After 13 years in the middle of the Bears defense, and less than 3 months after a messy divorce left him as a free agent looking for a new home, Brian Urlacher announced his retirement yesterday.  Urlacher played 182 regular-season games over those 13 seasons and led the team to their second Super Bowl appearance following the 2006 season.  Urlacher missed significant time due to injury in the 2009, 2011, and 2012 seasons, and, days before his 35th birthday, he said in his announcement that he was “sore” and “tired of working out.”

While the Bears had already moved on without Urlacher, it will be nice to not have him play out his career in some strange uniform, as many others have done before him.  Only six Bears have had a longer Bears career without having played anywhere else: Hall of Famers Walter Payton and Bulldog Turner, Doug Buffone, Jim Osborne, Keith Van Horne, and the long snapper supreme Pat Mannelly.