Rozner: Bears' Kyle Long survives to fight again

Not only was it assumed that Kyle Long was done for the season in October when he departed with a foot injury, but there was plenty of speculation that he was done, period.

Big mistake.

The 30-year-old Long, like the other members of his football-playing family, is going to be one of those players you have to drag off the field before it's over, ripping the jersey off his back in the process.

Even then, he might not leave, short of a large security contingent escorting him from the premises.

Better bring an army.

Long has survived neck, shoulder and elbow surgeries just in the last year, ankle surgery the year before that, and assorted "bumps and bruises" - as he refers to them - that leave his body with so much tape and so many braces that his teammates marvel at his desire to get back on the field.

"The man will play through anything," said tackle Bobby Massie. "You just shake your head."

Now six years into an NFL career, Long says it's merely football and calls his daily maintenance the "new normal."

In the last three years, he has started 8, 9 and 8 games, but to the surprise of many experts, he returned to play the final game of the regular season and then the postseason loss to the Eagles.

"It's nice to be able to finish the season," Long said Sunday night. "It (stinks) that we had to finish it like this."

Long confessed that he was far from perfect Sunday, perhaps not shocking considering that he missed two months of football, but he did walk off the field after the last game, which is no small victory.

"Luckily, there's no warning lights going off right now," Long said with a smirk. "I felt good. I felt healthy this game and the previous one.

"Take inventory and figure it out, but I feel better now than I did coming out of last season.

"Once the dust settles, you get an idea of what you're working with going into the next year."

For someone so unaccustomed to losing, the time here in Chicago has not been easy, but now that football is finally fun again, Long isn't about to walk away.

"I'm proud of our guys. We battled to the end," Long said. "The fans were unbelievable. The city has rallied behind us like I've never seen before.

"We don't want that to go away, so we intend to keep on winning and keep this ball rolling."

Long has seen some really bad players and coaching during his career in Chicago, not that he would ever say that. It's not his style. But he sounds genuinely excited about the possibilities, notwithstanding the heartbreaking loss to Philadelphia.

"I just see a lot of young talent and a great coaching staff," Long said. "We didn't have any postseason experience. Now, we have a little bit. We got a taste of what the stakes are like.

"We know what it takes to win and we have the pieces of the puzzle to win. We just need to finish. I need to do a better job and I'm sure a lot of guys will say the same thing.

"It's just really tough right now."

The longest tenured Bear not named Sherrick McManis, who arrived a year earlier (2012), Long's presence looms large in the locker room, an emotional and physical leader and a player others go to as they traverse the NFL landscape.

The metrics will say that his conclusion to this season was not his best, but his teammates will tell you that they don't want to take the field without him.

In a game where the difference between winning and losing is as thin as a goal post, such a statement is significant.