Unless people have lived under a rock for 20 years, it’s no secret that former Chicago Bears center Olin Kreutz was a competitive guy. One has to be in order to reach six Pro Bowls. The guy was not only an outstanding talent, he also had a mean streak. Even against his own teammates. The guy was a headache to practice against and one of his favorite things to do was constantly get to the second level and wall off linebackers.
Going into 2000, his third season, the man had yet to find a single linebacker he’d played against who could beat him to the spot. It was about personal pride for him. He demanded the best of himself and walling off linebackers like that to pop big runs was something he prided himself on. Unfortunately, everything changed early in training camp that here.
He explained to the Chicago Tribune just how profound his introduction to Brian Urlacher was.
For the Bears center, blocking linebackers on outside zone runs was “easy. … I cut them off in a second.” So on one of the first days of training camp in Platteville, Wis., in 2000, Kreutz thought something must have been off when a rookie linebacker sprinted past him as if he weren’t there.
“This is my block. I’m going to kill this guy,” Kreutz remembered thinking in a Tribune story on July 30, 2018. “He just flew by me big and strong and fast, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like that.”
“I came back to the huddle and was like, ‘(Wow!) That guy is fast!,’” Kreutz said. “I don’t even think ‘Lach’ knew how fast he was at that time. … There wasn’t a linebacker I played against — Pro Bowl, All-Pro — that I wasn’t cutting off with ease, and Lach’s speed was on a whole other level.”
Olin Kreutz was awed by nobody…except Urlacher
It didn’t take long for the rest of the NFL to realize how special Urlacher would be. He set the franchise record with 125 tackles. He also had a career-high eight sacks and two interceptions. All of this was enough to win Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. He would go on to eight Pro Bowls, win Defensive Player of the Year in 2005, led the Bears to the Super Bowl in 2006, and would enter the Hall of Fame on his first ballot.
Though he’s been ranked anywhere from 14th to 10th among the 100 greatest Chicago Bears of all-time, it feels like he is still being underappreciated. It’s fair to wonder how much higher he’d be had his team been able to claim a championship. Not that it bothers Kreutz. He knows how great the linebacker was. He knew it from almost the second they first crossed paths on that practice field so many years ago.
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