The Bears just lost something no stat sheet can replace...

Mike Ditka died Friday at eighty-six, and Barack Obama's tribute ("punishing, dominant, and fun") went further than most coverage this week bothered to explain. According to NFL.com's own obituary, Ditka and fellow Hall of Famer Tom Flores are the only two people in NFL history to win a championship as a player, as an assistant coach, and as a head coach — Ditka did it with the 1963 Bears as a player, Super Bowl VI with Dallas as a player, Super Bowl XII with Dallas as an assistant, and Super Bowl XX as Chicago's head coach, a 46-10 rout of New England built on a Buddy Ryan defense that forced six turnovers and seven sacks. The same coverage frame flattens that into "legendary coach" and skips the two-name club entirely. This video also connects the dots on a detail already buried in this week's tributes: Obama's 2011 White House visit for the 1985 Bears was reported as a delayed celebration, 26 years after the Super Bowl itself, which is why Friday's statement reads like someone settling an old account rather than reading a wire story. — SOURCES — NFL.com, Mike Ditka obituary (the only-two-people claim, Super Bowl XX details, Hall of Fame induction, career stats): https://www.nfl.com/news/mike-ditka-d... Wikipedia, Mike Ditka (career timeline across the Bears, Cowboys, and Super Bowls VI, XII, and XX): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Ditka Narration are AI generated. #MikeDitka #ChicagoBears #NFLNews