SNL "Superfans" Robert Smigel & Mike Myers Pay Tribute to Mike Ditka

Posted in: NBC, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl

SNL "Superfans" Robert Smigel & Mike Myers Pay Tribute to Mike Ditka

Saturday Night Live's Robert Smigel & Mike Myers honored Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka, the inspiration for "Bill Swerski's Superfans."

Published Sun, 11 Oct 2026 16:08:09 -0500
by Tom Chang
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Article Summary

• SNL’s Robert Smigel and Mike Myers paid tribute to Mike Ditka, the Chicago icon behind Bill Swerski’s Superfans.
• The hit SNL sketch ran from 1991 to 1997, turning “Da Bears!” and Ditka worship into recurring comedy gold.
• Mike Ditka appeared twice on SNL, including the 1993 cold open reacting to his shocking firing by the Bears.
• Smigel shared a heartfelt Ditka roast story, remembering the coach’s humor, loyalty, and charity work with Misericordia.

If there was ever a top five list of favorite recurring Saturday Night Live sketches that superseded its original series origin but never had a feature or TV spinoff adaptation, "Bill Swerski's Superfans" definitely belongs on that list, thanks to longtime SNL writer Robert Smigel, who brought his sports fandom from Chicago to New York, creating caricatures of local diehards who predominantly milked the success of the 1985 Chicago Bears of the NFL with the popular catchphrase, "Da Bears!" and on top of that pedestal, head coach Mike Ditka, who passed at the age of 86 on October 9th. The recurring sketches that ran from 1991 to 1997 originally featured recurring guest star Joe Mantegna as the title character, later to be taken over by his "brother" Bob Swerski, played by the late George Wendt, who became the primary voice of the sketches. Either would be joined by Todd O'Connor (the late Chris Farley), Pat Arnold (Mike Myers), and Carl Wollarski (Smigel), who would make predictions about how their local professional sports teams, not just the Bears, would defeat their opponents by an astronomical amount while spinning a tall tale about how they would do it and marveling at Ditka's superhuman accomplishments. Smigel and Myers took to social media to pay tribute to the legendary Hall of Fame coach, who also played for the Bears, Philadelphia Eagles, and Dallas Cowboys, and coached the Cowboys (as an assistant head coach and special teams coordinator), Bears, and New Orleans Saints.

SNL: Bill Swerski's Superfans Stars Robert Smigel and Mike Myers Pay Tribute to Chicago Bears Legend Mike Ditka

Ditka made two appearances on SNL, the first following his firing from the Bears in January 1993, and the second was Farley's only time hosting in 1997, when he was coach of the Saints, which showed Todd perpetually reliving 1985 during the Bears' Super Bowl year. Myers shared a photo of himself and Wendt in character, "RIP Mike Ditka. The Biggest,Bravest,Baddest,Boldest, Braniest Coach of ….. Da Bears! 🐻 #dabears." Sharing the SNL cold open sketch titled "An Open Letter to the Chicago Bears," which coincided with Ditka's actual firing from the Bears, Smigel shared a few stories about the coach:

"I was blessed & lucky enough to work with Coach Ditka numerous times, but today I'm thinking about one clip (our love letter to Ditka after #dabears let him go) and one story…
In 2001 ESPN invited George Wendt & to be part of a Mike Ditka roast. I know Netflix pushes for anarchy on their live roasts but nothing beats the totally unplanned lunacy you get from a dais filled with drunken sports legends.
There was Dan Hampton and Mongo McMichael, who on this night was somehow outcrazied by the great Jim McMahon, who hid his own cooler full of Coors under the dais, and the plastered Paul Hornung, who greeted Ditka with an affectionate shove that first knocked him off balance, then, seemingly in slow motion, caused him to fall backward behind the curtain backdrop.
As everyone got up to find Ditka & make sure he was okay, McMahon yelled "Down goes Frazier!" hilarious for the many of us who knew the reference back then (you can google it, as well as Ditka falling, the only part of the roast that's online).
But here's why I'm telling this story…after a thousand train wrecks & Ditka jokes, it was the Coach's turn to get up & have his rebuttal, and we all knew he had a great sense of humor…
But Ditka had no interest in telling jokes. The whole event was a benefit for @misericordiahome, a residence where over 650 children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are provided personalized care as well as therapeutic and employment programs. Coach Ditka chose to use his time to talk at length about what Misericordia provides, and the self-worth the residents gain from being able to engage in the community and make a contribution. He could've gotten huge laughs firing back at all of us but he cared much more about Misericordia.
Maybe having a child with autism factored into it, but that's the memory of Coach Ditka that has stuck with me the most. A great sport, always up for anything, but, ultimately, an intensely sincere, loyal & dedicated man who knew what he believed in and never hesitated to fight for it.
Afterwards we all ate at Iron Mike's, where he treated my father-in-law, a lifelong @chicagobears fan, like an old friend. RIP Coach -RS"

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