David Vorp

My most core personal Mike Ditka memory has nothing to do with football or SNL. Ten years ago when my now-wife and I first moved in together, we were in our 20s and lived in a tiny apartment. We had different work schedules and the only time we could go to the gym together was super early in the morning, before anything else had a chance to compete for our time. We'd try to get in there around 5:00am, which is insane, because neither of us are especially "morning people." So we would set the alarm for 4:15am, spend a few minutes moaning and groaning about how early it was, and then we'd blast this absolutely ridiculous auto-tuned motivational Mike Ditka rap about personal accountability while we made a pot of coffee and tried to get less groggy. It's completely absurd, but it got us out the door for SO MANY early morning workouts; it became like a ritual for us as we forced ourselves to leave the apartment while it was still dark outside. We are probably half of the views on this thing on YouTube. The neighbors had to absolutely hate us. The funniest part, though, is that we will still randomly quote this to each other even though it's been years and years since it was part of the daily routine. Let's face it: it's quirky and catchy as hell, you can't go wrong with his advice, and you can't not laugh at the insane format it's delivered in. You might wake up tired and grumpy, but you'll make yourself put the work in once you remember that Iron Mike says you have to make sacrifices today for the long-term good.