The Media Notepad: Remembering Mike Ditka
Also: Sasha-Ann Simons exits WBEZ; Disney letting you watch Super Bowl LXI in a variety of ways
Chicago Bears fans (me included) are mourning the loss of “Da Coach”, Mike Ditka, who led the team for eleven seasons and helped guide the team to its only Super Bowl title in the 1985 season, clinched at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans on January 26, 1986. His gruff demeanor made him a hero among Chicago’s working-class and as iconic as the Sears Tower and the ‘L’.
Born in suburban Pittsburgh, Ditka passed away in his Chicago home Friday morning at the age of 86.
Ditka played for the Bears in the 1960s, winning a pre-Super Bowl title in 1963 and was on the Dallas Cowboys’ Super Bowl-winning team in 1972. After being an assistant coach for Dallas, the Bears hired him as head coach in 1982, and the rest is history.
During this time, Ditka got his own Sunday morning weekly coaches’ show over CBS-owned WBBM-TV until January 1993, when he was fired by the Bears as the program dominated the ratings in its 11 a.m. time period throughout its run (another attempt by Fox-owned WFLD-TV in 1995 flopped with viewers.) He was also a terrific commercial pitchman; he appeared in dozens of ads for Campbell Soup, Peak Anti-Freeze, Dristan, Montgomery Ward’s Electric Ave., Pontiac, Coors Light (in a rather disjointed way), and more.
Ditka also was immortalized in pop culture as a subject of the Chicago Superfans skits on Saturday Night Live, and appeared in numerous TV shows such as Cheers, Entourage, According To Jim, Coach, Becker, and 3rd Rock From The Sun, and movie Kicking & Screaming. After his coaching days ended (aside from his brief stint as head coach of the New Orleans Saints), Ditka appeared as an analyst for NBC Sports, ESPN, and CBS. Ditka also had regular radio shows on WSCR-AM and later, WMVP-AM.
Despite his reputation as what some would say as being a jerk at times, Ditka had a generous heart, with Misercordia as his favorite charity. In 1988, Ditka showed concern about the equipment Chicago Public Schools’ varsity football teams were using, as they were old and outdated.
Ditka wasn’t just a head coach – he was an icon with had a tremendous outsized personality, one that continues to resonate with Chicagoans to this very day – the likes we’ll unfortunately never see again.
Rest in peace, coach.
After six years, In The Loop host Sasha-Ann Simons is out of the loop at Chicago Public Media’s WBEZ-FM.
“Leading ‘Reset’ and now ‘In the Loop’ has been one of the great privileges of my career. I am truly thankful for the Chicagoans who welcomed me into their lives and trusted me with their stories, questions and hopes for this city. I will always cherish the remarkable producers and engineers who brought their talent, heart and unwavering support to the work every day,” said Simons. “While it is difficult to say goodbye to a role I cherish so deeply, I leave with the utmost respect and affection for WBEZ’s talk shows team and wish for the continued success of Chicago Public Media.”
Simons arrived at WBEZ in December 2020, at a time when the city was reeling from the effects of the pandemic and George Floyd. She became the host of Reset, a two-hour show that which was cut from the lineup in September 2025 due to budget cuts related to the loss of federal funding as she was shifted to In The Loop, which will continue with a new host yet to be named.
Simons declined to say why she’s departing the station.
During Nielsen’s September PPM book, WBEZ finished finished in a tie for tenth place overall with Nexstar’s WGN-AM. WBBM Newsradio was the top-rated station overall, followed by WXRT and WTMX.
Judging by all the promotion, you know Super Bowl XLI from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. February 14 is airing on ESPN and ABC, right? Well, if you didn’t know, then you don’t have a TV, browse the internet, or have a social media account. But Disney’s properties do have the big game, with about 235 different ways to watch.
Don’t like hearing Joe Buck and Troy Aikman? You have the Manningcast, the tired altcast on ESPN 2 with Peyton and Eli Manning, which nobody watches anymore. If you’re a Pat McAfee fan, you watch his field pass on ESPNU because they really needed to give the overexposed hack his own channel during the game. Let’s hope he keeps his shirt on for Christ’s sake.
For you stats geeks, ESPN’s newly acquired NFL Network will turn the channel to a specialized data-driven graphics, which should come in handy if the team you’re rooting for is behind by 40 points in the third quarter.
There will be two different Spanish-language feeds for the game, one on ESPN Deportes, and the other on Univision, which locally owns WGBO-TV (Ch. 66) and WXFT (Ch. 60.)
As far as streaming options, both Disney + and Hulu will stream the ESPN/ABC and ESPN Deportes feeds, while all options would be available to ESPN Unlimited subscribers, which usually costs a month’s mortgage payment.
An animated simulcast, which Disney has done before with Monsters, Inc., Big City Greens (for the NHL), and The Simpsons, isn’t known yet, but you can imagine Bob’s Burgers and Family Guy are waiting in the wings if it happens. Would be fun to see if Bob Belcher can run without fumbling the ball…or try to run, period.
As for ABC, this would be the first time in twenty years the network aired the Super Bowl, last doing so in 2006 when they aired Super Bowl XL from Ford Field in Detroit. This would be ABC’s eighth Super Bowl – their first was Super Bowl XIX in January 1985.
So yes, the Disney family is heading to the Super Bowl. But don’t expect Princess Jasmine or Elsa hang out with McAfee on the sidelines for Field Pass, for obvious reasons (he might take his shirt off again – or heaven forbid, something else.)