A different Alonzo Spellman took the field Sunday than last stepped onto it back in mid-September.
This Spellman was skipping from one warmup drill to the next. This Spellman, though he wasn’t starting, took his pregame stretching in the front row with the starters. This Spellman seemed a million miles from the one whose last 10 weeks were mired in injuries, doctors, lawyers, suspensions and questions about steroid tests, but not football.
This Spellman looked and felt a little like a rookie.
“I can’t really explain the feeling, really,” Spellman said. “The first three or four plays I was in there my heart was racing, I was happy, anxious, man, just every feeling I could possibly say was in me at that time.”
Coaches didn’t make him wait long. Spellman replaced Carl Reeves at right end on Buffalo’s second series, and he was out there for the next three as well, none longer than three plays from scrimmage for a thoroughly throttled Buffalo offense.
Spellman, who had a sack the last time he played Sept. 21 in New England, had a virtual sack on his fourth play when he got off blocks by the Buffalo tight end and left tackle to take down quarterback Todd Collins. But because Collins fell forward for a yard, no sack was recorded.
Nonetheless, his presence clearly contributed to the Bears registering a season-high five sacks.
“He got good pressure coming off the edge, and that helped us in the middle because it kept the quarterback in the pocket where we were able to get pressure on him,” said defensive tackle Jim Flanigan, who caught Collins for his fifth sack of the year.
Coach Dave Wannstedt was not ready to give Spellman his starting job back just yet.
“Alonzo got in there and he helped,” Wannstedt said. “We’ll look at the film and start our two best defensive ends.”
Spellman has some off-field issues still unsettled. He faces a four-game NFL suspension for missing a steroid test in early November, but is not expected to be penalized if a test he took Nov. 21 is negative. He is appealing the $335,294 withheld from his pay by the Bears for their three-game suspension of him over a failure to have surgery for his shoulder injury.
And he is a long shot to be a Bear at all next year after all that has happened. But those issues were a long way from his mind Sunday.
“I’m not really thinking about that,” Spellman said. “What I’ve got to think about are these next two games (at St. Louis and Tampa Bay) coming up, and I’ve got to focus on those two games and play well.
“I think other teams know what kind of guy I am. Going through this whole struggle, I think most guys would have lost it and pretty much went off.”
