Mike Ditka

[Summo]

So I have a funny story about Mike Dikta. I was at a work conference in Atlantic City a couple of weeks ago and he was the keynote speaker at one of the events. His speech was centered on teamwork and leadership peppered with his playing and coaching career in the NFL. Anyway at the conclusion of the speech he was taking questions. For over twenty years I have wanted to personally ask him a question and I finally got my chance.

I was third in line (imagine that I was question 3!) and he had just finished praising Walter Payton as the greatest football player ever, which set up my question perfectly. I came to the mic and asked him this: “Hi Mike, my name is Mike Summo, I’m a Redskins fan from Long Island NY, but first and foremost I am a football fan and I have great respect for what Walter Payton accomplished in the game. For over twenty years I wanted to ask you directly what your mindset was when you decided to give the ball to Refrigerator Perry instead of Walter Payton in Super Bowl XX with your team leading the game by 30 points?”

A collective gasp came over the crowd with a lot of oohs and ahhs as Mike stood there with his head down shaking it side to side for what seemed like 5 minutes. He responded by saying that he hates that question and said that he tries to avoid it at all costs every time he gives one of these speeches and so far he has been pretty lucky to avoid it most of the time. He genuinely seemed annoyed by the question. He went on to say that if he had to do it all over again that he would have given the ball to Walter (who he found out years later was upset with him over the whole incident). He also added that he knew the Patriots were going to key on him the whole game so he decided to use him as a decoy and that Matt Suey had more rushing yards in the game then Walter. He said that he scored a Touchdown in the Super Bowl and it was no big deal and that he had put Perry in that situation all season and when he looked up at the scoreboard at the end of the game they won 46-10 and that was all that mattered to him. But he again said that if he had to do it all over he would have given the ball to Walter. He then said that he wasn’t going to say another word about that subject again and that was all the questions he would be taking.