Not long after Bears tight end Zach Miller made his amazing one-handed grab of Jay Cutler’s pass for the go-ahead touchdown on Monday, the “Mike Ditka” comparison was tweeted.
Decent catch for a game winning touchdown: https://t.co/WlMJCbQnOQ pic.twitter.com/b2R78RX0gO
— SB Nation (@SBNation) November 10, 2015
Actually, he might have something there. Check out this catch Ditka made more than a half century ago.
Zach Miller --- Just like Mike Ditka. #Bears pic.twitter.com/epAploXyJ2
— Matthew Schwerha (@MSchwerha) November 10, 2015
We asked Mike Ditka if he recalled some his great catches:
“The ball wasn’t thrown that much when I was playing, so if I made a catch it was a big deal,” Ditka said on Tuesday morning. “Listen, Zach Miller is a heckuva football player. I’m an old man. Even when I played in my prime, I had a great love for the game. There was nothing I didn’t think I couldn’t do. I mean I went out and tried as hard as I could. I got my butt whipped a lot, but it didn’t stop me from coming back and going after the guy again.
“But catches, they’re not what you remember. You remember championships. Unfortunately, that’s [how it is]. The ’63 championship. We had a great team in ’65 with [Dick] Butkus and [Gale] Sayers, but we didn’t win it. I remember the ’85 championship. I remember the championships in Dallas with the Cowboys as a player and coach. That’s the ultimate goal; that’s what we all play the game for. You can say you play it for the money, but money comes and goes. The history of winning a championship stays with you forever.
