Ocho Cinco violates team rule, benched (AP) Browns' Quinn to play with broken finger (AP) NFL reinstates Cowboys CB 'Pacman' Jones (AP) Report: Yankees' Mussina to retire (AP)

It’s hard not to think that Brian Ulracher is playing hurt after reading this, from PFW:

With the Bears’ season quickly approaching the halfway point, it’s become hard to ignore the change in MLB Brian Urlacher — both on and off the field. When he’s on his game — as was definitely the case in his 12-tackle performance in the Bears’ stirring come-from-behind Week Seven win over the Eagles — Urlacher remains one of the game’s elite players at his position. But for whatever the reason, there have been other times this season (the loss to the Vikings sticks out) when Urlacher’s play has been noticeably subpar. Daily team observers don’t believe the decline in his play is due to any drop-off in his speed or quickness, but rather the problems he has had taking on blocks. Urlacher’s forte has always been his rare athleticism that essentially has allowed him to run around blocks to make plays, but that skill hasn’t been on display nearly as much this season. Urlacher has been sitting out Friday practices the entire season for undisclosed reasons, and it’s been rumored for a while now that a back injury might be responsible for the weekly shutdown. But our sources maintain that, if an injury was really bothering him, he would be missing practices earlier in the week, which hasn’t been the case. As for getting any explanations from Urlacher himself, the local media hasn’t had much luck lately, as the six-time Pro Bowler has become increasingly curt and stand-offish. The consensus among our sources is that, considering the overwhelmingly positive press he has received over the years, his recent behavior has been disappointing to say the least.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Chicago, Football, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.