Mike Brown Loves Holding One Thing Over Brian Urlacher

Former Chicago Bears safety Mike Brown was a beloved teammate of Brian Urlacher. The Hall of Fame linebacker has stated at every opportunity that the defense was always its most dominant when Brown was on the field. Things were never quite the same when the safety wasn't on the back end directing traffic. That was never clearer than during Super Bowl XLI. Brown's absence was deeply felt in that bitter defeat, something he still gets emotional about to this day.

With that said, while the two were tight as teammates they were also both competitors. It would make sense for them to have a friendly rivalry on certain matters from time to time. That's just a healthy part of locker room relationships. Urlacher owns a decisive edge in most individual categories. He played a longer career, made more Pro Bowls, won Defensive Player of the Year, and has a gold jacket.

However, there is one thing Brown will always be able to brag about. He made it onto the field as a starter first. Jim Miller asked him about that during an interview on Bears All-Access 780. Brown couldn't hide the little grin he undoubtedly had when the subject came up.

"Yeah, yeah that's a...uh...a 'fact' of mine. So I think was ready to play, man. At first, it was overwhelming. I knew I could play, I knew I could play. I knew I could play football. I just knew that."

Mike Brown credits time at Nebraska for preparing him for NFL

There were a lot of reasons why Brown was able to jump into the starting lineup despite being a 2nd round pick. For one Urlacher didn't have a definitive position at that time. Coaches were still debating on where to play him. Some wanted safety and others wanted linebacker. Even then they couldn't decide if it should be outside or middle. Brown already knew his position. All he had to do was pick up the speed of the pro level.

A big reason he was able to do this so quickly was the experience he earned in college at Nebraska.

"Like I said, I think Nebraska I was trained. I was around a lot of pros when I trained in college. Our practices were really intense. We had like 150 players. On defense, there would be three scout teams. So right after we were done with one play, another play was coming. The defense we ran was complicated. It had a lot of pro principles, a lot of checks with movement, and a lot of checks when formations broke. So I understood how to communicate."

One of the reasons the program was so adept at molding young players on defense was their coaching staff was immensely experienced. George Darlington, the defensive backs coach, was entering his 27th year with the program during Brown's final season in 1999. That stability and experience unquestionably helped him develop faster than players from other schools.