Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan weren’t best friends.
Maybe, the former Bears coach said after learning of his defensive coordinator’s death Tuesday, they were something else.
“Buddy and I, we were good for each other,” Ditka told the Sun-Times, “because we were good for the Bears.”
The two bickered off and on after Ditka was hired to replace Neill Armstrong — Ryan had been a head coach candidate, too — in 1982. Infamously, they shoved each other during halftime of the Bears’ only defeat of the 1985 season, a 38-24 loss to the Dolphins.
When the Bears eventually won Super Bowl XX, destroying the Patriots, 46-10, both Ditka and Ryan were carried off the field. It was a sign of respect for both men — and a signal the defense attributed their success to their irascible coordinator.
“Sure they carried Buddy off the field — we wouldn’t have won without the defense,” Ditka said. “We had a good offense, but our defense was why we won. We understood that, and people understood that.
“People want to make things more than they are. Was our relationship rosy all the time? No, but it was respectful. And I think that’s what’s important.”
Ryan became the Eagles’ head coach after the Super Bowl, and lost his second game of the 1986 season to the Bears, 13-10, in overtime. Ditka defeated Ryan the next season and again in the first round of the 1988 playoffs, the legendary “Fog Bowl.”
“I saw him I guess, six or eight months ago,” Ditka said. “I knew he wasn’t doing good, but I didn’t know it was this bad. I’m really sorry to hear he’s gone.”
History will link the two men, who were never as successful apart as they were together.
“I hope so,” Ditka said. “I hope so.”
