Without players like Mike Brown, Bears a far cry from 'close'

Even in today's watered-down version of pro sports, you must have greatness at the skill positions.

That's definitely part of it.

But I also recall a conversation I had with a mate in mid-November, after the Bears' disaster in Green Bay.

We could not recall a time in the last 10 years, dating to the Wannstedt administration, in which the Bears showed so little interest in playing, so little regard for the insignia on the helmet, and so little respect for the fans.

Winning did not seem to matter on that day in Green Bay.

We wondered how many teams in pro football are really desperate to win and have a true team concept.

That's not a cliché, by the way. Those who don't understand it or never have been a part of it dismiss it, but your best players can inspire those around them because winning to them is as necessary as breathing.

We looked at each other and at the same moment said, "Pittsburgh.''

That was more than two months ago.

So what is it about the Steelers? Why is it that they win the close games? Why are they so tough when it matters most? How are they the most physical team in the league and the smartest?

Some of it is coaching, true, and a lot is talent, but much of it is their best players don't just want to win.

They insist the Steelers win.

The improvising you see from Troy Polamalu and Ben Roethlisberger over and over again, under duress and at the most critical times, is the stuff of legend.

They are the kinds of plays Mike Brown used to make for the Bears, but since injuries began to limit him a few years ago, the defense - and the team - hasn't been the same.

So you watch those Steelers, or guys like the Cards' Larry Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner, and you ask yourself, do the Bears have a single highly skilled player sick about winning, let alone five or six of them?

Brown was once that player, and Olin Kreutz - in a different way - was as well.

Now the Bears don't have one, which leads us back to Lovie Smith's comment about the Bears being "close.''

In defense of Smith and GM Jerry Angelo, and being realistic, those kinds of players, with that kind of ability, character and desire to win, are hard to find.

But at the same time, you don't find them if you're looking for the Cedric Benson and Tank Johnson types and hoping for a quick fix.

Players like Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald - smart, tough, talented and possessed by winning - have made themselves that way.

As soon as the Bears find themselves about a half-dozen like them, they will indeed be close.

Coach Brown?

Certain men were born to lead others, so shouldn't the Bears already be asking Mike Brown to join the coaching staff?

As was Mike Singletary a generation before, Brown has been the intellectual, emotional and physical leader of the Bears, and he seems destined to be a great NFL coach.

Let's hope Brown gets the chance here that Singletary never did.

The Hawk soaring

While he has had to suffer the disappointment of Hall of Fame voting the last couple of years, there is good news from Andre Dawson.

The Hawks says that since he finished rehab on his second left-knee replacement - the first one was a mess - he never has felt better.

"I don't hurt anymore, for the first time since high school,'' Dawson laughed. "It's like a new life. My knees don't hurt at all.''

That's a pretty big change from two years ago.

"I wasn't sure I was going to live through it, and I mean that,'' Dawson said. "The first replacement didn't go well, and then to have another one on top of it, the pain was like nothing I'd ever experienced.''

And this was a man fairly well versed in the business of pain.

"I had to learn to walk all over again, but now that the left knee is OK, the right one has gotten better,'' Dawson said. "I'm not going to get that one replaced unless they hold me down and force me to do it.

"As long as I don't overdo it with weights or the bike, I'm OK. It's a good feeling to not be in pain, and I hope to stay that way.''

Flipping

The 2009 presidential inauguration has surpassed the Super Bowl when it comes to weeks of 24-hour television coverage.

The only thing in recent memory that's gotten more hype, been more over the top and taken less time to complete is the Cubs' 2008 postseason.

Here's hoping our new president is much more successful than were the Cubs.

Teed off

Mt. Prospect e-mailer Dan Marich: "With Zach Johnson holding off David Toms and Adam Scott this weekend, the PGA Tour should be changing the slogan to: 'Tiger Woods will be back in April. Please come back then.' ''

Wanna get away?

Comedian Alex Kaseberg: "I don't want to say new Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson played for a lot of teams, but when he's inducted he's going in wearing a Southwest Airlines hat.''

And finally -

Foxsports.com's Mark Kriegel: "Eight percent of major-league players received a medical exemption for Attention Deficit Disorder, an affliction believed to occur in 1 to 3.5 percent of American adults. And how do you treat ADD? Ritalin and Red Bull, of course. The postmodern Breakfast of Champions.''

brozner@dailyherald.com