Yes, Mike Ditka would have made things interesting in the Capitol, just as he did for decades around the NFL.

Even in halls where a former NFL quarterback and wide receiver, among others, have conducted the nation's business, it is unlikely they would have seen or been prepared for anything like this five-time Pro Bowl tight end.

For one thing, 65-year-old Iron Mike could have been the first senator to trade his entire office staff and draft rights to a Senate page for a speech writer.

Not that the man who once said of his Super Bowl quarterback, Jim McMahon, "the shoulder surgery was a success; the lobotomy was a failure," would really need anybody to write his material.

Imagine the cloakroom speeches he could have fired up Republicans with and the barbs — What's the difference between a three-week-old puppy and a (fill-in-the-blank)? In six weeks the puppy will stop whining" — he could have unloaded on opponents. Or the bureaucrats he could have confronted with: "Are you ... me?"

The Senate Shuffle could have picked up where the Super Bowl Shuffle left off. ESPN could have given C-SPAN competition, and insults honed on sportswriters could have been used on the "Capitol Gang."

Whether you like his position on the issues, you have to admire somebody who was willing to tell prospective voters flat-out, "If you don't like me, vote for the other guy."

The "other guy" in this race would have been Punahou School graduate Barack Obama. "He would give me pause if I was meeting him on the football field," the 42-year-old Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times. "Even though he is older than me, he looks pretty tough."

Alas, Ditka told the Chicago Tribune: "There was a moment when I said, 'God, I'd like to take this on.' And, then, I said, 'Put your head on straight and think about what you're getting into right now.' "

Common sense? Plain talk?

Yes, Ditka will be missed in Washington D.C.