Lou: ‘Mike Ditka Spoke About African-American Oppression When He Shouldn’t Have’

In a recent radio interview, football coaching legend and former NFL player, Mike Ditka, talked about African-American oppression. He had this to say:

but all the sudden it's become a big deal now about oppression. There has been no oppression in the last 100 years, that I know of.

 

He has been a success at everything he has done. He was a very good NFL player, one of the really good NFL coaches in my lifetime, an entertaining NFL analyst, and an all-around fun TV personality. I am a big Mike Ditka fan, but He whiffed on this one big time. It's part of the world we live in. There is no venue where political and social issues are not on the menu, and we are all worse off for that. We end up in situations like this one, where someone who does not know what they are talking about, is talking about important issues.

I do not think that Ditka is racist, for the record. He's just ignorant on this subject. He's just an outspoken guy, who should have said, "I don't know about any of that, so don't ask." He did not say that, so people will pile on. Let's just all stay in our lane and do what we do. If you talk football, talk football. If you are the front man for a rock band, front that band, do your drugs, and party like an animal.

With that said, I'll probably talk about something on our show tomorrow that I know nothing about. You gotta fill up the time, man, and that's part of the problem. What is worse than say a football guy making a mistake like this? It's the talking head, political, TV people who are supposed to know about this stuff and seem to know as much as a football analyst.

Joe Namath responded to Mike Ditka's comment. He was not nasty to Mike, but made a great and simple point. Watch it here:

But, then again, Namath also did this:

Hey man, we are human beings. Humans do and say stupid things. It happens and we move on to the next thing as soon as someone else says or does something stupid. Who's next? My money is on Lenny Dykstra.

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