Mike Ditka promotes golf over football for kids

Mike Ditka would rather see kids play golf growing up instead of football.

Mike Ditka was one of the most legendary coaches to ever grace the gridiron, and his legend will forever live on with the Chicago Bears. While the man has seen the greatest to ever play and has coached the greatest to ever play, he values the health and safety of the youth of this country.

After Ditka’s former roomate and Chicago center Mike Pyle died back in July, it was revealed that he had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, otherwise known as CTE, which stems from repeated head trauma.

After seeing the state that his former roommate was in before he passed away, it really left a lasting impression on Ditka. Ditka said to the Chicago Tribune, that if he was a parent of a young child at the moment, he wouldn’t ban them from playing football but he’d try to maybe sway them toward another sport, like golf.

"“Well, let’s say you’re a father right now, an you’ve got a [young] kid. So what do you tell them? People ask me the question. I would never discourage my son from playing football or baseball or anything else, but I would probably say ‘Hey, listen, you ought to try golf.’ Seriously. And I think that’s what’s going to happen to a degree. And that’s just the way it’s going to be.”"

Ditka isn’t certainly the first to jump on the movement of seeing youth play another sport instead of football. As the head trauma issues in football continue to become the leading discussion of issues with football, many are pulling their kids out of football and having them play another sport.

For a guy like Ditka, he has seen first hand the effects of what repeated head trauma can do to an individual. He has lost someone dear to him, and he doesn’t want to see that have to happen to others.

It’s important to remember that he isn’t against today’s youth playing football, but he would much rather see them take up another sport instead.