00:00uh all right so we do have some breaking news and it's sad news according to various outlets
00:06the legendary coach mike ditka has passed 86 years old and i'll just say this i found ditka
00:16to be a entertaining personality uh even back in his torturous days uh when when the bears were
00:23kicking the lion's ass um that you know i mean i get i worry about bringing that up because we
00:31don't
00:31need people calling up and telling us we're idiots for that too but i thought i found dick
00:36gonna be really entertaining and likable he he was i mean he's always a hard-nosed coach uh came
00:43from the tom landry coaching tree and then got his his opportunity with the bears as a coach to be
00:49the
00:49head coach and he was really really good um he was entertaining the whole thing trading all the
00:55picks talk about he's the original f them picks guy to move up to get uh ricky williams or he
01:01literally
01:02traded all of his picks for ricky williams uh that was interesting but ditka is a player when you watch
01:10nfl film stuff and you get the grainy color footage of old bear highlights with mike ditka playing with
01:18the bears and later in his career he played with philadelphia and dallas but he was amazing like
01:24but even by today's standards as a tight end you know ditka was uh six three 230 pounds as a
01:32tight
01:32in the national football league right that's the height is isn't too far off where they are today
01:36but the weight is obviously he's considered lighter than what the guys are today his first four years in
01:41the league he had over a thousand yards receiving his rookie season in 14 games followed it up with 900
01:47yards in 14 games almost 800 and then almost 900 in the last two years there that's a hell of
01:55a total
01:55for a tight end and for a guy who in like today's tight ends will catch 100 passes uh a
02:02season this
02:03was only on 56 58 59 75 receptions i love stats going back with the older guys and because when
02:10you
02:10have stats that are comparable to today but they happen 65 70 years ago it's really incredible how good he
02:17was as a player then he got injury started to rob him a little bit but yeah i mean there's
02:23a lot
02:23with ditka i mean the whole the the stuff on saturday night live of those guys you that did you're
02:28my
02:28ditka yeah that's i love it indy 500 who you got ditka ditka driving a bus all right so you
02:34got a mini
02:35ditka taking on the minnesota vikings wins mini ditka uh was he was he tough yeah he was tough i
02:43was a
02:44massive jim mcmahon fan growing up and you know reading jim mcmahon's uh biography and and and the
02:50the stage where he was coached by ditka and talking looking back at that that would have been a tough
02:54guy to play to play for right and didn't make all the right decisions um but rest in peace my
03:02ditka
03:02he definitely left his mark in in football yep uh 248-539-9797 uh ken and warren hi ken
03:12hey doug uh thanks for taking my call sure um a lot of the show today you're talking about
03:19line players missing assignments um not knowing where they're going um receivers being wide open
03:26when i think of this talk of you know here and today on the radio that kind of reminds me
03:31of a
03:32story that i'm a little bit of an older guy kind of reminds me of back in the day when
03:36the lions
03:36drafted mike williams uh he was a high draft pick from usc yep wide receiver nine yeah at the time
03:44uh
03:44mike march was the offensive coordinator here um mike march was the kind of guy that had a lot of
03:50fancy lingo fancy terminology uh very complicated system to understand and i remember mike williams
03:58actually being on a tv interview basically saying that looking at march's playbook it looked chinese
04:05he you know he was having a hard time deciphering what's what and he didn't stay here very long um
04:13he didn't have really a good pro career but um i think that's just the main problem these guys are
04:19i think the terminology is too complicated for these guys and unfortunately as fans we're going
04:26to be told what we want to hear so we're really never going to know the truth i was about
04:29to say
04:30there's no way of actually knowing if what you're saying is true i mean if you're looking for why it's
04:36not working or why guys aren't where they're supposed to be it could be it could be a variety of
04:41things and maybe you know maybe it is too complicated in some ways but it you know football
04:49isn't you know rocket science you can if you can't get your players to understand what you're trying
04:57to tell them that falls on you you've got to meet them at their level uh if this is true
05:03it sounds
05:03insulting like we're we're going after the intelligence of the defensive players but sometimes
05:08what a coach is saying isn't interpreted correctly by the team where where everybody's fine everybody's
05:14intellect is just fine um and and that that again goes back to goes back to the coach so
05:23yeah mike williams is a bad experiment with the lions yeah bad bad bad pick all around when he i
05:29mean
05:29remember he was he wanted to come out early to the draft and then had to did he have to
05:32sit out he sat
05:33out a year right yeah and and then was draft eligible and the lions took him in in the first
05:40round
05:40and he just wasn't really he hardly got a chance to play that first season with the lions he only
05:47uh
05:47he only started four games for the lions that year played in 14 caught 29 passes and the next year
05:53caught eight and then he was done and then took three years off from the league came back and reinvented
06:01a career with the seahawks for one season and then was basically done after that he had one more year
06:05in
06:06league after that he was a guy who kind of ate his way out of the position he was way
06:10too heavy for a
06:11wide receiver and the people talking about making a tight end and all this bad fit all around uh let's
06:17go to joe and highland you're next on 97 one hello joe hey how you guys doing what's up so
06:22i'm trying to
06:23put this lions defense puzzle together like we all are yeah and i was i saw a player last week
06:29that made a lot
06:30of impactful plays that i think we got to just bring forward more and i know he played so good
06:36at michigan was smart always in place it's rolden and he played great last week and i just think
06:41rolder i'm sorry it's okay all right but i really think he's that he might be that little x factor
06:48that we need on the defense he's just a smart fast aggressive player and getting branch i think he
06:54really need to develop his role more is what i what i saw from last week if he can stay
06:58healthy
07:00joe i'm with you on that if he can stay healthy i i think he's got a lot of talent
07:04because he plays
07:04with a lot of aggressiveness and violence which was the word that the day yesterday apparently
07:09i i'd like to see him get more of a run too i mean doug pointed out he played seven
07:15plays on
07:15defense on sunday night and had three tackles so apparently joe and he talked about this yesterday
07:19and it might have something to do with why his plays were limited on chuba hubbard's early touchdown
07:24run jimmy rolder took a terrible angle and was responsible for the gap that he ran through and
07:30that that might have something to do with it and rolder admitted as much that he was a little too
07:34downhill and probably should have tried to string the play out but but i mean look he's a young player
07:39he's going to learn and he seems like a prime candidate as dan campbell and and kevin shepherd
07:44have implied that some players are going to get more snaps the other player that that he taught that
07:49uh kelvin shepherd talked about yesterday that's going to get more run is is keith abney uh and he
07:55said it may happen this sunday if it doesn't happen this sunday he's not that far away like they really
08:01like what they're seeing from abney and the arrows pointed up but they're obviously looking for some
08:05answers well i i just feel like just the way he plays you've said you you you watch him play
08:11for many
08:12years in a row he just had a health problem it that's it he's i think he might be a
08:19steel
08:19of the draft in a sense that i don't put him up there yet but obviously even re joe all
08:25we need
08:25is for him to be better than some of what has been on the field right now like it's one
08:30of those things
08:31that you know they've got to find improvements maybe on the margins where hey here's a little
08:38upgrade this guy's helping us a little bit in this regard and if that if this guy helps a little
08:43bit
08:43and that guy helps a little bit and this guy helps a little bit maybe you could take some steps
08:47forward but i think it's really interesting that there's talk of fast tracking some rookies
08:52i think they're they're not sticking with the status quo necessarily they're they want to see
08:59what some other guys can do and they must be doing it in practice too you have to be doing
09:04it in practice
09:06uh okay uh we'll get to more your phone calls coming up also nick saban the uh the documentary was
09:12released this six part expose they're doing on espn and he gets very specific about why he left
09:18michigan state at least it's his point of view hear what he had to say today at 11 35 it's
09:24carson
09:24anderson 97 1
