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Urlacher retires after 13 illustrious seasons - Larry Mayer: Star MLB Brian Urlacher on Wednesday announced his retirement from the NFL. Urlacher spent all 13 seasons of his illustrious NFL career with the Bears.
Urlacher reflects on unforgettable Bears career - Larry Mayer: When Brian Urlacher first joined the Bears in 2000, he never dreamed he'd have an illustrious 13-year career that likely will culminate in his induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Former Bears teammates will miss Urlacher on, off field - Larry Mayer: News of Brian Urlacher's retirement reverberated through Halas Hall Wednesday as his former Bears teammates celebrated the star MLB's illustrious 13-year NFL career. Reactions from Twitter.
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Urlacher retirement
Urlacher announces NFL retirement with ‘no regrets’ - Bob LeGere: Statistics and records were never as important to him as wins and his relationships with teammates, staff and fans.
Urlacher calls it quits with gas left in the tank - Mark Potash: Age took its toll on Brian Urlacher, but history will repair that damage and then some. You can make your reservations for Canton in 2018 right now.
Urlacher says he would still play for Lovie - Adam L. Jahns: It seems like a moot point now with Marc Trestman now in charge of the Bears and Lovie Smith gone. But Brian Urlacher said he believes he'd still be playing if Smith was the Bears' head coach.
Urlacher exits the NFL stage quietly - Mike Mulligan: Bears MLB still wanted to play but evidently not at second-rate pay so he just fades away with no fanfare.
Urlacher: Injury, coach change factors in retiring - Dan Hanzus: Why did Brian Urlacher retire? The Bears legend told "The Rich Eisen Podcast" that he couldn't ignore the truth, saying, "Honestly, I'm just not quite the same player I used to be."
[Video] NFL Total Access - Brian Urlacher joins Andrew Siciliano to discuss why he decided to retire and what could have caused him to stick around for at least one more year.
Urlacher's loyalty to Bears 'special' - Kip Lewis: There will be no pictures or stories of him ever donning colors representing another franchise. That is special nowadays.
For Reinsdorf and Urlacher, time is relative - Mike Imrem: A player is the man for a while, but the owner is the man for as long as he wants to be.
Brian Urlacher timeline; Photos.
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Reflecting on #54
Urlacher special to the Bears on and off the field - Vaughn McClure: #54 announced his retirement via Twitter but his legacy will be lasting.
Urlacher carried on proud tradition of Bears’ MLBs - Rick Telander: Bill George, they say, started the position. Dick Butkus turned it into performance art for sadists. Mike Singletary made it into religion. Urlacher played the famed Chicago position in a way that was his alone, even as it paid homage to the past.
Urlacher could do it all, and then some - Matt Bowen: Bears MLB forced the opposition to plan around him because it couldn't run through him or pass over him (non-Tribune link).
Brian Urlacher deserving of a 54-gun salute - Dan Pompei: When Brian Urlacher held up that navy blue jersey for the first time on that April day in 2000, his face a little pimply and his scalp covered with closely cropped blond hair, no one had any idea what 54 would come to represent.
Packers' McCarthy: 'Everyone has so much respect for Brian' - Brad Biggs: The presence of the MLB for 13 seasons made for terrific battles within the game involving him and Packers QBs Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.
Urlacher's impact on teammates - Kevin Seifert: Emotions always run high when a superstar retires, and those who spent time around him tend to wax nostalgic. They are already beginning the work toward cementing a legend. [Video] Alex Brown on his time with #54.
Brian Urlacher retires as he should — a Bear - Rick Morrissey: This is how he was meant to leave the stage, not as a broken-down LB playing out his career with another team, but as a Bear for life.
It's fitting Urlacher ends career a lifelong Bear - Dan Pompei: It wouldn't have been right for great MLB to don the colors of another team for a swan song. Urlacher still had what it takes.
[Video] ESPN - Jeff Dickerson reacts to the news that LB Brian Urlacher has retired after 13 seasons with the Bears.
Urlacher ending not what it should have been - Moon Mullin: Unseemly rupture in the relationship when Urlacher spurned the Bears’ offer for a final season cheated the Bears, Urlacher and football out of what should have been. [Video] View from the Moon.
No athlete since Michael Jordan symbolized Chicago more than Urlacher - David Haugh: From his first day as a Bear to his last, Urlacher never considered himself special, which perhaps was why he became that way.
Two different styles, two great Brian Urlachers - Steve Rosenbloom: Brian Urlacher was asked to change a style that had earned him All-Pro honors. He changed. And again made All-Pro.
[Video] ESPN - Cris Carter and Jerry Rice look back at the career of Brian Urlacher.
Angelo on Urlacher: 'He was about the team' - Jerry Angelo didn't draft Brian Urlacher, but quickly learned to appreciate the cornerstone LB during his 11-year tenure as Bears GM.
Praise together: Bears family salutes Brian Urlacher - Adam L. Jahns: Although his talent, intelligence, accomplishments on the field and overall value to the Bears always said superstar, Brian Urlacher always just wanted to be one of the guys.
Buffone: 'NFL waits for nobody' - Moon Mullin: Doug Buffone can relate to Urlacher, having turned down a final contract offer after the 1979 season.
Urlacher makes the right call - Tim Baffoe: Maybe he could have been trotted out like an animal in a Russian circus, broken and sad, and that could be the pathetic last chapter of an otherwise great career. Nobody wanted to see that.
[Video] Waddle & Silvy - Where does Brian Urlacher rank among the all-time greats of the storied Bears franchise?
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Ditka
[Video] ESPN - Former Bears coach Mike Ditka discusses the retirement of Brian Urlacher.
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Hall of Fame career
Next stop for Urlacher is Canton - David Haugh: Nobody ever will say with certainty whether Urlacher could have played in the NFL next season. We always will know Urlacher chose to take the honorable way out of the league.
Calling Canton: Brian Urlacher's candidacy - Kevin Seifert: The best case to be made for Brian Urlacher's candidacy, now that he has announced his retirement, is that his career reversed the decades-long decline in the value of the position.
[Video] NFL Total Access - Ex-NFL GM Charley Casserly breaks down the career of Brian Urlacher and how he stacks up against the great LBs in Bears and NFL history.
Urlacher will have company on first Hall of Fame ballot - Brad Biggs: The conversation about if Brian Urlacher would reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame likely shifted to when after the 2010 season. Ray Lewis will reach eligibility in the same year.
Urlacher set standard for LBs in pass-crazy era - Vinnie Iyer: Urlacher—along with Derrick Brooks and Lance Briggs, who both starred as cover-2 contemporaries on the weak side—brought the "pass linebacker" to the limelight.
Brian Urlacher and history’s greatest LBs - Where does #54 rank among the great LBs in NFL history?
Tradition helps ease loss of Brian Urlacher - Michael Wilbon: The natural tendency is to say Urlacher is going to be irreplaceable, except that this is where the Bears, almost magically, come up with a capable successor.
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What the flump is going on in this video?