European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 10, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday january 10, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 23 commile sixty Hil la in Tab Ditka taking it easy in t easy with the wind chill Factor at 26 degree below sunday Mike Ditka was dressed for the occasion. From top to Bottom he was wearing puffy Orange Woolen ski Cap with bears on it a hooded Blue Parka with an Orange Stripe across the Back Black pants and Black football shoes. Not far away or. Jay Alexander who has supervised the coach s comeback from a heart at tack on nov. 2, was moving among the other Par Kas and overcoats on the bears sideline. I Don t watch Mike i watch the game Alex Ander joked earlier. Everybody else is watching As the bears lost the National conference championship game with the san Francisco 49ers 28-3, Ditka paced the sideline. In one of his Black mittens he was holding a folded piece of heavy White paper with his game plan on it. His recover has been so Quick and so successful that it s Al most As if he never had suffered what Alexander Calls a Small heart attack. Almost. Easy Mike easy some spectators were say ing As Ditka growled at one of his players. Take it easy but sunday it was t easy for Mike Ditka Totake it easy. In the Arctic weather that arrived Here overnight the 49ers were expected to shiver and shake and surrender As California teams often do. But these 49ers were different. It turned out to be the Battle of Western Penn Sylvania which knows something about cold and is where both Ditka and Joe Montana the 49ers quarterback grew up and played High school foot Ball about two decades apart. Montana wearing a warm Glove Only on his lefthand threw three touchdown passes in fulfilling coach Bill Walsh s prophecy that his quarterback was primed to play his Best game we re counting on him to do in leading the liners into super bowl Xxiii the 32-year-old quarterback found Jerry Rice his All pro wide receiver for touchdowns of 62 and27 Yards. He also hit John Frank his tight end for a 5-Yard touchdown. And so Mike Ditka s season finally ended two months after it appeared to have ended when he Dav Anderson had his heart attack. He s certainly not your average patient Al expander said. But he s a real Good patient. You Tell him something he does Alexander has been telling Ditka what to Doever since the morning of wednesday nov. 2 when Ditka was driven to Lake Forest 111. Hos Pital by two Bear assistant coaches. He had suffered Chest his usual morning work out in Halas Hall at the bears training Complex in Lake Forest. I was driving to the Hospital at the sometime Alexander said. When Mike needed a cardiologist i happened to be at the Hospital when begot there. We just kind of they be meshed Ever since. Following his re lease from the Hospital Ditka has returned there every monday wednesday and Friday for wha Alexander called cardiac rehab. Mike does it from half an hour to a hour Alexander said. Treadmill bicycle the rowing machine. He s there with 10 or 15 Guy who be been through the same thing he s been through. And he s there to do what he knows he has to do. I think his football mentality helps. He sees the goal line and he s going to get there. His cigars Are history now. He was t a Bigmeat eater anyway but he s on a Low cholesterol diet now. And he does it like he s been doing it according to Alexander Ditka now is totally without symptoms of a heart problem. He had a Small heart attack Alexander the drug spa has dissolved his blood clots. His angiogram shows a very minor narrowing of the artery. And he has no muscle damage. His heart function is Normal. I be had some patient who have bounced Back pretty quickly. But none who has gone Back to work in 11 was still in the Hospital on nov. 6 when the bears played the Tampa Bay buccaneers a Soldier Field. Vince Tobin the bears defensive coordinator was the interim coach that sunday Ina 28-10 Victory. But when the bears were about to travel to Washington for the game there the next sunday Ditka asked if he could make the trip. When i looked at his angiogram and his stress test Alexander recalled there was no reason not to let him at the time Ditka planned to watch the Redskin game from the assistant coaches Booth High atop Robert f. Kennedy stadium. But whence realized that he would have to climb a Long staircase to get there he suggested that he remain on the Field. Alexander had not wanted Ditka to be on the sideline but he agreed. I told him i Don t recommend it but i m no going to Stop you " Alexander said. If i thought it would have made a big difference i think he would be followed my wishes. I was hoping he would t get too involved but by the Middle of the second half he was pretty the bears won that game 34-14, and Ditka has remained Active. In the bears drive for the pfc Central title hews on the sideline in every game. And when the bears opposed the Philadelphia eagles a week ago saturday in somewhat mild weather that would contribute to a thick fog shrouding Soldier Field late in the first half and All through the second half Ditka was wearing Only a Blue bears sweater Over his shirt and tie. He later put on a Parka. Early in the game 1 asked him do you want me to get your coat and he said not right now " Alexander said. I was t going to keep bothering him about it. You want to be his doctor. You Don t want to be his in sunday s wind chill the bears coach knew better than to Wear Only a sweater even at the Start of the game. And by the end of the game he knew he did t need to think about the stress of the super bowl Xxiii sideline. All Mike Ditka has to do now is continue to Goto his cardiac rehab. The new York times rare trick keyed Ben by Chuck Melvin Cincinnati a the Cincinnat bengals May have left the Buffalo Bills thinking they faked their Way into the super bowl after dusting off a rare trick play on sunday. Fullback Stanley Wilson took a Handoff from backup quarterback Turk Schonert and ran six Yards on a fake punt for a firs Down on the clinching touchdown drive As the bengals beat the Bills 21-10 for the acc title and a trip to the super bowl. It was the first time Cincinnati had used the fake punt play in three years. What we wanted to do was use some deception Wilson said. We wanted our punter out there and we kind of snuck Turk in on one Side and i lined up on the the bengals worked the deception to perfection on fourth-and-4 from the Buffalo 33-Yard line late in the third first sent Many of their linemen to the sidelines and had punt snapper Debrady and punter Lee Johnson run on the Field. Brady however lined up at left guard and Schonert ran on the Field at the last minute hiding himself behind 315-Poundbrian Blados. The bengals shifted Schonert Over Reg ular Center Bruce Kozerski and the Bills noticed the shift too late to respond. 1._ " they were just sitting there with their owns eyes wide open Schonert said. They u i t fri., were playin8 real soft. I was real shocked quarterback Jim Kelly Cincinnati defenders celebrate a sack Dur that they did t Call time out eld detected la As leaning in the a no la in Wilson took the Handoff up the mid. Play win ups walks off the Fiel dejectedly a leaping g bengals5 Victory. Die and ran six Yards for the first bengals needed seven More plays before Ickey Woods finally ran it in fro the 1 on the first play of the fourth Quarter for the game s final were in a defensive Call that should have accounted for the fake Punta punt Safe " Buffalo coach Marv Levy said. But we just did t trick play was Well timed and Well executed unlike Many last season when Cincinnati coach Sam Wyche called re verses and other exotic plays that frequently blew up in the bengals faces. This one was Sam s Call All the Way Schonert said. He said we re going with the Buffalo punt that s what recalled it in practice this week. We first put it in for the Dallas game nov. 20 but we had t had a Chance to use it. It was called the Dallas punt fake punctuated a memorable Day for Johnson who was picked up by the bengals after Cleveland Cut him Early in the season. Johnson averaged Only 36.8 Yards on his six punts sunday but three of the kicks landed inside the Buffalo 20-Yardline. In the second half his punts included a 20-Yard Pooch to the 13 and alow 58-Yard kick that bounced past re Turner Erroll Tucker and died at the Buffalo 1-Yard line. There was a left to right Crosswind and that s real Tricky Johnson said. He Tucker committed himself to Heball As it started to Hook and it sailed past him. He just misread it and we Goethe Good Bounce. Field position made a big
