Go broke for Bush
Colts should pull a Ditka and trade it all for Reggie
Mike Ditka is a Hall of Fame tight end. A Super Bowl winning coach. He is a television commentator and pitchman. And yet among NFL draft acolytes, Ditka's name will always be tied to the trade he made for Ricky Williams.
Before the 1999 draft, Ditka, then the Saints' coach, wandered around like a mad Richard III, announcing that he would trade his kingdom for a horse, and every single one of his draft picks for the rights to Williams. Forget that Williams was not regarded as the best player in the draft (quarterbacks Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb and Akili Smith went 1-2-3). Or that some didn't even rate Williams as the best running back on the board. That distinction went to Edgerrin James, whom the Colts took fourth overall. None of this mattered to Ditka, who kept pushing his offer, which the Redskins, in the No. 5 spot, finally accepted, and managed to keep a straight face while doing so. Ditka gave his first-rounder -- only two slots back at No. 7 -- and every other pick the Saints had that year, plus their first and third picks in 2000, to move up and get his man.
Safe to say the trade didn't work out as Ditka planned. The Saints went 3-13 in 1999, after which Ditka retired from coaching. Williams played two more seasons with New Orleans before it shipped him to Miami. And then Williams shipped himself to India.
What are the lasting effects of the trade?
1. It shaded in the goofier sides of Ditka's personality.
2. It set Williams' NFL career on a track of strangeness from which it would never fully deviate.
3. Along with the even more infamous Herschel Walker deal of 1999, it cemented the foolishness of giving away a lot and getting only a running back in return.
And that's a shame. Because Ditka's problem wasn't his logic, it was his timing.
This is the year some team should do "the Ditka Trade." Give it all away. Bundle all your picks -- for a running back. For Reggie Bush
First, the Texans should be open to trading their first overall pick, because they don't need Bush. Running back isn't their problem. Almost everything else is. They could use a boatload of picks and should be more than receptive to a properly outrageous offer.
Here are a couple of teams that would be wise to make that offer: Philadelphia and Carolina. Both are potential playoff teams, and neither scares anyone with their running games. Toss Bush into the mix, they become major threats in the soft NFC.
But here's the team I'd really like to see do the Ditka Trade. It's a conservative team for which such a move would be completely out of character, but it's just what they need: Indianapolis. The Colts went 14-2 last year, but somehow they need Bush more than the Texans do.
Bush would do more than replace James, whom the Colts lost in free agency. Bush is the kind of dynamic presence that would refresh the entire team. The Colts face the mental challenge of bouncing back from the deflation of 2005, when they started 13-0 and looked like the best team in the NFL but ended up with yet another playoff disappointment. How hard will it be for the Colts to slog through the regular season with essentially the same roster, feeling like no matter how many games they win, they will have not accomplished anything?
Getting Bush would be like pressing the reset button. Everything changes. The most dangerous offensive player in the draft joins the most effective offense in the NFL. How hard would opposing defenses be gripping if they had to worry about Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne and Reggie Bush all on the same play? How wide open would Dallas Clark be? I can already see Brandon Stokley streaking uncovered across the middle.
The problem for the Colts is they have the 30th pick. All their picks together might not be enough to entice Houston to give up the top spot. The Colts might have to throw in a player or two, or perhaps a couple of 2007 picks. They should do it. This is what the team needs. This is how the Colts get to the Super Bowl. Do the Ditka Trade. This is an outrageous deal people will remember the good way.
