President Barak Obama has never been shy about proclaiming his love for the Chicago Bears, even going so far as to invite the 1985 NFL championship team to the White House in 2011. For former Bears head coach Mike Ditka, however, the feeling isn’t exactly mutual.
On Thursday, Mike Ditka called into WBAC’s The Bernie & Sid Show to discuss his political leanings and how he feels about the current president. Despite having been in attendance during Obama’s 2011 honoring of the Chicago Bears — who never got the chance to have their official White House ceremony after their 1985 Super Bowl victory against the New England Patriots due to the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger two days after they took home their victory — Ditka openly told the talk show hosts that he believes Obama is “the worst President we’ve ever had,” reports the Washington Post .
It’s football, it’s not brain surgery. Have some fun. #MikeDitka #Bearstalk #WhoDat #WhoDatNation #NFL #Quote pic.twitter.com/77SYyJFZhD
— The Football Dudes (@footballdudesLA) February 22, 2016
Mike Ditka, who essentially uses a clichéd “I love you, but I’m not in love with you” analogy, says that while he likes Obama as a person, he thinks he’s completely inept as the country’s leader.
“Barack Obama’s a fine man. “I mean, he’s pleasant. He would be great to play golf with. He’s not a leader. This country needs leadership. It needs direction. It needs somebody that steps up front. We need somebody like Ronald Reagan. Every once in a while you’re gonna get punched in the chops but you keep going forward. That’s all there is to it.”
The show’s hosts prod Ditka, asking him if there were to be a general election tomorrow, who would he vote for. Well, turns out, coach Ditka is a Donald Trump supporter. Ditka qualified that “you’ve got to pick your poison,” and that there are a lot of candidates better qualified for the position than Hillary Clinton.
“The people that hate him, hate him, but people like him because he says things that resonate with what they think. If I were to vote tomorrow, I’d probably vote for Trump.”
This isn’t the first time that Mike Ditka has voiced his disdain for President Obama. In a 2013 interview, Ditka said that the worst mistake of his life was not running in the 2004 Illinois Senate race that ultimately led to Obama’s becoming president four years later. When Jack Ryan dropped out of the 2004 race amid a sex scandal, Ditka said Republicans tried to convince him to run against Obama for the seat, but he cited prior commitments. Mike Ditka believes that had he have run, he “probably would have [won],” and President Obama would never have made it into the White House.
Mike Ditka calls Barack Obama’s leadership ‘disgusting, will vote for Donald… https://t.co/1Z5xudO4kl #njpolitics pic.twitter.com/PINvyNdXdG
— NJ.com Politics (@NJ_Politics) March 5, 2016
When Bernie of the Bernie & Sid Show asked Mike Ditka if he believed that Obama was purposefully trying to destroy America, as some “hard core right wing Republicans think,” all Mike could say on that topic was “well, I hope not.”
According to Sporting News , Obama wasn’t the only one who Mike Ditka put on blast during his Thursday morning discussion with Bernie and Sid. After listening to Hillary’s speech calling out the Republican candidates, hinting at their racist views and calling their political approaches “a blast from America’s Jim Crow past,” Ditka was very unimpressed with her remarks, calling them a “filthy statement,” one that, Ditka said, made him want to throw up.
Mike Ditka isn’t the only one from the 1985 Super Bowl championship team that doesn’t like Obama and has no problem saying so. Former Chicago Bears defensive tackle Dan Hampton refused to attend Obama’s 2011 honor ceremony, stating that he wasn’t “a fan of the guy in the White House.”
[Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP]