BRIAN'S SONG 2: BYE BYE URLACHER

It was November 5, 2000.

I was a freshman in High School, fresh off my first year playing Football.

They say that you really find out if you like playing Football judging by how you react the first time you get hit and/or the first time you hit someone.

Well I had been hit and I had given out some and I loved it.  No clue why mom wouldn’t let me play until this point…

Well I do know, because she’s a mom and moms don’t want their babies to get hurt playing Football.  Doesn’t even matter if it’s their baby who will do most of the hurting.

Anyway, I was doing my homework in the kitchen, poking my head up every two minues to stare at the TV because the Bears were playing the Indianapolis Colts.

I can’t tell you many details about that game.  I remember the Bears coming back to win against a pretty good Colts team. 

 I had to Wikipedia it just to remember the final score (27-24 Bears).

However, there is one play in particular that I’ve always recalled where a young Peyton Manning throws a dart to Marvin Harrison over the middle and poor Marvin turns his head just in time to see him coming but it’s still too late…

That size, that speed, that strength, that rookie Urlacher blasted the shit out of him!  De-cleated his ass.

A few weeks later when my folks asked me what I asked for Christmas.  Before video games for my Playstation 1, before some new clothes from ECKO or FUBU, before a Playstation 2, the first thing came out of my mouth was a Navy-Blue Brian Urlacher Jersey.

Playing Football made me love playing.  
                                                                                                                                                      Watching Urlacher made me love the Bears, and become enamored with the game.

Until #54 came along, it wasn’t really cool to be a Bears Fan growing up in my generation…

I was 5 months old when the “Super Bowl Shuffling” Bears won it all in 85.  I was only two when Walter Payton retired in 87.  Six when Ditka was fired in 92. 

Everything I know about them, I learned from my father, read, or watched in order to know the history.

Before High School, I was more of a Basketball and Baseball type.  I had played both since I age seven and grew up watching #23 with the Bulls and Frank Thomas with the White Sox.

The Bears meanwhile, were rough to watch from 92-99. They only made the playoffs once during that span and were atrocious.

 They had a couple good players like Chris Zorich, Erik Kramer, Curtis Conway and Mike Carrier, but a lot more who were just bums…

Guys who were known more for being busts, assholes or just plain crazy than anything they did on the field: Stan Thomas, Alonzo Spellman, Rashaan Salaam, Curtis Enis, Cade McNown.

With Urlacher, Chicago had a marquee player again. 

He was a badass; this 6’4, 260-pound monster with the speed of a damn Gazelle, rocking a bald-dome and a barbed wire tattoo back when barbed wire tattoos were fashionable.

He finished out 2000 by winning Defensive Rookie of the Year and making the Pro Bowl.

By my sophomore year in 2001, half the kids at school had an Urlacher Jersey and you couldn’t rock it anywhere outside of Chicago without someone coming up to you and mentioning how sick he was.

The Bears still had down years, mostly due to the organization’s ineptness to put a coherent offense on the field, but fans knew the team still had somewhat of a chance with #54 manning the middle.

Then he won defensive player of the year in 2005 and lead a defense that got the Bears back to the playoffs.

Followed it up the next year by finally getting the Bears to the Super Bowl but again, the team’s offense couldn’t help finish the job against the Manning led Colts.

Fuck you very much Rex Grossman and Cedric Benson…

Time stops for no man, Urlacher got older, slower, got more injuries but still managed to stay at high level due to his Football IQ.

I got older, smarter (some say) and decided that if I’m going to be a fan, I want to be an educated fan.  Not some jackass calling into the local radio station to spurt nonsense.

And while the Bears now stand alone on the pecking order of my favorite teams, I also understand and am not blind to what has always been…

The NFL is a business.  You aren’t paid for what you’ve done; you’re paid for what you’re going to do.

I don’t blame Brian Urlacher for not taking the two year, $2 million dollar contact that the Bears offered him this week.  He feels he’s worth more than that?  Good.  He should.

However, with the arrival of General Manager Phil Emery and Head Coach Marc Trestman, word is out that they’re in the business of trying to win Football games.

And paying a 34 year-old aging linebacker with a diminished skill set more than what they’ve offered doesn’t make sense business wise when that money could be used to address other needs.

I don’t blame the organization for doing what many realize but no one wants to do: admitting that his best days are behind him and standing firm on their offer.

So today the city of Chicago celebrates a great 13-year career and says thanks for the memories.

Oh, and even if he does catch on with another team, he’ll always be a Bear to that freshman doing homework on a Fall Sunday afternoon.

-WST