Brian Urlacher News

"Jerry Angelo didn't want to get into the specifics of contract negotiations for any one player, but that didn't prevent the Bears' general manager from veering off the path Tuesday in the face of a long line of questions regarding Brian Urlacher's demands."

"Yeah, I'm sure mustering a lot of sympathy for Brian Urlacher in his quest to "feel appreciated." The best way to do that, I always say, is to invite a fawning Tribune writer into your luxurious Arizona existence, threaten to boycott mini-camp because your $57 million deal is obsolete and completely downplay that neck and back problems might blunt your impact and shorten your career."

"It's hard to argue with Jerry Angelo's characterization Tuesday of the contract extension offered Brian Urlacher as fair. A $5 million signing bonus with $1 million tacked on to each of Urlacher's next four years' salaries indeed shows the Bears understand this problem probably won't go away without reaching into their pockets."

"Around this time last year, Lance Briggs expressed displeasure over his contract situation with the Bears. This spring, the Pro Bowl linebacker is raising his voice again—in support of teammate Brian Urlacher."

"Now that Brian Urlacher has had his say, the Bears will have a chance today to respond on the record about the middle linebacker's contract demands. The team hosts its annual predraft meeting with the media at Halas Hall, an occasion typically reserved for more smoke-blowing than a convention of cigar connoisseurs."

"The latest stir back at Halas Hall involves his contract situation and how he has opted to stay away from voluntary workouts with his teammates, in part because he wants Bears management to show more appreciation. He's uncertain about attending a mandatory mini-camp scheduled for the end of May, but Urlacher won't go as far as to declare himself a holdout."

"People who doubt Brian Urlacher's influence in the locker room are ignoring the teammates who are following his lead by seeking new contracts. They also overlook the wedge being driven between players and management by Urlacher's impasse evident at a recent workout when a Bears veteran loudly pleaded with coach Lovie Smith for the team just to pay the linebacker, according to a teammate."

"Forget what's fair or unfair, why we have contracts (to establish order amid chaos) or why an aging Brian Urlacher might want to renegotiate his own multimillion-dollar contract with the Bears when he has four years left on it."

"Brian Urlacher will have to wait his turn. While the star linebacker is becoming more vocal about his contract demands, return specialist and receiver Devin Hester is next when it comes to talks with the Bears."

"Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher disputed a report that he has threatened to retire if the Bears don't reward him with more guaranteed money."

"Brian Urlacher said in an Internet report Friday that the Bears have offered him a one-year extension of the nine-year, $56.65 million deal he signed in 2003. But it apparently isn't enough for the Pro Bowl middle linebacker. Urlacher, who will turn 30 in May and still has four years remaining on his deal, is boycotting the Bears voluntary offseason workout program and contemplating a training-camp holdout in search of a multiyear deal. "

"Ever see a man so popular become so bitter, so calculating, so childish? No one in pro football has benefited from positive p.r. more than Brian Urlacher, who led the NFL in jersey sales last year and continues to show up in TV commercials that somehow make a monotonal, monosyllabic mope seem funny. Yet for some odd reason, he's mad at the world he owns. And if he isn't careful, that world could turn on him, if it hasn't already. "

"If even half the rumors swirling around the NFL about Brian Urlacher's negotiation tactics are true, then maybe the Bears ought to reconsider their offense-building pledge for the draft and take a hard look at the middle linebacker class. One league source says Urlacher's agents have asked the team if they could explore a trade. Another says Urlacher is threatening to retire because of neck and back problems, a move in which he wouldn't have to repay any portion of the $13 million signing bonus he received in 2003, when he received a nine-year, $56.65 million deal."

"The original $57 million didn't seem to bother anyone. It was a little high for Brian Urlacher, but he had the potential to be a big star. And he got there, too. When athletes land these contracts, for the most part the big bucks are celebrated."

"As the media surrounded Ted Phillips on Tuesday, the Bears president and CEO refused to put a timetable on contract talks with defensive standouts Tommie Harris and Brian Urlacher."

"Bears president and CEO Ted Phillips says he would like to complete negotiations soon on new contracts for Tommie Harris and Brian Urlacher for several reasons."

"Brian Urlacher skipping Monday's start of voluntary workouts at Halas Hall over a contract dispute was like an engine light going on in the car."

"While most players attend the weightlifting and conditioning sessions that began Monday, there have always been players who preferred to work out where they live or with their own trainers. The same can be expected of Urlacher, who has hinted that he might stay away until he receives a contract extension."

"For the second year in a row, the Bears will be without a Pro Bowl linebacker for the start of their voluntary off-season program, in part because of an unresolved contract situation. Brian Urlacher told the Tribune on Sunday he plans to skip the first day of workouts, slated to begin Monday, and left open the strong possibility that he will bypass the Bears' entire voluntary off-season program, which includes organized team activities (OTAs)."

"Ongoing contract discussions between the Bears and linebacker Brian Urlacher took up a portion of the team's time Thursday, the day before the start of free agency, the Tribune has learned."

"Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher recently had neck surgery. The procedure has been described as minor, and ol' No. 54 is expected back next season, bullet noggin once more in the middle of the fray."

"Twelve years, one surgery and a handful of epidural shots later, Kramer is enjoying retirement in California while coaching his two boys and running a camp for quarterbacks. But visions of his injury resurfaced when he came across the Tribune's report about Brian Urlacher's neck surgery."

"Though Brian Urlacher's surgically repaired neck created plenty of conversation all over the city Friday, the Bears had no comment at Halas Hall. Neither did Urlacher. Nor did people associated with the Bears linebacker. Nor did teammates. Nor did NFL officials."

"Brian Urlacher is the face of the Bears. The face sits atop a neck that recently underwent surgery. Feel free to panic, Bears fans. On second thought, don't panic. People who are privy to the details of the surgery say it was routine."

"Critics questioned the health of his back. Pro Bowl voters figured other players were more deserving of a trip to Hawaii. Through it all, an irritated Brian Urlacher opted for short responses rather than lashing out in a full-blown tirade. With the season now complete, the Bears linebacker aired out some of his feelings."

"Brian Urlacher collapsed in the south end zone Sunday at Soldier Field, but it was a sag he and the Bears defense were only too happy to see."

"Even though no linebackers are listed on the injury report, Brian Urlacher has played despite suffering from a bad back all season. Still, Urlacher is one player who always has given the Vikings a headache, and one of Herrera's duties tonight will be to block the All-Pro middle linebacker."

"The mother of Brian Urlacher's 2-year-old son has claimed in a Will County Court filing this week that the Bears linebacker falsely testified that he showed up to pick up his son when he was actually somewhere else."

"Brian Urlacher, who has become a man of few words and few big plays this season, was in typical form Thursday. He declined to participate in what had become a weekly news conference but deigned to entertain queries at his locker in his usual curt style."

"Brian Urlacher here. Just wanted to reach out to you again via my blog. I've decided to call it 'Brian's Blog.'"

"Brian Urlacher did more than increase traffic for his favorite Web site with his weekend admission that he indeed had an arthritic back. Even more than a buzz, Urlacher created doubt about the future of his Bears career that the team cannot ignore as it plans ahead. Click here to find out more! Suddenly the contract extension that Urlacher and the team had begun exploring informally looks like a risky commitment to an aging middle linebacker with arthritis."

"Lovie Smith said it's general Bears policy not to disclose information on injuries, so the fact that details about Brian Urlacher's back surfaced Sunday on Foxsports.com took the coach by surprise."

"It's impossible to predict whether Brian Urlacher's arthritic back will shorten his career, but the way it's apparently affecting his performance speaks to its seriousness."

"Brian Urlacher's arthritic back isn't expected to keep him out of any games, shorten his career or jeopardize his quality of life in later years. But that didn't stop Bears coach Lovie Smith from getting peppered on the topic Monday at Halas Hall."

"If Brian Urlacher is in pain, he'll just have to deal with it. Bears coach Lovie Smith on Monday seemed to be calling the back pain plaguing his star middle linebacker nothing more than what most players cope with on a regular basis."

"Jay Glazer's job description says he is an NFL 'insider.' That gives him a unique perspective to the most talked-about story in Chicago sports: What's going on inside Brian Urlacher's brain?"

"Brian Urlacher is not a man's man. He's a whiny, immature sellout who thinks his problems are media-driven when, in fact, the local media mostly have fawned over him for eight years."

"The ridiculous sideshow of Brian Urlacher's media strike -- or is it simply a word slowdown? -- gave way to more serious matters on Monday, when a finally informed Lovie Smith spent most of his postmortem news conference discussing the linebacker's injury status."

"As a Bears rookie, Brian Urlacher distrusted the media almost immediately. Convinced that the heavy attention he received from reporters was another way of saying the only thing holding him back was the inferior team around him, Urlacher tried to avoid interviews completely."

"Jimbo Covert feels Brian Urlacher's back pain. Or at least something like it."

"Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher has confirmed a Foxsports.com report that he has an arthritic condition in his back. Urlacher wouldn't expand on the issue after Sunday's loss. "

"For a man suddenly given to abrupt, biting answers, Brian Urlacher had a lot to say to Jay Glazer of foxsports.com, the Web site the Bears middle linebacker has chosen for direct communication with fans. Urlacher told Glazer that he does indeed have 'an arthritic condition in his back,' but won't be undergoing surgery to correct it unless a disc bulges or busts."

"Foxsports.com reported this week that the Bears perennial Pro Bowl middle linebacker has an arthritic back condition and that he flew to Pittsburgh last week to see a specialist and undergo an MRI."

"Urlacher is suffering from an arthritic lower back but won't discuss it except via Foxsports.com. After the Bears' 16-7 loss Sunday to the Detroit Lions, Urlacher referred all inquires to that Web site."

"Asked about a pregame, foxsports.com report that cited Urlacher admitting to having arthritis in his back bad enough that he visited a specialist in Pittsburgh last week, Smith did what seems to come naturally for him. He responded with a mixture of denial and subterfuge, showing as little respect for the public's interest in the team's franchise player as that player."

"I don't know which fate is worse, realizing the Bears are an awful football team or finding out Brian Urlacher is a media-feuding baby who conspired with Halas Hall to conceal the truth about his back injury. All I know is, the boys are heading into a bye week, and I speak for legions of fans who wish they'd just go bye-bye until next year."

"Forget the season, fans. At 3-5, the Bears are done for 2007. But what about Pro Bowl middle linebacker Brian Urlacher? Is he lost?"

"Tightroping the line between the merely disingenuous and an outright lie, Smith ran from the opportunity to be frank on the subject of Brian Urlacher with an evasiveness Cedric Benson can only dream of."

"Tight-lipped Brian Urlacher opened up to the media during his weekly news conference Thursday -- just a bit."

"Pre game speculation about the health of Urlacher's back and talk of a possible decline in his level of play after his second five-tackle game of the year against the Vikings apparently irked the linebacker enough for him to adopt a new less-is-more public policy."

"The league revealed Urlacher was fined $7,500 for unnecessary roughness on a tackle of Vikings running back Chester Taylor in the second quarter."

"A loss Sunday won't eliminate the 2-4 Bears from playoff contention mathematically, but realistically it just might."

"Brian Urlacher, the face of the Bears, frowned at any assumptions that his ailing back has caused a drop in production."

"Brian Urlacher was as evasive as Vikings running back Adrian Peterson when it came to questions about his weekly appearances on the injury report with an ailing back. But when it came to the Bears' season and what it will take for the defending NFC champions to avoid becoming the sixth Super Bowl loser in the last seven years to fail to reach the postseason the next year, he dialed in exactly what is necessary."

"Middle linebacker Brian Urlacher is focused on beating the Eagles this week, so there are a lot of topics he's not interested in discussing, including the lack of effort that coach Lovie Smith mentioned earlier in the week."

"Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher consistently has set a high standard of play. So when he fails to reach that standard, inquiring minds want to know why. Is Urlacher hurt?"

"Brian Urlacher said last week he wanted Brett Favre to set a record Sunday night — the record for career interceptions. Then Urlacher went out made sure it happened, picking off a third-quarter pass by Favre that helped the Bears win 27-20."

"The rally started when Brian Urlacher intercepted Brett Favre for the first time in 142 passes after Favre spent the first three quarters making them look like the NFC North cellar dwellers the Bears were."

"The mother of Brian Urlacher's 2-year-old son was held in contempt of court for failing to transport the child to the proper meeting place so the Bears linebacker could spend time with the boy, court records show."

"Now we know why Lions wide receiver Roy Williams predicted his team would hang 40 points on the Bears in Week 2 last season. He just doesn't think they are very good. ''Everybody fears the Bears for some odd reason,'' Williams said last week on WDFN-AM in Detroit after the Lions' 2-0 start. ''Everybody talks about ... how good their defense is. I respect them, but I just don't see what's so good about the Bears.''"

"Middle linebacker Brian Urlacher was made for the Chicago Bears' defense."

"Brian Urlacher on Thursday uttered what -- hopefully -- were the final words in the verbal war between the Bears and the San Diego Chargers. The Bears' middle linebacker, a six-time Pro Bowl pick, said his biggest problem with the Chargers' trash talking is that it's being done by players who haven't accomplished a lot in the league."

"Brian Urlacher rolled his eyes and then exhaled as if to say he wanted no part of a conversation about San Diego's Shawne Merriman. But the Bears linebacker couldn't dance around the subject long."

"LaDainian Tomlinson said Monday that a friend sent him comments from Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher about how he didn't appreciate the Nike TV commercial in which the Chargers running back appears to break a game-winning, 80-yard run against the Bears."

"Brian Urlacher could not care less that Lance Briggs addressed the media Tuesday. And Urlacher doesn't fault his teammate for panicking after Briggs crashed his new 2007 Lamborghini at 3:14 a.m. Monday—an incident that has Briggs facing a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of a property damage accident."