Mike Ditka’s advice to John Fox: ‘It’s time’

During his introductory news conference, Bears coach John Fox said he would seek out Mike Ditka for guidance. We did it for him. Da Coach’s advice:

T

aking a job to be a coach in the NFL is a big deal. You don’t take it unless you have the fire and energy to do it.

When you become a coach, your goal can’t be anything less than being the best or winning the Super Bowl. If it is, then you have the wrong goals. It’s not about anything else; it’s about winning.

John is a good coach, but good coaches become great coaches when they get the right players.

You can’t just be good on one side of the ball. You have to have offense, defense and special teams; you have to have all three of them. If you are weak in one of those areas, it’s going to hurt you. Look at that Packers game [Sunday]. I said one of these games is going to come down to special teams, and it sure as hell did. Nobody seems to care about special teams until something like that happens.

John understands the whole game, and he knows what he has to do. As far as dealing with the media, he can’t get involved with worrying about that. And he won’t. His main job is building that team into a real contender. Get them in the playoffs and win another Super Bowl. When you

do that, criticism is hard to find. It’ll be hard for the negative

people to be around. They won’t be there. If you don’t show improvement, then the media will be on you constantly.

This team needs help on defense. John’s a defensive-minded coach, so this should be right up his alley. I had such great defenses, it was unbelievable. We didn’t have to be a great offense, but we were an effective offense. We led the league in time of possession. We led the league in first downs. We kept our defense on the sidelines. When they came on the field, they made things happen. They got us the ball in great field position. So one has to complement the other. If you don’t have an offense but have a great defense, you’re screwed. And if you have a great offense and no defense, you are really screwed.

I think he could do a great job with Jay Cutler. He’ll survey the situation, look it over, check things out on film and talk it over with others in the organization. I think he has in his mind what he wants to do with the offense and what he wants to do with Jay. You don’t come in and say, ‘‘Maybe we should do this. Maybe we should run more read-option.’’ You don’t do that. You come in and say: ‘‘Here’s who I am. Here’s how I coach. And here’s what we’re going to do.’’ Let’s get on board

and do it.

Look, Chicago is the greatest city in the world to coach in if you win. My God, how long has it been since the Bears have won? A long time! I think I’m hanging in there pretty good.

John’s goal is to win the Lombardi Trophy. If your goal is anything less than winning the Lombardi Trophy, you should be doing something else. I admire him for that. But to get to the Lombardi Trophy, it’s going to take people. You have to put the right people in the right place.

Outside of the Blackhawks and Bulls, we haven’t had a whole lot of winning in Chicago lately. The Bears are coming up on 30 years, and the Cubs have been over 100. But the fans are terrific. They’re going to come out and support the team. They do it religiously. They are die-hards.

I think it’s time. I really do. I really think it’s time.

John is right: That [Bears Super Bowl] trophy is lonely. It would be nice to get another one. Put them side by side, like brothers.