When Marty Booker heard a knock outside his downtown hotel room Saturday afternoon, he had no idea he would be opening the door to his exit out of town.
Coach Lovie Smith had come by personally to inform Booker the Bears had decided to trade him and a draft pick to the Miami Dolphins for defensive end Adewale Ogunleye.
General manager Jerry Angelo followed after Smith left, but the news had not yet sunk in.
It still hasn’t.
“I’m shocked, and it’s going to be a while before I understand all this,” Booker said on the phone while the Bears played the 49ers at Soldier Field without him.
“I didn’t see it coming at all. I was sitting there getting ready to play in a game, and then they came down to my room and told me I was traded. Unbelievable.”
Booker had committed himself this season to disproving skeptics who considered him a bad fit for new offensive coordinator Terry Shea’s scheme that is said to favor speedy, shifty receivers. About a week ago, Booker sounded frustrated in discussing why he still is not perceived as a deep threat despite a career of achievement.
“I don’t remember being caught from behind a whole lot, but people are still saying, `Oh, he doesn’t have the speed,'” Booker said. “I try to prove it every year, go out and do what I do. But still I can’t get any respect, any love. After I’ve done what I’ve done, that’s all I can do.”
He had done enough for the Bears in five seasons that he expected more than to be dealt so suddenly.
Booker ranks fifth in franchise history in receptions with 315, the most by any Bears receiver ever in the first five years of a career.
Only Mike Ditka and Harlon Hill had more yards than Booker’s 3,684 over their first five years.
He did it all catching passes from seven quarterbacks.
“Without a doubt, I feel I’ve done so much for this franchise and the franchise has done so much for me,” Booker said. “I signed a long-term deal [through 2008] and expected to be there for five more years. I was a Bear, and liked what we were doing.
“I guess I wasn’t in their plans and they’re going in a different direction. Lovie and Jerry told me they needed to get the defense right and help the pass rush, so I’m gone.”
