Mike Ditka Apologizes, (Sort Of) Clarifies After Saying He's Seen No Oppression Over Last 100 Years

By Stephen Gossett in News on Oct 11, 2017 9:45PM

Former Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka walks the sidelines during the game between the Chicago Bears and the Atlanta Falcons at Soldier Field on September 10, 2017 (Photo by Kena Krutsinger/Getty Images)

Former Bears coach Mike Ditka was back to his performatively conservative ways on Monday night when he said during a pregame show ahead of the Bears-Vikings matchup that there hadn't been any oppression in the last 100 years, as far as he'd noticed.

Ditka issued a statement late on Tuesday in which he apologized—although he framed it as an always-regrettable "if apology." Ditka also seemed to say in his statement that he meant he had not seen discrimination in the NFL in that timeframe, although the clarification is a bit muddy in that sense, and that doesn't really hold water either since, as Phil Rosenthal wrote, Ditka witnessed firsthand the discrimination that was later the subject of Brian's Song.

Ditka said in the statement, via WGN:

"I want to clarify statements that I made in an interview with Jim Gray last night. The characterization of the statement that I made does not reflect the context of the question that I was answering and certainly does not reflect my views throughout my lifetime. I have absolutely seen oppression in society in the last 100 years and I am completely intolerant of any discrimination. The interview was about the NFL and the related issues. That’s where my head was at. I was quoted in the interview stating, ‘You have to be color blind.’ I stated that you should look at a person for what they are and not the color of their skin. I'm sorry if anyone was offended."

On a Westwood One pregame show on Monday, host Jim Gray asked Ditka—a longtime, vocal critic of athletes that kneel during the national anthem—what his response would be to those who want social justice, invoking athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Jesse Owens.

Ditka answered (emphasis added):

“I don’t know what social injustices have been. Muhammad Ali rose to the top. Jesse Owens is one of the classiest individuals that ever lived. I mean, you can say, are you talking that everything is based on color? I don’t see it that way.

I think that you have to be colorblind in this country. You’ve got to look at a person for what he is, and what he stands for and how he produces, not by the color of his skin. That has never had anything to do with anything.

But all of a sudden, it’s become a big deal now, about oppression. There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of. Now maybe I’m not watching it as carefully as other people. I think the opportunity is there for everybody. Race, religion, creed, color, nationality — if you want to work, if you want to try, if you want to put effort into yourself, I think you can accomplish anything."

Ditka's comments were roundly excoriated, here in Chicago (perhaps most notably in Neil Steinberg's column entry "Mike Ditka Is Not a Chicagoan") and at the national level (see Late Night with Seth Meyers writer Amber Ruffin eloquent clapback here).

Ditka said last year that Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback who initiated the take-a-knee protests during renditions of the national anthem, should "get the hell out" of the country if he doesn't like it here.