Ditka: Gruden facing 'helluva challenge' in return

[January 09, 2018]  Former NFL head coach Mike Ditka, who knows what it's like to come out of retirement to lead an NFL team, says Jon Gruden faces a "helluva challenge" in doing so for the Oakland Raiders.

"Let's face it, it's a big challenge," Ditka told USA TODAY on Monday, "and I think he's up to it."

After going 106-62 and winning a Super Bowl in 11 seasons with the Chicago Bears, Ditka was out of football for four years before taking the head job with the New Orleans Saints. He struggled to a 15-33 record in the Big Easy, with his tenure perhaps best known for the trade of an entire draft's worth of picks (plus first- and third-rounders the next year) for the right to draft running back Ricky Williams fifth overall in 1999.

"I think there's a lot of ego involved, although you hate to admit it," Ditka told USA TODAY. "I want to prove I can still do it and this and that. But if the heart's not in it, I mean totally in it. ... It's really hard to say, 'Oh, I'm going to amp it up and then everything will be fine.' It doesn't work that way.

"Personnel is where we really screwed up," he said. "I thought that I could really get by with the quarterbacks we had. ... I had every guy named Billy Bob in the world. So put it this way, it was an experience.

"They're glad it's over and I'm pretty glad it's over, too."

Gruden appears to have a clearer answer at quarterback, despite Derek Carr's struggles in his fourth NFL season, but he's coming off a hiatus more than twice as long as Ditka's. Ten seasons removed from his last action, the 54-year-old Gruden sports a 95-81 record in 11 seasons, including 38-26 during his tenure in Oakland.

The last time the Raiders brought a head coach out of retirement went much worse than Ditka's tenure in New Orleans. Previously the Raiders' coach from 1989 to 1994, Art Shell returned for the 2006 season after five seasons out of the NFL and limped to a 2-14 record before being fired.

--Field Level Media

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