Jimbo Covert feels Brian Urlacher’s back pain. Or at least something like it.
“The trouble with a back problem is that it affects every single thing you do,” Covert said Monday.
The former Bears first-round draft choice in 1983 and left tackle on the Mike Ditka teams of the 1980s had his career shortened by back injuries that required two disc surgeries. Given the chance to do it all again, Covert would have taken off the 1988 season after surgery.
But if Urlacher’s condition is simple arthritis, as reported, Covert does not think the middle linebacker needs to sit out the rest of the year.
“If he wants to continue his career, he’s just going to have to deal with it,” Covert said. “When you have a major disc situation where you’re getting sciatica down your back and legs, you’re better off getting surgery because it’s not going to get any better.
“But if it’s just arthritis or a lower-back strain, it just is what it is.”
Covert had minor back difficulties as an All-American protecting Dan Marino at Pitt, but it was never bad enough to keep him out of games. He hurt it further in a practice during the 1985 season and missed a week, then suffered the injury to a disc in a drill during training camp in 1988.
Covert missed eight weeks after undergoing a scope procedure and returned to play, but “it was way too fast,” he recalled.
“When you look back, I should have taken the whole year off and got better and stronger. Playing on it, I definitely shortened my career and I never could do the things well that I did before.
“Things I took for granted, that were second nature, were a struggle. In those days you just played on it. If I had it to do over again, I would have been a little smarter. Unfortunately, it did shorten my career.”
After suffering a second injury in training camp in 1991 and a second surgery, “I just said, ‘Enough is enough.’ I wanted to be able to play with my kids and bend over when I’m 50.”
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jmullin@tribune.com
