Yes coming of a injury like that I didn't expect him to play like a pro bowler. No one comes back the first year and plays lights out. However the whole team was getting older too Brian was never the weak link. For you to think that he couldn't have come back is stupid the only reason he didn't was emery. Everyone on the bears believed in him except emery. It wasn't his health it was emery so go say what you want but you have no idea what was going on at HH obviously. I remember that off-season and was absolutely pissed emery forced him to retire. Why didn't he come back to HH till after he was gone ? You guys are ignorant to that it was because of emery and his staff fucking Brian out of a few more years.
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You act like you are plugged in, but really you don't know shit.
"After spending a lot of time this spring thinking about my NFL future, I have made a decision to retire," Urlacher said in a statement he posted on Twitter.
"Although I could continue playing, I'm not sure I would bring a level of performance or passion that's up to my standards."
Urlacher never visited teams as a free agent.
He discussed contract parameters with some teams that were interested, but there were never serious negotiations, a source told ESPN NFL Insider Ed Werder.
"We talked to every team in the NFL, and maybe in July or August it would have happened, but I'm not going to wait," Urlacher said. "I want to be somewhere where somebody wants me. I don't want to go somewhere where, 'Oh, so-and-so got hurt, we need you.' I don't want that to be the situation.
"The Bears offered me the contract they offered me and that was probably the best contract I was going to get from anywhere. And I'm not going to put my body through what it goes through for what the offer was."
Those close to Urlacher think his primary motivation to play again was the result of not wanting his career to end with a subpar 2012 season.
Former Bears coach Mike Ditka said he was golfing at the same club as Urlacher on Tuesday, when Urlacher hinted at retirement.
"I asked him what he was going to do and he wasn't sure, but he said, 'I think I'm going to hang them up, 13 years, it's been a long time,'" Ditka said on "The Carmen & Jurko Show" on ESPN Chicago 1000. "And basically, that's what he said.
A sprained MCL in the 2011 season finale at Minnesota played at least a small role in Urlacher's value diminishing to the Bears. Urlacher injured his left knee when he collided with teammate Major Wright in the end zone during the fourth quarter against the Vikings.
I
t was believed initially that surgery wouldn't be required on the injured knee. But after participating in the first few workouts of training camp in 2012, Urlacher underwent an arthroscopic debridement procedure on the knee, which kept him out of the entire preseason. Urlacher returned to practice on Sept. 3 and played in the Sept. 9 opener against the Indianapolis Colts.
Throughout the season, the Bears kept Urlacher on a limited practice schedule, and that contributed to the linebacker struggling to regain form.
Urlacher put together a nine-tackle performance in Week 13 against the Seahawks, but he suffered a hamstring injury while chasing down quarterback Russell Wilson during a 23-17 loss in overtime, which ended his 2012 season with four games remaining. Before that, Urlacher had played in every game in the two previous years after missing 15 games in 2009 due to a broken wrist.
"My knee feels great, finally," Urlacher said. "This is the first I got to work out and not just do rehab. ... But I can look at myself in the mirror and say
'There's no way I'll be the player I used to be, or what I think I need to be out there.' Mentally? Yeah, I have it. But physically, I'm not what I used to be. There's no doubt about that. My knee is never going to be the same. I saw that last year, even when I started getting better. I'll never be able to move like I want to. ... I can't do what I want to do and it's frustrating."