Lance Briggs bids farewell, backs Robbie Gould

Bears linebacker Lance Briggs said farewell to Chicago and also weighed in on kicker Robbie Gould’s remarks concerning the “Bear way” on his TV show Tuesday night.

Briggs, who is in the final year of his Bears contract and isn’t expected back, talked about his 12-year career on “The Lance Briggs Show” on Comcast SportsNet Chicago and expressed his thanks to longtime teammates such as Charles (Peanut) Tillman and Brian Urlacher, and also to Bears fans.

“I think we had a great ride together, and I think that I got out as much or more from you as you guys got out from me and Peanut and all of us along this ride,” said Briggs, who suffered a season-ending groin injury Nov. 23 against Tampa Bay. “This whole year has been a bittersweet year because coming into the year I knew that this was going to be it, and I just really, more than anything, I wanted to not let anything take the smile away. And it’s been probably the roughest season that I’ve had as a Chicago Bear, but I don’t regret being here, I don’t regret signing any of the deals that kept me here and allowed me to be here because I know I bleed blue and orange and will always.”

Briggs was asked about Gould, who referenced the “Bear way” in defending benched quarterback Jay Cutler and was critical of the dysfunction that has occurred this season under coach Marc Trestman during an interview Monday on WSCR-AM 670.

“It’s just unfortunate,” Gould said of issues that have included an apology from offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer for being critical of Cutler in comments to an NFL Network reporter. “This is, honestly, it’s not the Bear way. I mean, this whole season is not the Bear way. Pointing fingers, things getting out of the locker room — that’s not the Chicago Bear way.”

Briggs said he was “happy with what Robbie had to say.”

“I think a lot of us can relate to that and the things that he was saying as far as the Bear way,” Briggs said. “I certainly know what the ‘Bear way’ is, I lived it for many years. We always did a really good job of protecting what’s in our house, that locker room. If we had any issues, we handled it within that locker room and we protected ourselves from the outside.”

Asked why things were different in the locker room this season, Briggs said, “I don’t know. There were a number of things that ended up slipping out that shouldn’t have. There was a lot of drama and there was more of a focus on what was happening off the field than what there was on the field and everything just kind of mounted and mounted on top of each other.”