Telander: Urlacher's star clearly has fallen

[Xee]

Urlacher's star clearly has fallen
Whether oversight or right call, Urlacher's star clearly has fallen

December 17, 2008
BY RICK TELANDER rtelander@suntimes.com

The votes are in, and Brian Urlacher is out. For the second straight year, the Bears middle linebacker did not get voted to the Pro Bowl, which makes one wonder about a number of things.

Fair vote? Oversight? Lack of appreciation for little things? Reverse racism? (Urlacher's white, remember, and all 10 of the Pro Bowl linebackers are black.)

Or just the official documentation of the swift decline of a once-stellar career?

Only one Bear did get named to the postseason game in Honolulu, as voted upon by fellow NFL players, coaches and that ultimate wild card, the fans (one-third of vote to each group), and that was outside linebacker Lance Briggs.

You could say the all-star tallying process is curious, even petty and ill-informed, if not outright dumb as a bucket -- considering the Bears still have an outside chance at finishing 10-6 and in first place in the NFC Central. Why, there's a snowball's chance in a blast furnace the Bears could end up as Super Bowl XLII champions!

Long way from '02

OK, they won't. And the 6-4, 258-pound Urlacher might well be properly seen now by his peers, teachers and beer-bellied observers (who get to vote via cell phone) as a shell of the pale, bullet-headed assassin who received the most Pro Bowl votes of any defender in 2002. That season, he set a Bears record with 214 tackles, including 19 for losses.

He might even be perceived as an imposter when compared to the agile attacker he was as recently as 2005, when he was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year and had 171 tackles, seven passes broken up and six sacks.

But it is also possible, likely even, that Urlacher is simply reaping the reasoned deflationary status he deserves -- and maybe has deserved -- as a highly hyped and highly paid poster boy in the historic City of Middle Linebackers.

Though he was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2000 after being snatched out of New Mexico by the Bears in the first round of the draft, Urlacher almost immediately made some folks feel he was being overly promoted because he held down the sacred spot once worked by legendary Bill George, Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary.

Urlacher never was great at shedding blocks or blitzing the quarterback, but his lateral speed, tackling skills and game instincts all made him a force to be dealt with. He was fresh at the start, and the attrition of the game seems to have piled up on him fast in recent years. An arthritic back and neck are not what you want when ''sticking your face in there'' is your job description.

Urlacher's stats are, indeed, in swift decline. The man who had eight sacks his rookie year and 11½ in 2004-05 has none in 2008.

He isn't asked to blitz much, but his overall tackles are down, too. In 2006, the Bears' Super Bowl season, Urlacher had a team-leading 185 tackles. This year, with two games left, he has 85 -- on pace for 97. Even when he played only nine games in 2004 he had 105 tackles.

You could say it's all about age. Urlacher is 30, in his ninth season, with almost 1,400 documented regular-season collisions on his resume.

But AFC Pro Bowl starting middle linebacker Ray Lewis is 33. NFC outside linebacker Derrick Brooks is 35. Ruin comes differently to all God's creatures.

It may well be his holdout last summer for $18 million more in salary offended players and fans alike. Some may not like his commercials, his off-field child-rearing problems (though Lewis certainly has overcome that little knife-wielding escapade from a few years back), and a lot of folks recall that Urlacher was once straw-voted as the most overrated player in the league.

Man of too few words

His grunts, one-word answers and blatant surliness toward the media, who -- like it or not -- dispense information to football fans, probably hasn't endeared him, either. I really don't know what the hell that is all about. It sure doesn't make critics go easier on him, I can tell you.

But if the middling New York Jets can have a Pro Bowl-leading seven players in this year's game -- while a dozen teams have the same or better record than the 9-5 Jets -- couldn't a little nostalgia or sympathy trickle down to the Chicago man with the hairdo most unlike Rod Blagojevich's?

Urlacher, who has been to six Pro Bowls, will say it doesn't matter to him. If he speaks at all.

But it matters to Bears fans, and yes, to Bears brass.

Every year, a fresh crop of young savages comes out of our colleges, lurching toward the NFL like zombies smelling blood. One day soon, the Bears will be looking at an Urlacher replacement.

It is time to see a re-emergence of this city icon, a final late surge, guided perhaps by offseason frenzy from the potential Hall of Fame man in the middle.

Either Urlacher does that, or the Pro Bowl kid from the high desert drifts into the sunset.

[Pagan]

Yeah, I really hope this year and last year were slip years for Urlacher. He seems too young to have fallen off this far- 100 tackles less this year than in 2006 is a HUGE drop. This team needed more quality LB's anyway- I think it's time to seriously start looking/grooming a replacement.
I said it somewhere else, but why not try moving Brian to another LB possition....- put him at FS- problem solved.

(I know, but that would be cool)


pagan