Validation for Urlacher
Ex-middle linebacker upholds Bears’ tradition.
To understand the drive that made Brian Urlacher elite, go back to 2004 when the Sporting News named the Bears middle linebacker the NFL’s most overrated player after he had made the Pro Bowl his first four seasons.
“That pissed me off, and the next year what happened? I was NFL defensive player of the year,” Urlacher recalled recently. “I think I was vindicated.”
Lifetime validation came last Saturday for the Bears’ best player since Walter Payton when the game bestowed its highest honor on Urlacher, electing him to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The eight-member 2018 class will be enshrined in August in Canton, Ohio.
“This process was stressful, but now it was definitely worth the wait,” Urlacher said. “I’m happy my family got to go through this process and put up with me through the whole thing.”
When Hall President David Baker went to Urlacher’s hotel room to inform him of the good news, a “DO NOT DISTURB” sign hung from the door.
“He came this close to not being in the Hall of Fame,” Baker kidded.
Baker knocked anyway, and Urlacher says he first thought of his late mother, Lavoyda, who passed away in 2011, before sharing the moment with his wife, Jennipher, and three kids. Before Urlacher headed to the NFL Honors banquet, he texted coaches from high school, college and the NFL who helped him achieve football immortality.
“Coming from a small town in New Mexico, I was just happy to go to college for free,” Urlacher said. “Then I got better and better.”
In 13 seasons for the Bears from 2000 to 2012, Urlacher transformed the position by chasing down running backs with blazing speed rare for a 6-foot4, 258-pound linebacker. In coach Lovie Smith’s Cover-2 defense, the
Bears routinely counted on Urlacher’s athleticism to clog running plays at the line of scrimmage and cover passes in the deep middle. Urlacher becomes the 28th Hall of Famer to enter as a Bear — more than any other NFL team — and upholds the franchise’s middle-linebacker tradition he took seriously.
“If you play middle linebacker, you want to play in Chicago because, to me, it’s the most coveted defensive position in football: middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears,” said Urlacher, who grew up in Lovington, N.M. “It was an honor.”
The privilege was Chicago’s.
No Bears defensive player has started more games than Urlacher
(180). He made eight Pro Bowls, four All-Pro teams, the NFL’s all-decade team for the 2000s and won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2005. He defined the Bears defenses in that era, leading them to Super Bowl XLI in Miami, where the Bears lost to the Colts.
That loss fueled
Urlacher the rest of his career like so many other real or perceived setbacks he used as motivation, from Texas Tech not offering him a scholarship to the Sporting News declaring him the league’s most overrated player. Over time, Urlacher became as adept at detecting slights as he was reading quarterbacks.
A reluctant superstar, Urlacher prided himself as being one of the guys more than one of the game’s fiercest linebackers. His brand of leadership meant standing up for teammates publicly and holding them accountable privately. He was as unassuming as he could be unblockable, inelegant but authentic in a way that endeared him to Bears fans.
The son of the Southwest ideally fit an image immediately embraced in a blue-collar Midwestern town. He was relatable, someone more likely to sign a time card instead of so many autographs. He carried the Bears defense for at least a decade and never complained publicly about having to endure 17 starting quarterbacks in 13 seasons. From his first day as a Bear in 2000 to his last snap in a 2012 loss to the Seahawks at Soldier Field, Urlacher never considered himself special, a big reason why he became a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Perhaps Urlacher could have hung around to play another season after his awkward split orchestrated by former general manager Phil Emery, but the sight of him wearing another No. 54 jersey would have looked as odd as Mike Ditka without a mustache.
Fittingly, Urlacher retired a Bear.
Now that Urlacher has been voted into the Hall, the only debate revolves around where he fits on the pantheon of Bears middle linebackers. Everybody has an opinion, and this one says Urlacher would be second, behind Dick Butkus but in front of Mike Singletary.