Much rejoicing over Urlacher's healthy return

Last season was the most frustrating of his football life for six-time Pro Bowl middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, who by halftime of the 2009 opener was finished for the season with a dislocated wrist.

That injury snapped a streak of 65 straight starts, dating back to 2004, when he missed seven games with hamstring injuries. Those were the only NFL games he had ever missed until last season.

"It (stinks)," Urlacher said. "I got a lot of perspective: I don't want to do it again. It's very frustrating. I hadn't missed a season in my life, high school, college, nothing even close to that. The closest I ever came was back in '04."

The positive spin from the injury is that it occurred so early in the season that Urlacher, who turns 32 on Tuesday, is already back to full participation on the field and in the weight room.

"It's great, it feels good man," he said at the end of the weekend minicamp. "I did everything football-wise I was supposed to do."

That's sweet music to the Bears' coaching staff, which was forced to utilize every bit of a deep linebacker depth chart last season.

"We're better with him," coach Lovie Smith said. "He's a great player. He makes our defense work. When you're the quarterback of the defense, and they're used to hearing you, that's important. For the seven years I've been here, I've heard him giving the signals - and the players have too."

A year ago, two years removed from the Pro Bowl after he made it in six of his first seven seasons, Urlacher and the Bears were anticipating a bounce-back season because he had a healthy off-season, free of injury rehab. He feels the same way now.

"I had a year off so I feel pretty good," he said. "I'm just excited I get to practice again."

Urlacher missed football so much that he was thrilled to be able to return to the less glamorous aspects of the job, the grunt work of practice and lifting weights.

"I missed not being up here (at Halas Hall) all the time, being around my teammates," he said. "I missed football obviously, but the most fun you have is being around your teammates. When you don't have it, that's when you appreciate it the most. When it's taken from you, you miss it the most.

"Even this off-season, when I got to go to workouts, it was great just to be back around the guys again, joking around with them, working out. I missed it. I don't know if they missed me, but I missed them last year. It's fun to be back, especially on the football field."

The Bears missed Urlacher, too, even though Hunter Hillenmeyer stepped up with arguably his best NFL season to help fill the void.

"He's the face of the franchise," defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said. "I would never take anything away from 92 (Hillenmeyer) now, because he did a heck of a job, too. But (Urlacher) has a presence in the huddle. He can communicate, he can run the defense, and that's a confident feeling. That huddle is about confidence. He gets everybody aligned and set and then his play will speak for itself."

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