If you imagine Pitt football as a big family, then Mike Ditka is the crazy uncle who will just go off on rants that just leaves the kids nervous and the grown-ups quietly shaking their heads in the background. you love him, but after the get together, you take your kids aside and make sure they understand that everything Uncle Mike said is not something to believe. In fact it would be best if you don’t even mention some parts to others.

I know that in Pittsburgh the hot topic are the hits, fines and comments from Polamalu. Ditka’s solution, though, is nuts.

Ditka said the only way to change the violent nature of the game would be by changing the equipment.

“I said a long time ago if you want to change the game take the mask off the helmet,” he said. “It will change the game a lot. If you want to change the game and get it back to where people aren’t striking with the head and using the head as a weapon, take the mask off the helmet.

“A lot of pretty boys aren’t going to stick their face in there. If you’re going to take hitting out of football, you might as well just call it soccer. That’s what I believe. A lot of people will be disappointed I said that, but football is what it is. [Vince] Lombardi said it a long time ago. Football is not a contact game. Dancing is a contact game. Football is a collision sport.”

Why yes, back in the days of leather helmets, it was so much safer and no one got banged around the head. Little violence or risk of injury to the cranium then. Those were handsome men by the time they were done playing professional football. That just doesn’t compute.

That’s up there with the old-time hockey argument that helmets and eyeshields promote more hits to the head and high sticks. That if they didn’t have that kind of protective gear, the players would be less careless and more respectful of the opponent.

Otherwise, it was a good visit from Uncle Mike.

“I constantly talk about tradition at Pitt, and that’s what separates us from most of the other ones,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “You can’t say the words ‘Pitt tradition’ without saying ‘Mike Ditka.’ For him to come back and spend some time with the players, I think it’s a neat thing.”

Wannstedt took advantage of the moment to introduce Ditka, an Aliquippa native, to a pair of Panthers from his hometown in redshirt freshman linebacker Brandon Lindsey and freshman receiver Jonathan Baldwin.

“The kids that came to Pitt made a wise choice, and they’re going to get a great education,” said Ditka, who was in Pittsburgh for today’s grand opening of a Ditka’s Restaurant in Robinson. “Football only continues on with a very few of us. I was fortunate that I could carry on to pro ball. But most of these guys the education is going to take you the rest of the way.”