Mike Ditka was a guest on Newsmax and he delivered exactly what the program expected, telling NFL players, “if you can’t respect this country, get the hell out.”
This has been Ditka’s take from the git-go and he continues to beat the drum hard.
NFL đ: Hall-of-Fame coach Mike Ditka tells protesting players that if 'they can't respect this country, get the hell out of it.' [with Newsmax TV's @ShaunKraisman https://t.co/VlT7z8drtO] pic.twitter.com/E3jPCBrMdt
— Newsmax (@newsmax) September 14, 2020
“Football’s football. It’s not a complicated thing,” the Hall of Famer and former coach of the Chicago Bears and Saints said. “You’re playing the game, you’re enjoying the game. You don’t like the game, get out of it. It’s not for protesting one way or the other. What color you are, what you think, this or that. You play football. That’s it. You’re privileged. You got a gift from God that you can play the game because you got a body you can do it with. I don’t really understand what you’re protesting. I played the game. I coached the game for a long time. It makes no sense to me.”
“I would tell those players go to another country and play football there. You don’t have to come out. You don’t have to come out if you go to another country. You can’t! Because the game’s only played in this country. And if you can’t respect this country, get the hell out of it.”
X League players — the women’s league Ditka is chairman of — had better look out if they decide to make a stand unpopular with him.