Mike Ditka a bigger star than Michael Jordan? Well, yeah, for a little while

ESPN’s Mike Greenberg might have overseasoned things just a little.

Paying on-air tribute to Mike Ditka, who died Friday at 86, Greenberg (ahem, no relation) talked about arriving on the Chicago media scene in 1992 before Ditka’s final season as Bears coach.

“The truth of the matter is Michael Jordan was a global icon and certainly beloved in Chicago, but Mike Ditka was the biggest star in Chicago sports,” he said. “And, in my opinion, it’s inarguable.”

It’s plenty arguable. And this being America in 2026, when the very most important thing a person can do is wail like a banshee on social media, more than enough people to pack Soldier Field argued with Greenberg’s premise as though the man had committed an act of unspeakable evil. Treasonous, for sure. Probably worse.

Jordan was our No. 1 star, was their point. And they were right. By the time Jordan started hanging banners, everyone else, Ditka included, was in the recesses of his immense shadow.

But what Greenberg said about Ditka wasn’t far off in terms of time. A handful of years earlier, at what absolutely was — and still is — the historical zenith of our sports scene, Ditka still loomed largest.

For a time in the 1980s, everything here was popping all at once. The Blackhawks reached the conference finals three times from 1982 to 1985. The White Sox won 99 games in 1983 to reach the postseason for the first time since the 1959 World Series. The 1984 Cubs won 96 games and played October baseball for the first time since the 1945 World Series. That year — 1984 — started with Illinois in the Rose Bowl and its men’s basketball team en route to a Big Ten title and the Elite Eight, while DePaul’s hoopers soared to a No. 2 national ranking. And then, by God, the Bulls drafted Jordan. We were the luckiest sports fans on Earth.

Meanwhile, Ditka’s 1984 Bears dramatically upped the ante, going 7-1 in the NFC Central and piling up a dizzying 72 sacks, still the NFL record. That year was the first of five consecutive division titles for the Bears, who, of course, sent things into the stratosphere as the Super Bowl champs of the 1985 season. All the pro teams in town had big stars — the Bears had lots of them — but Ditka was the celebrity-in-chief and remained so through close to the end of the decade. That’s my story, anyway, and I’m sticking to it.

Jordan overtook Ditka before long, no doubt, and by a lot. His Airness was transcendent and celestial; Ruthian; Bird, Magic and Dr. J put together and then some.

Greenberg was flat wrong. But he was also almost right.

Lots to un-Pack

Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said last week, “When you play [cornerback] in this scheme, it’s like being a window washer on a high-rise building — you can’t make mistakes.”

Cue the parade of mistakes against the Packers, who feasted on deep shots, connecting for gains of 31, 36, 42, 46, 50 and 53 yards. Some of that was quarterback Jordan Love’s elite accuracy on deep balls in general, but let’s not sugarcoat it — the Bears have coverage issues.

Wide receiver Christian Watson had a giant game and saw it coming.

“A hundred percent,” Watson said afterward, beaming and flashing a sparkling grill. “I got called crazy for thinking we could exploit the defense [as much as we did] and put up a lot of points against them, but we watched the film; we saw opportunities there. Regardless of how good they were in other games against certain teams, we knew what was going to be there and took advantage.”

Ben-o-meter: 4 out of 10

It suddenly seems Ben Johnson is up against it, doesn’t it? He has to ease QB Caleb Williams back in — hopefully this week — in order to protect Williams from further injury. He has to decide whether or not to demote backup Tyson Bagent. He has to worry about his running game, with Kyle Monangai’s turf toe ongoing and Roschon Johnson not having impressed in Green Bay. He has to face having been outfoxed by Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and outdone by Packers head coach Matt LaFleur in all-important division games. He can’t feel too good about his defense.

Other than that, though, everything’s peachy.

Look who’s coming: the Falcons

Which Falcons will the Bears get Sunday in Atlanta? The ones who scored 56 fewer points against the Panthers than the Bears did? Or the ones who won 35-14 at Lambeau Field?

It doesn’t work like that, of course. The sick, twisted truth is nobody knows how any team is going to play pretty much ever. It’s especially true in the case of the Falcons, who have one QB, Michael Penix Jr., dealing with a rib injury and another, Tua Tagovailoa, who is battling a nagging case of being Tua Tagovailoa. One expects the Bears will have to survive a mountainous dose of Bijan Robinson, maybe the best running back in the NFL.

Atlanta does rank No. 4 in the league against the run, an impressive stat, but is No. 27 against the pass. Former Bears defensive tackle Gervon Dexter is coming off his best game with his new team, having stuffed three running plays at or behind the line of scrimmage against Derrick Henry and the Ravens.

Take the North

With the Vikings at 5-0 and the rest of the division’s teams tied at 3-2, what’s the real pecking order through five weeks?

1. Vikings: But you knew that already.

2. Lions: Johnson’s current team isn’t about to set any NFL scoring records, but his former team might.

3. Packers: Easy, Cheesies, you’ve still got plenty to prove.

4. Bears: Just saying, there’s no such thing as winning the division with a losing division record two years in a row.