Larry Brown Sports

Tim Tebow may have played his last down as a quarterback in the NFL. The New York Jets finally released him last week after an experiment that failed miserably, and the former Florida star cleared waivers as expected. If Hall of Famer Mike Ditka were still coaching, Tebow might have a shot.

In his weekly “4 Downs with Ditka” column in the Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday, Ditka wrote that he would be willing to take a chance on Tebow.

“I think [Tebow] can play quarterback in the NFL, but whatever offense you run might have to be tweaked a bit,” the two-time AP NFL Coach of the Year said, via Adam Jahns of the Sun-Times. “This kid is a talent and he proved it in college. He is an outstanding leader.

“Now, does he have an unusual throwing motion? Yes. But there a lot of quarterbacks that didn’t have a perfect throwing motion. Some of them turned out to be great quarterbacks because they were great leaders. I really do think there’s a place for him. If not at quarterback, I think he could play tight end. If I was in the league and coaching today, I would take a chance on him at quarterback.”

There has been speculation that a coach like Bill Belichick might take a flyer on Tebow and try to use him as a tight end or an H-back. In order for Tebow to succeed as a quarterback in the NFL, some team would have to drastically alter their offense. The type of offense he ran with the Gators is not common at the NFL level, and that likely has a lot to do with the speed of the game.

In believing that Tebow can still play quarterback in the NFL, Ditka is among the very minuscule minority. One legendary quarterback doubts if he would even be able to play quarterback in the CFL. If all else fails, Tebow always has a place as a quarterbacks coach in the Lingerie Football League.

H/T Pro Football Talk

The Chicago Bears made a surprising move on Monday when they fired head coach Lovie Smith. According to Mike Ditka, the move was idiotic. On Monday, the former Bears coach ripped the team for what he thinks is a big mistake.

“If Minnesota would have lost (Sunday) night and the Bears were in the playoffs this wouldn’t have happened,” Ditka told The Waddle & Silvy Show on ESPN 1000. “That’s a fact. So how stupid is it then? It really is stupid. If they would have made the playoffs this would not have happened. They did what they did. They took care of their business and Minnesota played a great game against Green Bay.”

Ditka certainly has a point. Chicago has only made the playoffs three times in nine years with Smith as its head coach, but oftentimes teams overreact to missing the playoffs. The Bears were not a bad team this year and were a Vikings loss away from making the playoffs. Is a coaching change really what they needed to take the next step?

“I think Lovie is a very good coach,” Ditka said. “Everybody is a little bit different in their manner. I think that’s a 10-win season. They started 7-1. This team, there’s a reason they lost some games in between. A lot of the wins they got in the 7-1 run were because of turnovers by the defense were turned into points. The offense didn’t score enough points in those other games. That’s the bottom line.”

The Bears struggled mightily down the stretch, and it’s not uncommon for a head coach to take the fall when something like that happens. In this case, I’m not sure he should have. Do I think it’s tragic enough where Devin Hester needs to be overreacting and contemplating retirement because of it? No, but I tend to agree with Ditka. Smith should have no trouble filling one of the vacant head coaching positions.

H/T Pro Football Talk

Mike Ditka is the ultimate Chicago Bear. He was a five-time All-Pro tight end with the Bears in the 1960s. He won championships with the Bears as a player in 1963 and as the team’s head coach in 1985. People who are associated with Chicago are supposed to hate the Green Bay Packers, so hearing Ditka gush about Aaron Rodgers and company is probably painful for Bears fans. If so and you are one, avert your eyes.

“I’m still a Bear fan. I got a right to be a Bear fan,” Ditka said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel. “We won two championships in the last 60 years – I played on one and coached the other one. So I got a right. I’ll always be a Chicago Bear.

“Now, I’m a Packer fan too – for one reason. First of all, I love the coach, he’s from Pittsburgh. But Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback in football – without question. He gets it, he understands, he’s a class act. He’s a great leader. I hope they give him a little more protection than they’re giving him right now or he’s going to get his (expletive) busted.”

Isn’t that two reasons? In any event, it’s tough not to like the Rodgers and the Packers as someone who lives and breathes football. Chicago and Green Bay may be division rivals, but there certainly wasn’t much of a rivalry this season. The Packers have been a much better team in recent history and that trend has continued this year. Somewhere in heaven, Chris Farley is wearing his “Da Bears” attire and shedding a tear because of Coach Ditka’s comments.

Mike Ditka doesn’t approve of bounties in a game that’s already violent enough, but he thinks the Saints were penalized too harshly by commissioner Roger Goodell.

“I think it’s way too harsh, I really do. I think you have to look at the whole situation,” Ditka told “The Jorge Sedano Show” on 790 The Ticket in Miami. “But I don’t know who knew what, when they knew it, or anything like that.”

Ditka freely admits he’s judging the penalties though he’s not completely informed on the matter. Is it possible that he’s influenced by personal biases? Sure seems like it.

“Sean Payton is a good guy,” he told Sedano. “He’s a good guy. He didn’t tell somebody to go out there and maim somebody. And neither did Mickey Loomis. They had a little bounty system with the defense, and that’s where it was.

“I think the suspension is way too severe. I think a fine, a loss of a draft pick or two draft picks or something would have been just as sufficient. But I do understand what the commissioner is saying,” said Ditka.

Ditka says he saw his players targeted by opposing defenses when he was coaching the Bears. Though he wouldn’t name the team, he says one squad had towels hanging down from their belts with numbers and names of the people they were targeting. He says the players were getting bonuses for that, and he can’t understand why players would do such a thing.

“It’s kind of crazy why people would try to hurt each other in a game where it’s so easy to get hurt just playing the game. Why would you go out and intentionally try and hurt somebody? It makes no sense to me.”

Though I agree with his last comment, I disagree with his assessment of the punishments. If Ditka believes it’s wrong for players to target each other for monetary bonuses, then he should support penalties that get everyone’s attention to send the message that you better not do it. Maybe he’s just trying to get on Sean Payton’s good side so he can become New Orleans’ interim coach.

Not long ago, we interviewed legendary fighter Evander Holyfield who said he wouldn’t stop boxing until he became heavyweight champion of the world again. The man was completely serious and made many of us question his sanity. In response to Holyfield’s claim, our man Harvey Bars of Tirico Suave said “If you have a Sega Genesis game named after you, it’s probably time to retire.” Well that comment seemed so accurate it inspired us to examine every single Sega Genesis sports game to see where those athletes and coaches have gone. Get ready for a trip down memory lane.

Joe Montana Football – Montana went on to set a career-high in passing yards with 3,944 the season after this game was released on New Year’s Day 1990. The following season, an elbow injury essentially ended his time in San Francisco, and he retired after two relatively successful seasons in Kansas City. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000, Montana was named the fourth greatest player in NFL history by the NFL Network.

Troy Aikman NFL Football – Following a year in which he posted a career-high 99.0 passer rating and led his team to its second-straight Super Bowl victory, this game was released on June 1, 1994. Aikman would play seven more seasons and win one more Super Bowl before retiring in 2000 due in large part to several concussions. He’s been nominated for an Emmy for his work as a color commentator for Fox Network and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

Prime Time NFL Football starring Deion Sanders – Sanders had just been named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year when this game was released on Jan. 1, 1995. The two-sport star played in 137 combined games between the Reds and the Giants and missed the first half of that NFL season after knee surgery. Sanders retired in 2001, only to return three years later to play parts of two seasons with the Ravens. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year.

Read The Rest of the Story…

Many of us often wonder what it’s like to be inside the locker room when a famous coach is giving a speech. Do they deliver messages like Knute Rockne? Are they passionate? Moving? Inspirational? What are they like, what do they say? Thanks to TV cameras in the locker room, we get a sense of what they’re like, but you never know how much is real and how much is show. Problem is we only know what the current coaches are like, not some of the older ones.

Well two reputable and respected coaches were involved with the 2011 Under Armour All American Game, coaching each side. Check out what Mike Ditka and Steve Mariucci were like leading their locker rooms:

I know those kids are only high school players, but I hope they appreciate what they were a part of. As for the game, UCLA fans will be pleased to know quarterback commit Brett Hundley from Chandler, Arizona threw a touchdown pass early in that highlight package. And some Florida fans — not to mention the rest of the SEC — got their first glimpse of quarterback Jeff Driskel who broke a long touchdown run. At 6’4″ and 225lbs, he can give the Gators a similar weapon to what they had in Tim Tebow.

We can only assume that Mike Ditka is a big Tom Brady fan.  Tom has caught plenty of criticism lately for his recent decision to endorse Uggs for men.  Personally, I don’t see the big deal.  If someone offered you the amount of money Brady’s getting just to say he likes Uggs and thinks they’re a good product, you’d jump all over the opportunity.

Ditka apparently has no problem with it either.  The Big Lead has drawn our attention to this picture of Coach Ditka, which shows a side of him that most of us have never seen.  I hope he’s endorsing these things now, too, because he’s certainly modeling the hell out of them. Judging by how anxious he seems to show some leg, I’d say he’s pretty comfortable.

The least they can do is throw him a paycheck, right?