As a Bears rookie, Brian Urlacher distrusted the media almost immediately.
Convinced that the heavy attention he received from reporters was another way of saying the only thing holding him back was the inferior team around him, Urlacher tried to avoid interviews completely.
In part, he was right. And so was the implication. But any attention made the young linebacker severely uncomfortable, worried about alienating veteran teammates. His natural tendency was to talk fast, but in interview situations he spoke so fast he was difficult to understand.
Reporters, though, kept coming around. Even as a rookie, Urlacher had the look of a special player, at a position that holds a special place in Bears lore.
After the season, during a trip to his hometown of Lovington, N.M., in February 2001, he acknowledged that dealing with the media “overwhelmed me. They always wanted to talk to me and I could never figure out why. They kind of got me mad a few times.”
“They” have made him mad many times since then. But never has Urlacher’s public image taken the beating it has recently, as the Bears’ shoddiness and Urlacher’s surliness has combined to bring relations to a virtual impasse.
How has it come to this point? Is it simply another example of a rich, talented athlete deciding he doesn’t need to be civil to the people charged with covering him?
Much has changed since that rookie year, when Urlacher carried with him the wholesome image of a young husband and father still close to his small-town roots. There was the brief dalliance with Paris Hilton, who clearly used Urlacher to further her own celebrity. He also fathered two children out of wedlock, one resulting in an ugly paternity suit and custody issues that still pop up in news reports on occasion.
Yet he remains close to his family and friends from home, and whatever bad judgment he may have exercised initially has been, in the eyes of one acquaintance, eradicated “by the way he has fought for his kids and provided for them. Plenty of athletes run from that responsibility.”
Despite his reticence, Urlacher has emerged as a popular product pitchman. He’s no Peyton Manning, but he ranks within the top 20 among NFL players as a commercial endorser. It’s not likely any of his major sponsors will drop him unless he commits a felony, particularly since several of them are tied up in long-term deals. And if the paternity suit didn’t bother them, his current snit probably won’t either.
“But we don’t know what conversations are going on in boardrooms right now,” said Jim Andrews, editorial director of the IEG Sponsorship Report, a biweekly newsletter that tracks the sponsorship industry. “They might be saying, ‘He’s not doing things we wish he were doing in terms of attitude … Maybe we’re not going to go back with him or do something prominent with him.’
“It could prompt some conversations. Right now, if I’m one of the companies who have him under contract, I certainly have at least a little bit of concern. There’s a lot of negative media attention around him right now because of his attitude. His play on the field has not been great — he might be injured — but his stats aren’t there. None of these things are good for my brand.”
On the flip side, Andrews said, sports fans are a forgiving lot, and if Urlacher goes on a tear for the remainder of the season or even the next game, “and flashes a smile again, all is forgiven. People are back buying his jerseys and loving him again.”
Close-ups of that smile, which was approaching the exposure level of Mike Singletary’s eyes during the Super Bowl Bears’ heyday, have been a rare sight lately, even to close friends.
“I don’t see that smile, I don’t see that excitement that was there,” said Art Karger, a former coach of Urlacher’s, whose son Bryce is Urlacher’s childhood friend and remains a trusted adviser. “Having been his coach years ago, I just know when he’s not having fun, physically or mentally.”
Karger and his wife visited Urlacher at his home a couple of weeks ago and Karger said he seemed relaxed, perhaps relieved not to have to discuss football. “With the expectations and the team not doing well, I’m sure that wears on him,” Karger said.
“All that combined, and then if his back is bothering him and the team loses and he’s tired … I think he feels whatever answers he gives are not going to be the right ones.”
Urlacher’s hero status in Lovington appears safe. But that doesn’t mean he is unconcerned about it.
“He’s one of ours, and when he hurts, we hurt,” Karger said. “The way things are going, the things in the paper, the marriage thing … Knowing how conservative Lovington is, I think he’s embarrassed a little, but he’s past that. Now it’s just that the team is not living up to its expectations and physically he’s hurting a little bit.”
A change in agents last year was undoubtedly traumatic for Urlacher, who had a close relationship with Steve Kauffman. By all accounts, the two are still on friendly terms.
Friends say he is happier in his private life than he has been in a while, dating a friend from his college years in Albuquerque. But he is also withdrawing further into an inner circle that includes foxsports.com’s Jay Glazer.
If his contract is redone, something said to be in the works before concerns about his health arose, no doubt Urlacher’s mood will improve.
Or, Andrews suggested with a laugh, “if he suddenly becomes nice again, it may be that some of his [endorsement] contracts are up for renewal.”
While not comparing Urlacher with Barry Bonds, Andrews used the surly slugger as an example of an athlete whose attitude, even before the steroids controversy, made endorsers shy away from him.
“Companies don’t mind being associated with a bad boy, but not someone who’s nasty,” he said. “You can get away with being mean to the media, but if [Urlacher] would continue to go down this road and really develop a reputation as being petulant, it’s not what companies want. The likability factor is always a key, what they’re always monitoring.
“It takes sports fans a lot to get to that stage. They will bend over backward for guys. But there is a breaking point.”
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misaacson@tribune.com
