Ditka on the NFL protests and the dear leader

LINK

The 77-year-old was speaking with Jim Gray on Westwood One. After a brief discussion of the team with which he is most associated, the Bears, Ditka was asked about Vice President Pence walking out of an NFL game Sunday because of anthem protests, and about the pregame demonstrations in general.

“Is this the stage for this?” Ditka said. “If you want to protest, or whatever you want to protest, you’ve got a right to do that. But I think you’re a professional athlete. You have an obligation to the game.

“I don’t see a lot of respect for the game, I just see respect for their own individual opinions. … Respect the game, play the game, when you want to protest, protest when the game’s over, protest whatever other way you want to.”

With Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones making news for saying that his players would either stand for the anthem or get benched, Gray asked Ditka if that would be his policy, as well, were he in charge of an NFL team.

“Yes,” Ditka replied, “I don’t care who you are, or how much money you make, if you don’t respect our country, you shouldn’t be in this country playing football. Go to another country and play football. If you had to go to somewhere else and try to play this sport, you wouldn’t have a job.”

“If you can’t respect the flag and this country, then you don’t respect what this is all about, so I would say: Adios.”

[Jenkins: There are two sides to the NFL anthem debate, and both are right. And wrong.]

Ditka has not been shy in the past about expressing political views, and he was an early supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign. Starting well before the election, Trump has taken frequent shots at former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began the anthem protests last season, and Ditka has followed suit, saying a year ago that he had “no respect” for the player.

“My choice is that I like this country, I respect our flag, and I don’t see all the atrocities going on in this country that people say are going on,” Ditka added at the time.

The former coach, who won a Super Bowl with the Bears before a head coaching stint with the New Orleans Saints, said in 2013 that not running against Barack Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate race was the “biggest mistake I’ve ever made.” He told a Chicago radio station last year that “Obama’s the worst president we’ve ever had.”

“He would be great to play golf with,” Ditka said at the time of Obama. “He’s not a leader. This country needs leadership. It needs direction.”

On Monday, Ditka made an apparent reference to Obama’s successor, telling Gray that NFL players are “protesting an individual,” adding, “That’s wrong, too.”

“You know, you’ve got a ballot box, you’ve got an election. That’s where you protest,” Ditka said. “You elect the person you want to be in office, and if you don’t get that person in office, I think you respect the other one, that’s all.”

“Football has been so good to these guys,” Ditka said of NFL players on the pregame show. “It’s been so good to me. Enjoy it, have fun with it, and I don’t think it’s the stage for protests. I’m sorry, a lot of people disagree with that, but that’s my take on it.”