I am so incredibly sad to learn of the passing of Mike Ditka. His playing & coaching prowess is well documented. A legit 🐐. But more importantly...he was kind, supportive and funny. When I first got to ESPN there were definitely ex NFL stars (and others!) that looked at the nerdy fantasy guy with disdain or a shake of the head. When I walked by I tried to move quickly past them to my segment & get out. But after seeing this a few times, Coach Ditka called me over to him, where he was holding court and surrounded by a ton of other ESPN stars and producers. Ditka thanked me(!) for coming over to him and said he wanted to meet ME. That I was his kids favorite person on ESPN and that all they talked about was fantasy football. That he appreciated my work on air and he was glad to be on the same team with me. And then he put his arm around me. I have no idea if any of that was true, but I know Mike did that specifically to throw his support behind me. And if you had Coach Ditka on your side, well, that went a LONG way internally. And every week after that he would talk with me about matchups and players that he liked and things he'd seen and heard around the NFL, helping me be better at my job. RIP Mike Ditka. Much love always.