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**RoyWilliams** · 02-08-2008, 09:07 AM

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Brian Urlacher is the face of the Bears. The face sits atop a neck that recently underwent surgery.

Feel free to panic, Bears fans.

On second thought, don't panic. People who are privy to the details of the surgery say it was routine.

Then again, is there such a thing as a routine surgery for someone whose job revolves around catapulting himself head first into running backs and quarterbacks?

Maybe a little bit of panic would be appropriate here.

Urlacher spent much of last season trying to deal with a back injury that affected first his play and then his vocal cords in the presence of media members. I didn't take an anatomy course in college, but I do know that the spinal cord runs through the neck and the back.

It's Urlacher's neck. It's Urlacher's back. It is not a third-string cornerback's neck and back.

You don't have to be flat-out scared, but being very concerned is reasonable.

Urlacher is 30, relatively young in human years, but rapidly getting older in linebacker years. His speed has made life miserable for opponents, but playing the position takes its toll on a man. When you use your body as a weapon, there has to be a cumulative effect. There has to be a reckoning, whether it's when you're in the prime of your career or when you're 60.

Is that what we're seeing now? The deterioration of a great player whose neck might have been jarred one too many times? Or is it just what the ever-secretive Bears likely will say it is—routine? A simple mop-up operation?

They discovered Urlacher's neck problem in a routine postseason physical, which led to the surgery, which surely had to send a shiver of fear down the spines of the coaching staff and members of the front office.

But sources tell the Tribune's David Haugh that Urlacher expects to be ready for training camp.

I'm trying to decide what I'm more concerned about: That Urlacher has a neck injury that required surgery or the invasive surgery itself.

Try as they might to sugarcoat things, the Bears saw slippage in his play last season. He had more trouble than usual getting away from offensive linemen. He had more than a few games in which he didn't have an impact, something that was unheard of in previous seasons.

During the season, after denying he had a back problem, he finally admitted to it to one of his media friends, and the news was out. Tough injuries to players like Nathan Vasher and Tommie Harris played a role in the defense's decline last year, but so did Urlacher's subpar performance.

He did bounce back and played well toward the end of the season. But no one was letting out a sigh of relief. No one with any investment in the Bears—financial, emotional or otherwise—walked away from 2007 certain everything was OK with Brian Urlacher.

And now this.

Urlacher. Neck. Surgery. Other than "suspected news leak," those are the three scariest words in the Bears' dictionary.

The Urlacher drama raises a few questions. Do the Bears now try to find the money to keep fellow linebacker Lance Briggs, who will be a free agent shortly? Does this change their plans for the draft?

I hope all of this is an overreaction, that the surgery was done to alleviate pain or to shave a bone or to do whatever it is that surgeons do during minor neck surgery. But it's hard to forget how Urlacher goes about his business, the way he uses every bit of his incredible speed to make plays. The head is connected to the neck, and the neck is connected to the back. There is nothing connected to the funny bone in this situation.

Routine? Minor? Sure, if you say so. But the NFL's history is littered with players whose careers were affected or ended by neck injuries. If you have been paying attention to Mike Ditka's crusade to help former players with disabilities, you know this to be true.

It's why there should be some worry about Urlacher. Much of what the Bears have been able to accomplish on defense the last six or seven years has been because of him.

For all intents and purposes, he is the Bears, and anything that happens to that neck of his is cause for concern.

They're hoping to bounce back in a big way next season, and the only way they do that is with Urlacher leading them.

Come to think of it, panic is highly underrated as a reaction.

Thoughts?