Undrafted Ogunleye still draws on that as motivation
Since Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye entered the NFL with the Miami Dolphins in 2000 as an undrafted free agent, he has 53½ sacks, more than any other free agent during that time.
He picked up 3 Sunday at Oakland and is tied for the team lead with Tommie Harris, 2½ behind NFL leader Jared Allen of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Ogunleye had 34 sacks at Indiana and easily would have been a first-day pick were it not for a torn ACL halfway through his senior season. The knee injury caused every NFL team to back away on draft day, but Ogunleye said he has benefited from the slight.
"Every year you've got to do that," he said. "I want to use whatever fuel to continue me on my path. I don't want to ever forget where I came from, continue with the hard work, continue with the fact that I was undrafted.
"That's something I pride myself on, that I was overlooked, but look what's happened now."
Even after the injury, Ogunleye had high hopes based on his body of work with the Hoosiers.
"I expected to get drafted," he said. "In the second round, the Jets called me up and were like, 'Listen, we're thinking about taking you.' Maybe 10 minutes later they call up and say, 'If we don't take you, we want you to sign with us as a free agent.'
"I'm thinking, 'This is the second round of the draft. We've got today and tomorrow.' I laughed to myself like, 'I won't be here for you guys.' They must have heard something that I don't know about, or a red flag about my knee and I went undrafted."
Look out block: Brian Griese's shoulder injury occurred when blitzing Raiders middle linebacker Kirk Morrison came unblocked to the quarterback.
"We didn't block who we were supposed to block, and the Mike (middle) linebacker came right up the middle, and we let him go," said Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner. "So we had a missed assignment there and turned the guy loose."
The responsibility for picking up Morrison belonged to running back Cedric Benson.
"I don't want to start pointing fingers at who's supposed to do it," Turner said. "We just didn't pick him up. He should have been blocked, and we didn't block him."
Medical report: Quarterback Brian Griese (shoulder), cornerback Nate Vasher (groin), defensive tackles Tommie Harris (knee) and Darwin Walker (knee), linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer (foot) and offensive tackle Fred Miller (ankle) were held out of Wednesday's practice.
Backup safety Brandon McGowan (elbow), who missed the last two games, practiced on a limited basis.
Warm thoughts: The 19th annual Bears/Jewel Osco coat drive is under way with a goal of collecting 20,000 winter coats for needy families in the Chicago area.
Donations may be dropped off at all area Jewel Osco stores through Jan. 4 and at the Bears' home game Dec. 2.