After seven NFL seasons, Briggs' doubters know better

Lance Briggs wasn't burdened by great expectations when he came into the NFL in 2003.

Instead he was motivated by low expectations.

A dozen other linebackers were drafted before the Bears took Briggs in the third round with the 68th overall pick, and in the beginning even they didn't think that highly of him.

"One of the first things that was said to me was, 'We want you to be a (heck) of a special-teams player and then, maybe sometime down the line, you could become a starter in a couple of years,'" Briggs said. "That always kind of stuck in my head. (I thought) 'I'm not a special teams player, and I want to play now.'

"But just like any rookie, you don't say a whole lot. You just go out and you speak with your pads and you play."

Briggs and his pads have been sounding off for seven years, and the message has come through loud and clear. He's not a special-teams player. He's a special player.

"Lance has been an outstanding player for us in every year he's played here," Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "Even having the type of (6-9) season we've had, Lance shined most of the time."

On Tuesday Briggs was voted to his fifth straight Pro Bowl. He joins Hall of Famers Bill George, Dick Butkus and Mike Singletary as the only Bears linebackers to make it five in a row. Injured teammate Brian Urlacher has gone six times, but there was a one-year gap between his first four selections and his last two.

Urlacher arrived in Chicago three years before Briggs and played in three Pro Bowls before Briggs was even drafted, becoming the face of the franchise. For most of his career, Briggs has played in the shadow of Urlacher, and he wasn't named a team captain until this year, but he has few complaints.

"I've never felt like I don't get the recognition that I deserve," Briggs said. "I'm real comfortable with the recognition I get. I really always have been. The only problem I ever had was when we were going through free-agency."

During contentious contract negotiations that resulted in Briggs dipping a toe into the free-agency pool, he threatened never to play for the Bears again before signing a six-year, $36 million contract on March 7, 2008.

"All that stuff got resolved," he said. "Outside of that, as far as my play, the right people have always evaluated me right, and those were my peers and the coaches."

Briggs moved into the starting lineup in the fourth game of his rookie season in 2003, a year before Smith took over the Bears. Since then, he's never had fewer than 135 tackles. Last Monday night he notched his 1,000th tackle in the NFL.

"When I got drafted, I thought just like anybody else, that I should've been drafted higher," Briggs said. "But I just wanted to prove that I belong, that I deserve to be on the field."

For the past five years, Briggs has proven he deserves to be on the field with the best players in the NFL. The validation he received there was a bonus on top of the free trip to Hawaii.

"Having other coaches come up after the game and say, 'You're a (heck) of a player,' or 'You played well,' and even other linebackers saying, 'I like to watch you Briggs,' or 'It's fun watching you,' is nice to hear," Briggs said.

"The first time I went to the Pro Bowl, coaches who had told me on my Pro Day in college, 'You could never play for me, I'll take Nick Barnett' or 'I'll take somebody else over you,' those same coaches come up to me now and say, 'You earned it, you're a (heck) of a player.'

"To me it's nice to change some of the minds of these guys who didn't think I was capable."

Lance's list

These 12 linebackers were drafted ahead of Lance Briggs in 2003:

Player overall pick

Terrell Suggs 10

Nick Barnett 29

Boss Bailey 34

E.J. Henderson 40

Pisa Tinoisamoa 43

Kawika Mitchell 47

Eddie Moore 49

Terry Pierce 51

Chaun Thompson 52

Victor Hobson 53

Alonzo Jackson 59

Antwan Peek 67

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