Larry Brown Sports

Brian Urlacher has been one of the most identifiable Chicago Bears players over the past decade, but he and the team are parting ways and it doesn’t seem to be on good terms.

Urlacher, who will be 35 in May, missed the final four games of the regular season with a hamstring injury. He entered the season with medical problems after having knee surgery. With his body appearing to break down, the Bears didn’t want to give their franchise linebacker more than a one-year deal. Urlacher’s agent was seeking $11.5 million for two years, according to the Chicago Tribune. The team supposedly countered with a one year, $2 million take-it-or-leave-it offer.

“It wasn’t even an offer, it was an ultimatum,” Urlacher told the Tribune. “I feel like I’m a decent football player still. It was insulting, somewhat of a slap in the face.

“They came back with the offer and said, ‘This is what it is, take it or leave it. It was, ‘If you want to play for the Bears, you’ll play for this. If not, then you’re not playing for the Bears.’ ”

Urlacher told the Tribune he would have played for $3 million if the team had kept the negotiation ongoing. He feels like the team didn’t want him back, and he wishes they would have made that clear.

“I want to be here,” Urlacher told the Tribune. “I wanted to be in Chicago. I wanted to finish here. Now that’s not possible.”

Urlacher told the Tribune he won’t hold hard feelings toward the organization despite the failed negotiation. Teammate Roberto Garza says Urlacher is a great player and great leader in the locker room, and that he will be missed.

Urlacher, who is an eight-time Pro Bowl linebacker and the 2005 Defensive Player of the Year, has said he does not plan to retire. He reportedly has received interest from the Dallas Cowboys, and we know he has been in contact with the Minnesota Vikings. If he and his agent leaked the Vikings news to try to scare the Bears into giving their best offer, the strategy did not work.

As an aging player Urlacher is unlikely to get a two-year deal, but he still could help a team for one season. His locker room presence and smarts on the field still makes him a valuable player to have, but he’s just not worth paying a ton of money at this point.

The Chicago Bears will hire Marc Trestman as their next head coach, Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune reports.

Biggs reported the news over his Twitter account shortly after 1:00 am CT Wednesday. He says Trestman beat out Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell for the job. Alouettes reporter Didier Ormejuste confirmed the report.

The Bears fired longtime head coach Lovie Smith after the season despite the team’s 10-6 record. Chicago GM Phil Emery says he fired Smith because, while the defenses were always strong under Smith, his offenses were too unproductive.

Trestman, along with the other finalists, is an offensive-oriented coach. He comes to Chicago after five seasons as head coach of the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes where he won his division four times and the Grey Cup twice.

A former college quarterback at the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State-Moorhead, Trestman has extensive NFL experience. He coached Bernie Kosar in both college and the pros, and quarterbacks like Steve Young, Scott Mitchell, Jake Plummer, and Rich Gannon all had excellent seasons with Trestman’s help.

The Bears have the personnel to maintain a strong defense for the next few years, and Trestman should provide an offensive boost. I think this was an excellent hire by Chicago.

The reports also confirm what Jimmy Johnson tweeted on Friday. The former Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl-winning coach said it looked like Trestman was going to be getting the Bears job. Trestman was an assistant under Johnson at Miami in 1984.

The Chicago Bears made a surprising move on Monday when they fired head coach Lovie Smith. According to Mike Ditka, the move was idiotic. On Monday, the former Bears coach ripped the team for what he thinks is a big mistake.

“If Minnesota would have lost (Sunday) night and the Bears were in the playoffs this wouldn’t have happened,” Ditka told The Waddle & Silvy Show on ESPN 1000. “That’s a fact. So how stupid is it then? It really is stupid. If they would have made the playoffs this would not have happened. They did what they did. They took care of their business and Minnesota played a great game against Green Bay.”

Ditka certainly has a point. Chicago has only made the playoffs three times in nine years with Smith as its head coach, but oftentimes teams overreact to missing the playoffs. The Bears were not a bad team this year and were a Vikings loss away from making the playoffs. Is a coaching change really what they needed to take the next step?

“I think Lovie is a very good coach,” Ditka said. “Everybody is a little bit different in their manner. I think that’s a 10-win season. They started 7-1. This team, there’s a reason they lost some games in between. A lot of the wins they got in the 7-1 run were because of turnovers by the defense were turned into points. The offense didn’t score enough points in those other games. That’s the bottom line.”

The Bears struggled mightily down the stretch, and it’s not uncommon for a head coach to take the fall when something like that happens. In this case, I’m not sure he should have. Do I think it’s tragic enough where Devin Hester needs to be overreacting and contemplating retirement because of it? No, but I tend to agree with Ditka. Smith should have no trouble filling one of the vacant head coaching positions.

H/T Pro Football Talk

The Chicago Bears may not control their own destiny to secure a playoff spot this weekend, but their formula is fairly simple. If the Bears defeat the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, Chicago slides into one of two wild card spots.

With the Bears scheduled to play an early game and the Packers playing in the afternoon, one would think all of the Chicago players have the following planned for Sunday: take care of business in Detroit and then root for Green Bay. However, Brandon Marshall said he is not going to cheer for the Packers despite the situation.

“I’m not cheering for anybody but the Bears,” Marshall said Thursday according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. “Yeah, that’s how it is. We put ourselves in this position and right now it could be a good position. You never know how things will work out. But all we can do is beat Detroit and sit back and have a cup of coffee and see what happens at that afternoon game.”

If the Bears beat the Lions, almost all Chicago fans and all of Marshall’s teammates will be rooting for Green Bay. Based on his recent remarks about his division rival, we know Marshall despises the Packers. While most of the things the star wideout says baffle me, I actually understand where he’s coming from. The Bears put themselves in this position and his cheering isn’t going to affect the outcome of the game. Obviously Marshall wants the Packers to win, but it’s not something he can control. The only thing he needs to worry about is making an impact against Detroit.

Photo credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-US PRESSWIRE

Chicago Bears fans may be fed up with their team, but it sounds like the feeling is mutual. The Bears have tumbled this season since they started out looking like one of the best teams in the NFC. While they could still sneak into the postseason with a wild card berth, it’s looking less likely by the week.

Earlier this week, Brian Urlacher ripped Chicago fans for booing the team during their loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. Fellow linebacker Lance Briggs said he understands the passion of Bears fans, but essentially agreed with what Urlacher had to say.

“I understand where he’s coming from,” Briggs said during his show on CSN Chicago. “I’ve been here a long time, too and I’ve (heard) a lot of boos. For a lot of the wrong reasons. Nobody, on any team I’ve seen, gets booed more at home than here in Chicago.

“That’s also a point to the passion of the Chicago fans. Everyone is passionate, but everyone in Chicago doesn’t know how to run a football team. Everyone doesn’t know how to play professional football. It’s our job to do that.”

While the Bears aren’t exactly the Jacksonville Jaguars, it has to be frustrating for fans to listen to their star players hype up games against division rivals only to fall flat on their faces. When you sign a contract to play in a place like Chicago, Boston or New York, you have to understand that the fans are going to love you when you’re winning and despise you when you’re losing. The fact that people like Urlacher and Briggs are acting surprised by that amid a stretch where they’ve lost five out of six games is getting pretty old.

Helmet smack to Pro Football Talk

Brandon Marshall was extraordinarily frustrated following the Bears’ 21-13 loss to the Packers in Chicago on Sunday. Green Bay clinched the NFC North with the win, while the 8-6 Bears dropped their fifth in their last six games.

Marshall was so upset he said the jobs of the team’s coaches should be on the line.

“Everybody involved in the offense should be held accountable, even if that means jobs,” Marshall said after the game. “It’s been this way all year. It’s no excuse. We still have two games left, there’s still hope, but at the same time, we need to be held accountable.”

Marshall got so emotional answering a few questions that he nearly began to cry.

“It’s been the same way all year. It’s the same thing every single game. We need to be held accountable,” he said. “What I got to do is try my best to keep it together and not let this affect me because it’s starting to affect me more than it should. And I love this game, I’m very passionate about this game, and right now it’s affecting me way too much.”

Marshall was so upset at that point he actually left his press conference. He had six catches for 56 yards including a touchdown that put Chicago up 7-0 in the first quarter, but the Bears only scored six more points after that.

It’s hard to know whether Marshall was pointing to any particular coach with his criticism. He may have been talking about head coach Lovie Smith, offensive coordinator Mike Tice, or just all the offensive coaches in general. One thing we do know is that quarterback Jay Cutler had an incident with Tice earlier in the season, though they both brushed it aside.

Now at 8-6 and in danger of missing the playoffs despite a 7-1 start, the coaches’ jobs will likely be in question after the season if they don’t win the next two games. The Bears are at Arizona and at Detroit the next two weeks, and they should be able to win both games to get into the playoffs.

Two games into the regular season is no time to panic, but it’s never too early for a reality check. The Bears can be a playoff team this year if a number of things go their way, but Thursday night’s loss to the Packers proved they have a long way to go. Jay Cutler was abysmal and Chicago’s offensive line was worse. If Brian Urlacher’s comments after the game were any indication, the 23-10 loss may have shaken the Bears confidence a bit.

“Maybe we’re not as good as we thought we were,” a frustrated Urlacher said according to CSNChicago.com. “We’ve got a long ways to go and that’s obvious. Maybe Green Bay’s just that good.”

It could be a combination of both, but something tells me the Bears aren’t as good as they thought they were. Cutler and Brandon Marshall seemed awfully confident headed into this week’s game and both played horribly. The Niners easily handled the Packers last Sunday in Green Bay, so it’s not like they’re an unstoppable force. Marshall, however, doesn’t sound as discouraged as Urlacher.

“We’re definitely as good as we think we are, but offensively we have to do a better job,” he said. “They’re a great team, they won the Super Bowl two years ago, so it’s going to take more than just walking on the field to dethrone them.”

Yes, it certainly is. And talking trash the week before the game is going to do nothing but motivate a team that needed no extra motivation coming off a loss at home in the season opener. If the Cutler and Marshall learned anything on Thursday night, it should be that they need to shut up and do their jobs.

H/T Pro Football Talk