Skip to content

Mike Ditka: No oppression that I know of in last 100 years

Andrew Weber / Reuters

Former Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka spoke about players protesting during the national anthem Monday night on Westwood One's Monday Night Football pregame show, saying there has been no oppression in the United States for the past 100 years.

"All of a sudden, it's become a big deal now, about oppression," Ditka said, according to ESPN. "There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of. Now maybe I'm not watching it as carefully as other people."

One of Ditka's former players disagrees with him. Linebacker Otis Wilson, who played with the Bears for eight seasons in the 1980s, said Ditka doesn't know what it's like for African-Americans.

"Well I guess if he walked in a black man's shoes, he would understand," Wilson said. "I would say all lives matter and the rules are not level for everybody. Let's say the average Joe on the street doesn't really have a platform. Colin [Kaepernick] has a platform, so he used his platform. That's his rights. Everybody has rights. So don't knock somebody for when they use it and how they use it because if it was against the laws or against the rules they would have sat him down and told him about that.

"This is America. You should be free to do what you want to do and leave it at that. Is America a lot easier than being in another country somewhere? Yes it is. But then on the other hand, being a black man, there's a lot of things you can't do. Not being black, he doesn't understand that."

Former Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens wide receiver, Steve Smith, didn't take kindly to Ditka's comments.

Ditka also said he wasn't criticizing anybody, but added that players who don't respect the United States "shouldn't be in this country playing football."

"Go to another country and play football," Ditka said. "If you had to go somewhere else to try to play the sport, you wouldn't have a job. So that would be my take. If you can't respect the flag and the country, then you don't respect what this is all about. So I would say, adios."

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox