- Publish date:
"WIN OR LOSE I'M UP ALL NIGHT ... GOING OVER THINGS IN MY HEAD"
•BRIAN URLACHER ON THE BEARS' LOSING RECORD It's been s, terrible, frustrating. I can't get my mind off of it. We went 13--3 in 2001 and started 2--0 the next year. Then bam!--it all fell apart. I don't know what happened. We stopped winning close games, and two years later we're still struggling. It's not fun, and the off-season is horribly long.
•ON HOW HE SLEEPS ON SUNDAY NIGHTS Win or lose, I'm up all night. I've been that way since college--I'm going over everything in my head: woulda, coulda, shoulda. If I do manage to drift off to sleep, I flip over and wake up and start the process all over again.
•ON FAMILY LIFE My wife and I are divorced now. We get along great, but she moved to Phoenix with my daughter [Pamela, who turns four in December]. I don't see my daughter as much as I'd like to, but my ex is really good about letting her come to stay with me. She knows I can't be without her for too long. When my daughter comes to our games, I wave to her up in the box. The other night she was watching on TV, and my ex said she went and hugged the TV. When I talked to her later, she said, 'Daddy, why didn't you hug me back?'
•ON HIS BRIEF RELATIONSHIP WITH PARIS HILTON LAST FALL We met, had a good time in Vegas, and she came to a game. That was about it. She's a nice girl. And a busy girl--she goes all out. I don't know what the big deal was. I was single, and we hung out for a while. I didn't even see the [infamous] video, man. I should've watched it; I heard it was pretty good.
•ON HIS RIGHT HAMSTRING I'd never pulled a muscle, so when I hurt it in training camp, I didn't know what to think. They told me four to six weeks; I figured three. The first two [regular-season] games it felt awesome. Then I reinjured it. It's a bad feeling, man, like it's going to pop anytime. It feels like I'm not going all out. I'm taking short steps; I can't really stride. It's probably good for me in a way. It keeps me under control more.
•ON BEING A TEAM LEADER I lead by example. But if I get pissed off enough, I say something. It usually isn't rah-rah; it's more complaining. In our game against Tampa, we gave up 10 points early and were playing terrible. At halftime I gathered the defense and expressed myself: Basically, it was 'BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP.' I usually don't do stuff like that, but when we make stupid mistakes, it makes me mad. --As told to Michael Silver
URLACHER, 26, HAS MADE THE PRO BOWL IN EACH OF HIS FOUR SEASONS. CHICAGO (3--5) IS AT TENNESSEE THIS SUNDAY
"You've got to have a hobby."
--Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald
SI Players' Midseason Rookie Report: What I've Learned So Far
page 40
COLOR PHOTO
JOHN CORDES/TSN/ICON SMI (URLACHER FROM BACK)
COLOR PHOTO
BOB ROSATO (URLACHER HEAD SHOT)
COLOR PHOTO
GENE LOWHER/SLINGSHOT (FITZGERALD)
