Brian Urlacher will not see the field again in 2009. (Photo: commons.wikimedia.org)

The NFL season is now underway. Hope springs eternal and all that jazz for teams with hopes of the postseason, and the Chicago Bears were clearly in that race. I hope you didn’t do something silly, like taking out pay day loans to plunk money down on the Bears going all the way in 2009.

They WERE in the race? Isn’t this only Week 1?

The Green Bay Packers may have triumphed over the Chicago Bears 21-15, in no small part due to four interceptions by new Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. However, the Bears held a lead until the second half of that game. The real problem came from a Brian Urlacher injury. That’s a major blow at any time during the season, but ESPN has reported that it will officially end the season for the All-Pro linebacker.

He dislocated his right wrist

Bears spokesman Jim Christman confirmed the sentence the Chicago Tribune had already handed down to Bears fans: “Brian did have surgery this morning and he is out for the remainder of the season.” Urlacher himself backed this up in a text to the Tribune. A first quarter play where he tackled Bears running back Ryan Grant is what did him in; we was unable to return to the game.

Was he on the cover of Madden NFL or something?

Well, not this season. He’s certainly a big enough star in the National Football League to warrant the exposure. However, Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals are this season’s cover boys. The “Madden curse” has already hit Polamalu this season, and the countdown has begun for Fitzgerald. Urlacher has done plenty of promotions for other products and services, however. Maybe there’s another curse I’m unaware of that has struck. If I believed in curses, that would actually mean something to me.

A season-ending injury is certainly not the norm for Urlacher. The six-time Pro Bowler had made 49 starts in a row during his 10-year career. Overall, he’s only missed seven games. Those came due to a hamstring injury in 2004. So the Bears are looking for a replacement free agent help to fill the position, if not the on-field leadership role Brian Urlacher will leave behind. ESPN indicates Derrick Brooks could be an option the Bears would be able to sign quickly.

What losing a leader means

“It’s always tough to have your leader go down,” Bears linebacker Lance Briggs said to the Tribune. “He knows the defense better than anybody and he communicates everything to everyone else.”

Having a leader around makes a big difference in the team dynamic. Think of it in terms of relationships. The leader takes the disparate elements and helps meld them together into a functioning whole. That’s why the Brian Urlacher injury is such a blow to the Bears: it’s because he performed that role for them on the field. A real world example would be a relationship where one partner was in charge of the personal finances. If that partner goes down or becomes unavailable for whatever reason, issues in the budget can manifest. Short-term recovery is attainable through the use of pay day loans, but long-term success requires a leader to make the elements of the budget work as a team.

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