1985 Bears Coverage: Ditka urges 46th spot for 3rd QB

Every day of the 2015 Chicago Bears season, Chicago Sun-Times Sports will revisit its coverage 30 years ago during the 1985 Bears’ run to a Super Bowl title.

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Ditka urges 46th spot for 3rd QB

Kevin Lamb

Originally published Aug. 15, 1985

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – Bear coach Mike Ditka has pretty much made up his mind to carry three quarterbacks, but he wishes the NFL owners would encourage that piece of common sense. Ditka spoke out yesterday for the creation of a 46th roster spot, to be filled only by an emergency quarterback.

“I think it would really be a logical move by the owners,” he said. Without it, he said, “We’re just going to put a lot of quarterbacks out on the market, which is kind of silly.” Besides cutting experienced back-ups, he said teams would be hesitant to keep a young quarterback whose promise is years away.

Ditka acknowledged he didn’t have support for his position among Bear management and doubted owners would approve the idea, which already has been rejected. “Of course, they don’t ask the coaches for their vote on too many things.”

When he spent an hour Tuesday night tinkering with possible 45-man rosters, Ditka said, “I had a really hard time. I really got mixed up because of receivers, because of offensive linemen, because of three quarterbacks.”

He would like to carry five wide receivers and three tight ends, too, but he said that would force him to carry fewer than the optimum eight defensive backs, five running backs, eight offensive linemen or three quarterbacks.

“I’ve heard about all these ways people are going to find to cheat,” Ditka said of stashing questionable players on injured reserve. “But we don’t want to cheat. We want the system to be fair.”