Former Bears player and coach Mike Ditka joined John and Ray with reaction to the Bears loss against the Houston Texans in Week One of the NFL and also weighed in on the Colin Kaepernick story.

(CHICAGO)  Former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka is denouncing African American NFL players who refuse to stand for the national anthem.   Seven NFL players staged protests during Sunday’s round of season-opening games , and Ditka told “The Big John and Ray Show” on WLS, that he would not tolerate that if he was still an NFL coach.

“Oh sure they could do anything they wanted to but they’d never play another down for me” Ditka said, “Listen if you don’t like this country, leave it.   Really if you don’t respect it, if you don’t understand it, leave it.   Where else are you going to get a job that pays the kind of money that these guys are making.  Playing pro football, playing a kids game, and they don’t want to abide by a couple things that honor their own country.”

Ditka went on to say,  “I think you know, if you want to be politically correct and coddle to these fools then you go ahead and do it.  I don’t do that.   I’m sorry.  I think it’s the most pathetic thing in the world and I think the people that support people like Kaepernick are really sick people, and they ought to take a trip somewhere else.”

San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick started protesting what he called racist police practices in the U.S. by sitting during the national anthem ahead of preseason games.   Kaepernick’s first regular season game is tonight.

One of the players who staged a protest on Sunday was former Bear Martellus Bennett, who now plays for the New England Patriots.   Bennett stood during the anthem on Sunday but raised his fist in the air, in a manner reminiscent of black Olympic track stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

@ 2016 WLS-AM News