Interesting: "7 stages of grief for the impending loss of Brian Urlacher"

There is a poll here too. Right now it looks like most people voting believe Brian has 3 more seasons left to play.

LINK to the entire aricle

Quote:

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All things that are good, or bad, must inevitably come to an end. In the case of Chicago Bears future Hall of Fame middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, that impending reality is closing in. Brian is in the final year of his $40million, 5-year contract, signed in 2008. He is currently set to make around $7.5mil in his final year, but money isn't what it is about for Brian. His legacy on and off the field is top priority, and higher than that is finishing his career with a Super Bowl.

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I've never seen the Bears play without Urlacher, and I can't imagine a Bears team without him... but the show must go on, let's hope Phil will draft us another Urlacher.

3 sounds about right, but 4 wouldnt surprise me.

I'm thinking three more as well but they may write for four depending on what kind of upfront bonus they give him. I'm thinking they'll want most of it in salary so that in the event he sustains a career ending injury or his play just falls of a cliff (unlikely as that may seem) so they can retire him with minimal cap damage.

This one could be tricky. They can't be too frugal about it but they can't go overboard either. Urlacher wants to remain here. He's said that already and indicated he owes the Bears some consideration on this contract since the essentially re-wrote the one's finishing up now.

The Kruetz thing aside no legendary HOF Bears MLB has ever played for any other team but the Bears. Not Bill George, not Dick Butkus, not Mike Singletary and it sure as hell isn't time to break with that tradition.