Bears Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher Talks Caleb, Jeffery Simmons & More w/Rich

Rich had plenty of ways to introduce Brian Urlacher. Hall of Famer. One of the all-time greats. He went with the deep cut: "the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year of 1999." Urlacher loved it, and Rich added that the honor has since gone to Derek Carr once and Ashton Jeanty a couple of times. "You walked so they could run," Rich told him.

What followed on The Rich Eisen Show was a wide-ranging conversation about a Bears team that has Chicago, in Rich's words, "out of their skulls right now," along with a little college football, a great Mike Ditka story, and an unexpected debate about hair.

Urlacher said he's playing a lot of golf and going to what feels like 100 college football games a year with his son, who plays at USC. With the Trojans in the Big Ten, the East Coast and Midwest trips are tough.

He was at the Coliseum when USC beat Ohio State, though not in the rain. "I know a guy," he explained, and when Rich teased him for being highfalutin, Urlacher shrugged: "People ask me to sit with them."

Rich, a Wolverine, was still buzzing about Bowman leaping over Buckeyes. "That got me off the couch screaming," he said. "It's a metaphor. It's great." Urlacher pointed out that Bowman is 19, and said players like Mosley, Bowman and Wafer are different from what he saw as a freshman. "These guys can play in the NFL right now."

He explained that his son started at Notre Dame and went to USC through the transfer portal after his freshman year. "I like Lincoln Riley," Urlacher said. "It's just a different landscape these days." As for what an Urlacher NIL deal at New Mexico would have looked like: "Probably not great."

He also pushed back on the Ohio State panic, recalling a man at the airport telling him the Buckeyes should fire Ryan Day. "They lost one game in the Big Ten," Urlacher said, noting the other loss was to Texas and that they'd still reach the conference championship and the playoffs. "I'm a big Ryan Day fan. The expectations are so high there. You can never win."

On the Bears, Urlacher started with the quarterback. "There's guys that can throw the ball great at the quarterback position. There's guys that can run it pretty well. He does both really well," he said. "And the thing I like about him, he doesn't put the football in jeopardy. His turnover numbers every year, even his rookie year, have been really low."

Rich credited the accuracy: Williams will throw a receiver open, drop a deep ball where only his guy can get it, and do it on the run. Urlacher brought up a throw from last year's playoffs, falling backwards and dropping it in the bucket in the corner of the end zone. "One guy makes that throw," he said. He first called the opponent St. Louis before correcting himself to the Los Angeles Rams. "I played against the St. Louis Rams. That's what they are to me."

His summary: "It's great to see the Bears have a quarterback that's, like, elite." As a defensive guy, the lack of turnovers impresses him most.

Urlacher loves the addition of Jeffery Simmons, and he explained why from a middle linebacker's view. "Up-the-middle pressure I feel like is the hardest for the quarterbacks to kind of fend off and be accurate with the ball," he said. "He's fast, he's strong, he gets up the field. For a middle linebacker, it just defines things right away."

He pointed to Sweat, who had three sacks with Simmons inside, two of them wiped out by penalties. Urlacher had some fun with that, saying it seems like you can't make a stop on third down without a penalty on the defense somewhere. Still, he said Sweat "probably played the best game of his Bears career," and Simmons will "make it easier for everyone, the linebackers, the secondary."

"What a great trade by Ryan Poles," Urlacher said. Rich noted the deal also tells the locker room that now is the moment. "100 percent," Urlacher agreed. As for the cost of two first-round picks, he doesn't see it as a big deal. "You don't know what you're going to get with those picks," he said, adding that the Bears historically haven't had great success with first-rounders before Poles. "You get a player who is an impact player right now, top two or three, if not the best, at his position in the NFL."

Rich said he sees an intensity in Ben Johnson that matches the city. Urlacher pointed to the belief Johnson has instilled. Last year, the Bears had "no business" winning several of their fourth-quarter games, and no business winning the playoff game against the Packers after trailing by 18 or 19 points in the fourth quarter. "The belief that he's instilled in them and that they have in themselves is pretty apparent," Urlacher said. "I like the way he talks to the team. I like the way he talks to the media. Just very matter-of-fact."

Rich highlighted the 17-play opening drive in Seattle on Monday night, capped by a goal-line sequence where the Bears hurried to the line as if to run the same play again, then sneaked Williams out for a touchdown throw to Burden. "You can see how prepared they are, which is a big deal in the NFL," Urlacher said. He credited Johnson's commitment to the run, which keeps the offense in second-and-short and third-and-short, praised an offensive line he said doesn't get enough credit, and noted that on the other side, the Bears are the best third-down defense in the league. Time of possession tells the story too: 35 minutes to 25. "They're just crushing teams."

Rich mentioned that Tom Waddle had told the show some of Johnson's traits mirror Ditka's, and asked for Urlacher's favorite Ditka story. Urlacher first praised the Waddle story about Ditka cutting him four times and still giving him a chance.

Then came his own. The first time he golfed with Ditka at Bob O'Link in Chicago, Ditka hit first no matter what anyone scored on the previous hole, then drove off while everyone else was still on the tee. On the second shot, same thing. "Literally drives on the green," Urlacher said. "He doesn't care. He's just him. He does what he wants to do."

He admired how Ditka spoke in the Chicago media. "When he said things, you actually paid attention to it because he was honest," Urlacher said. "I wish I had more of that in me as well."

When Rich asked what Urlacher's Hall of Fame bust would tell Ditka's bust tonight, he didn't hesitate. "He'd be very proud with the football they're playing. He would be a happy dude because they're playing football the right way." He likes how Williams gives everyone else credit after wins and puts losses on himself, a lesson Urlacher said he learned from Lovie. He also loves the postgame celebration videos. "It's been a long time coming."

Rich, who saw the Knicks win for the first time in 50-something years, asked what Michigan Avenue would look like if the Bears won it all for the first time in about 40 years. "It's a Bear city," Urlacher said. He'd actually want to be as far away as he could. "I didn't win it." But he described how Chicago lost its mind for the NFC Championship runs against the Saints and in 2010 against the Packers. "They're hungry," he said, and with the best quarterback play in the division, "I think they have a leg up."

In the NFC, Urlacher named the 49ers, especially when healthy, which led Rich to ask about Fred Warner. "Man, what a badass he is, Rich," Urlacher said, apologizing for the language, before running through Warner's size, speed and instincts. "That dude gets to the football." He also listed Detroit and Green Bay, and Minnesota, though he expects the Vikings to fall off. In the AFC, it's the Bills. "Josh Allen. I mean, that dude is a beast."

Rich asked whether Urlacher could believe the quarterback he used to chase late in his career, Aaron Rodgers, has a shot to take the Steelers to the Super Bowl. "I'm not surprised," Urlacher said. "He doesn't move as well as he used to. That's what happens when we get older." But Rodgers is still smart and ahead of the game mentally, and Urlacher enjoys seeing him back with McCarthy. He added that Green Bay fans are "so damn lucky" to go from Brett to Aaron to Jordan Love, and that the Bears "finally got Caleb to kind of rival" that.

Rich closed with an anniversary: 23 years since he fired up "Bears Cam" on the first-ever NFL Total Access to interview Urlacher, who remembered sitting in what was basically a closet at Halas Hall.

Then it got personal. Urlacher, in a hat, complained he needed a haircut. Rich could not compute Brian Urlacher having a bad hair day, and insisted it wasn't jealousy. "It's anger," he said. "You left me on the battlefield," along with Chris Brockman and others. Urlacher's consolation: "You got a good-shaped head." His own, he said, looked kind of weird bald, which is why he grew it back, and now he has to wash and comb it every day. "It's a process, bro."

His shampoo strategy? The two-in-one. "Eliminates one of the steps in the process."