Mike Ditka Slams National Anthem Protests: ‘There Has Been No Oppression In The Last 100 Years That I Know Of’

Mike Ditka appar­ent­ly doesn’t need to be near a foot­ball field to fum­ble his way into NFL infamy.

Ditka, the leg­endary Bears coach, joined Jim Gray on Westwood One radio before the Bears-Viking game on “Monday Night Football,” and the exiled ESPN per­son­al­i­ty again went off on those protest­ing the nation­al anthem, as he did last year.

But on Monday, it was Ditka’s take on the ratio­nale behind the kneel­ing and fist-rais­ing that launched the Hall of Famer into new, his­to­ry-deny­ing territory.

“All of a sud­den, it has become a big deal now — about oppres­sion. There has been no oppres­sion in the last 100 years that I know of,” Ditka said. “Now maybe I’m not watch­ing it as care­ful­ly as oth­er peo­ple. I think the oppor­tu­ni­ty is there for every­body — race, reli­gion, creed, col­or, nation­al­i­ty. If you want to work, if you want to try, if you want to put effort in, I think you can accom­plish any­thing. And we have watched that through­out our his­to­ry of our coun­try.” http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/mike-ditka-no-oppression-100-years-article‑1.3553338