The bar was set high for Brian Urlacher when he joined the Chicago Bears as a first-round middle linebacker back in 2000.
Few teams are as closely identified with one position as the Bears are at middle linebacker with players like Bill George
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Urlacher lived up to that lofty standard and will join that talented trio in Canton when he is inducted into the hall on Saturday.
”It wasn’t even on my mind when I played,” Urlacher said after getting voted into the hall on his first try in February. ”I didn’t think this would ever be a possibility. So many things have to go right. You have to stay healthy, you have to play well, you’ve got to win some games, do some things. This is the summit of playing football right here.”
Urlacher did not make himself available for interviews leading up to inductions.
Urlacher was a different type of middle linebacker than his predecessors in Chicago, the perfect piece in the NFL of the 2000s with the speed and coverage skills that allowed him to play safety in college. That helped him match up against running backs and tight ends and roam sideline to sideline.
He also had the ability to drop deep into coverage, making him the perfect middle linebacker on coach Lovie Smith’s Tampa 2 defense that Urlacher helped make so stout in Chicago on the way to a Super Bowl appearance following the 2006 season.
”I’ve had an opportunity to be around so many great linebackers, but some of them are just made for the position,” Smith said. ”Derrick Brooks is made to be a Will linebacker, an outside guy in our system. Brian Urlacher, you can’t draw it up any better. Everybody knew that he looked the part and he played the part.”
Smith knew about Urlacher’s physical talents when he arrived as the new coach in Chicago in 2004 after Urlacher had made the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons, and was a two-time All-Pro. An early team meeting taught him about Urlacher’s mentality when he told the defense he expected the unit to lead the league in turnovers. Urlacher stayed after and set the tone for those dominant Bears defenses.
”He said: `Coach, let me get this right. In order for us to lead the league we have to wait for the offense to turn the ball over?”’ Smith recalled. ”That was the first time I’d looked at it that way. Brian called it a takeaway on the defensive side of the ball. The offense turns the ball over. Defensively, your job is to take the ball away every time. No one bought into us taking the ball away as much as Brian did.”
No defense took the ball away more than the Bears in the nine seasons Smith and Urlacher were together, with 292 takeaways. No linebacker other than fellow 2018 Hall of Fame inductee Ray Lewis took the ball away more than Urlacher during his 13-year career: 22 interceptions and 16 fumble recoveries.
Urlacher also had 41 sacks and finished his career as the Bears’ all-time leading tackler. He won awards as the top defensive rookie in 2000
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”Brian was the best,” said Packers quarterback and longtime NFC North rival Aaron Rodgers. ”He was probably one of the smartest players I ever played against. Just a great feel for the scheme, the game, reading his keys. Just incredibly instinctual player. Great hands. Average elusiveness, I can say that, because I tackled him one time. But one of the best to ever do it at that position in an era where some of the louder guys maybe got the attention – expecting the middle linebacker to be a loud yeller or rah-rah guy. Brian went about it in a very classy way. Played the game the right way and was an incredible player.”
Urlacher was not always destined for greatness. He was lightly recruited out of high school and ended up at New Mexico after Texas Tech didn’t offer him a scholarship.
But he thrived with the Lobos and made himself a first-round pick.
”I’ve had some great freshmen, but from the minute he arrived, every coach stood up and took notice,” former New Mexico coach Dennis Franchione said. ”I remember sometime in the first 10 days of two-a-days, six of the nine assistant coaches came in – although independently, I didn’t think they talked about it – they said, `Coach, when are you going to play Urlacher.’ And I said
Youth John Franklin-Myers Jersey , `I’m not sure yet.’ They said, `I’ll take him at my position.’ I think that was everybody except the quarterback coach, the line coach and the receivers coach. That’s how versatile he was. …
”He was a heat-seeking missile from the time he arrived on campus. Not only that, he was a really coachable, bright young man. Made other people better. You can just go on and on about him.”
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AP Sports Writer Andrew Seligman contributed to this report.
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BOSTON — The last time the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels met, both teams were hot and the three-game series in Anaheim was to provide some sort of early excitement to the long and winding baseball season.
The Red Sox, who came in 13-2 against the 13-3 Angels, not only won all three games but did it by a combined count of 27-3.
“Give those guys credit. They had a great series,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said after the finale, and after the Red Sox beat up on Shohei Ohtani.
David Price, who won the opener of that series, faces the Angels and emergency starter John Lamb on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series at Fenway Park.
With six starting pitchers on the disabled list, the Angels were able to get Ricky Skaggs back after the right-hander missed a game with a tight hamstring, but he had to pitch Monday’s makeup game at Kansas City. That left Lamb, a left-hander with a 2-12 lifetime record and 6.12 ERA
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Missing Skaggs meant the Red Sox were able to avoid a pitcher who had won three straight starts with an 0.45 ERA (he lost 2-0 on Monday). Now, losers of 10 of its last 14, Boston gets Lamb, who allowed three runs in 3 1/3 innings replacing Skaggs last week.
The Red Sox are coming off a series win over the Seattle Mariners, finishing off a 4-3 two-weekend win over the AL West contenders. They rode a 13-strikeout effort from Chris Sale to a win in the rubber game Sunday.
“I’m glad that he’s on my team and I don’t have to face him,” Boston’s Mitch Moreland said of Sale (7-4). “He’s filthy and showed it again today.”
The matchup at Fenway renews the “best player in baseball” talk, with Red Sox fans pushing Mookie Betts over Mike Trout.
While Betts spent time on the disabled list with an abdominal strain and missed a weekend game with illness, Trout has DHd the last six games because of a sprained right index finger.
“After a week, he was going to throw and evaluate it,” Scioscia said Monday. “We’re kind of there now. We’ll see. He’s not going to play center field (Tuesday). It’s how he progresses when he starts to throw.”
Amazingly, Trout is a .371 hitter in 16 lifetime games at Fenway, but he has never hit a home run in the old ballpark. He has driven in 11 runs and stolen six bases.
Price had a six-game (seven-start) winning streak snapped his last time out, at Minnesota, but allowed just three runs in six innings and could have won with some support.
Price is just 6-7 with a 3.45 ERA lifetime against the Angels.
The current LA roster doesn’t have much to brag about against the lefty. Albert Pujols is 10-for-31 (.323) with two homers and five RBIs, but Chris Young is 1-for-14 (.072)
http://www.lionsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-kerryon-johnson-jersey , Luis Valbuena 1-for-8 (.125), Ian Kinsler 5-for-29 (.172) with a homer, and Trout 4-for-23 (.174) with 11 strikeouts.
Lamb, with the Cincinnati Reds the past two seasons, has never faced the Red Sox.
The Monday makeup allowed the Angels and Royals to celebrate the postponed April 15 Jackie Robinson Day, so all players on both teams wore No. 42 Monday.
“We’re all obviously very proud to do it,” Scioscia said before the game. “I think it’s cool. We missed it (on April 15) and the guys had been looking forward to it. They were like, ‘Oh, man.’ It’s kind of nice because we’re the only two teams doing it today. We’re happy about that, for sure.”
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