News has come down that Brian Urlacher is just one step away from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The greatest Chicago Bears defender of the new millennium is close to becoming the unprecedented 28th person to achieve that honor. There’s no doubt in the minds of Bears fans that he should be a slam dunk induction. The trademark of a Hall of Famer is can one talk about an era of football without mentioning their name?
Nobody can talk about the 2000s decade without Urlacher coming up. He was the 2005 Defensive Player of the Year and got the Bears to the Super Bowl the next season. Yet some critics aren’t willing to give him a pass. Why? Most of it has to do with the steep class he’s going against in 2018. Namely the presence of fellow middle linebacker Ray Lewis.
As great as Urlacher was, Lewis was greater. He went to more Pro Bowls, made more tackles and has two rings to Urlacher’s zero. A lot of people can’t envision the voters putting two middle linebackers into Canton the same year. If that’s the case than Lewis would have to be the obvious choice.
There is at least one person though that thinks that is unacceptable. Bears fans might not believe it too.
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Brian Urlacher Hall of Fame push gets huge Aaron Rodgers endorsement
It turns out that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, of all people, is one of the biggest Urlacher fans. He’s praised the linebacker at every opportunity in the past. This time he made sure to give the best possible pitch to the voters that they must put his former rival in Canton where he belongs.
“Brian Urlacher should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He is one of my favorites if not my favorite player … because he is hyper-competitive. He is a tough human and he does it the right way. He plays with a lot of passion, lot of grit and a lot of class. I always enjoyed our battles.
What he did at the middle linebacker position revolutionized the game. Before him there hadn’t been a 6-4 guy that could run down the middle like that and run sideline to sideline and take the middle of the field away in their Tampa-2 scheme and come up and hit and tackle and run and sack and blitz and intercept. To me, it shouldn’t be a difficult decision for those voters to put him in the first opportunity they can.”
Rodgers and Urlacher had some memorable battles in the five seasons they went head-to-head. This includes a back-and-forth struggle in 2010 where they met three times including the NFC championship game. Never was the Bears-Packers rivalry better when those two were matching wits at the line of scrimmage.
Truth be told the Bears defense hasn’t been the same against the Packers since Urlacher left. In the five seasons Rodgers faced the Bears when Urlacher played, the Packers scored 30 or more points twice. In the five seasons since he retired? They’ve done it six times. If there was any stat that showcases what #54 meant to Chicago, that’s a big one.
