Mike Dikta To Appear In ‘Entourage’ Finale

Added on Jun 23, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Former Chicago Bears’ head coach Mike Dikta was already the field general of arguably the greatest team in NFL history (the 1985 Bears) but had been established as a pop culture icon thanks to a now legendary ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit. Ditka’s pop culture status will be even further solidified this year due to a report that he’s got a cameo role on the final episode of HBO’s popular TV series ‘Entourage’.

Dikta broke the news that he and University of Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alverez have roles in the episode on a Chicago area sports radio show:

“This just came up spur of the moment, and actually you know, it was a good experience. I didn’t realize how big a deal it was, I’ll be honest with you. I’m kinda naïve about those things, and I understand it is a pretty big deal, and yes, I think it is very nice and Coach Alvarez is on it with me so both of us are there.”

Dikta joked about his role and gave some hints as to what he’ll do in the episode:

“[The role] goes beyond me and my altar boy image, but I do have a couple of lines in there that might test a few people.”

Ditka apparently offers counsel to Ari Gold, played by Chicago native Jeremy Piven:

“He is going through a divorce, and we are talking about some things, and I make a few comments about him, that’s about all.”

Entourage enters its eighth and final season on HBO in July. Ditka has been very busy since he retired from coaching–he’s done a good deal of broadcasting work and is the owner of a chain of steakhouses. He’s also done a lot of charitable work and has even considered running for political office. In fact, had Ditka made a few different decisions things could have worked out very differently for a number of people–he briefly considered running for an open Senate seat in Illinois after the Republican candidate Jack Ryan was forced to withdraw from the election. Had Ditka decided to run he would have been able to mount a strong challenge against the eventual winner, Democrat Barack Obama.