Strained Hamstring Could Sideline Urlacher For Season

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 4, 2012 8:30PM

After a record setting pace the first half of the season the Bears defense is looking like the aging unit that had experts concerned before the regular season began. Compound that with the team losing three of its last four games and you have a group of Chicken Littles crying “the sky is falling.”

Speculation on Brian Urlacher’s ailing body won’t help matters. The Tribune’s Vaughn McClure reports Urlacher is expected to miss the next three games, and possibly the remainder of the regular season, with a grade 2 strain of his right hamstring. Urlacher suffered the strain late in Sunday’s loss to Seattle chasing Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson much like Rocky Balboa chased the chickens around in Rocky II, when he heard the hamstring pop.

It’s been a frustrating year for Urlacher physically. The eight-time Pro Bowler was already working his way back from the knee injury he suffered at the end of last season and admitted the knee would never be the same. Urlacher is also in the final year of his contract and there may not be a market for a beat-up linebacker, even one who will play through pain and lie about having a concussion to stay on the field. The Bears don’t have a linebacker to replace Urlacher in Lovie Smith’s Cover 2 defense, even though they signed Dom DeCicco Tuesday. If Urlacher does miss the rest of the season and if Bears GM Phil Emery looks to retool the defense, it’s possible may have played his final game as a Bear, unless he takes a hometown discount similar to the one quarterback Jay Cutler said he would take to stay in Chicago.

How’s that for a “the sky is falling” scenario?