Grumpy Alex a thing of the past

BOURBONNAIS - Too often, defensive ends in the NFL are judged solely by their sack totals, but there's more to the job than getting to the quarterback.

The Bears' Alex Brown has never had more than 7 sacks in any of his six seasons, and he had just 4 in 2007. But his value to the team was demonstrated in the off-season, when he was rewarded with a two-year extension through 2013 that will pay him $15.5 million in new money.

Browns says just because he's never approached double-digit sack numbers, it doesn't make him a bad player.

"You play maybe 500 plays a year and you get 10 sacks," Brown said hypothetically. "That means you've got 490 other plays. What did you do on those plays? Did you give up a 40-yard run? Did you not do your job? Just 'cause you get 10 sacks - yeah, they're huge plays, don't get me wrong. But there's a lot more to football than sacks."

Last year, for the first time since the midway point of his rookie season in 2002, Brown was not a starter. His right end spot, the one usually associated with big sack numbers in the NFL, was given to Mark Anderson.

As a rookie in 2006, Anderson racked up 12 sacks as a situational pass rusher and backup to Brown and left end Adewale Ogunleye.

Bears coaches downplayed the demotion, pointing out, correctly, that the team utilizes all three ends almost equally and considers all three to be starting-caliber players. But the bottom line for Brown was that he wouldn't be on the field when the game started, and he was clearly aggravated.

On the first day of training camp, he signified his mood by wearing a T-shirt with a picture of "Grumpy," one of the seven dwarfs. He vented briefly early in camp and then went out and played maybe the best football of his career.

Only Ogunleye had more tackles than Brown among the Bears' defensive linemen last year. Brown tied for first on the team with 5 pass breakups by batting balls down at the line of scrimmage, and he was tied for second with 5 tackles for loss, forced 2 fumbles, recovered 2 fumbles and also had an interception.

Now he's back in the starting lineup, and his bubbly personality is back, too. But he admits last year's experience brought him face to face with his professional mortality.

"Just because you're a starter, doesn't mean you're going to start the next day or even the next year," he said. "It's going to end one day, and it very well could have ended for me as far as starting last year. Mark played great his first year. But nobody really played great last year. You can't just put it on Mark, but I was fortunate to get another opportunity to come back and (start)."

Anderson's sack total dropped from 12 to 5, and he's back in his original role. Brown's also back in his old role but with a new perspective.

"It can be taken away just like that," he said. "I don't believe I ever got complacent. I never got comfortable, but I kind of expected to start, and you shouldn't. You shouldn't expect anything. Granted, I did have my best (sack) year (with 7) in '06, and I lost my job. Things happen for a reason, but I'm not real sure why that happened. But everything's good now. Last year is last year."

The "Grumpy" T-shirt hasn't been seen all summer and neither has the withdrawn Alex Brown. He'd be a contender for the Mr. Congeniality award. The best dwarf to describe Brown's current mood has to be "Happy."

"I'm pretty excited about how everything has worked out with everybody," Brown said. "Not just myself but you've got (contract extensions for) Desmond (Clark), 'Lack' (Brian Urlacher), (Devin) Hester and Tommie (Harris). All the off-the-field stuff is worked out. Now we've just got to go play, and with the defense we have, we should be the best in the league. We should be. I bet we will be - just watch."

If the defense plays as well as Brown thinks they will, he may even get to that elusive and magical sack number.

"I don't really care if I ever get 10 - well, actually I do," he said. "I would love to get 10 just so people can't say, 'He's never gotten 10 sacks.' They could leave that alone. But I do a lot of other stuff and I take pride in that.

"You can get pressure on a quarterback, and he throws an interception. The defensive end never gets any credit for that, but as a team we got an interception. That's what we want."