the players go through practice Ditka spoke to them in the locker room.
"His message was a great one," Trestman told CBS Chicago. "It's about the relationships that you have with your teammates, it's about the camaraderie, it's about the locker room. The money is the least significant portion of it. I think that's pretty universal in the game of football when you've been around it a long time and the rest of it I'll leave to our players what he said."
Ditka spent 11 years coaching the Bears before a 5-11 season led to his dismissal. The Bears will be retiring the number 89 that Ditka wore for his 6 seasons playing for Chicago, according to ESPN.
"It's a great honor. It's an unbelievable honor," Ditka told ESPN. "To me it wasn't necessary because you can't change the fact that I played the game for the Bears. I know I left and I played for the Eagles and I played for the Cowboys but I played the game for the Bears.
"I played for the guy [Halas] who started the National Football League," Ditka continued. "The joy I have out of my career with the Bears and how much it meant to me...retiring the number is a tremendous honor, but it's not significant in what I think of my achievements with the Bears. All of it was too good, and even the bad days were too good."
