Mike Brown Wept When Asked Question About Super Bowl XLI

Perhaps no player in the past 20 years of Chicago Bears football is surrounded by more what-ifs than former safety Mike Brown. Anybody who watched him play knew he was special. He was physical, athletic, intelligent, and talented. The total package. There was only one problem, and it would prove to define his career.

He couldn't stay healthy.

At least not later in his career. For the first four seasons, he didn't miss a game. He was instrumental in helping them win their first division title in a decade in 2001 thanks to his iconic pick-six OT game-winners against the 49ers and Browns in back-to-back weeks. Things started going south by 2004 though. He missed all but two games that year with a ruptured Achilles.

Then a year later it was a calf injury that hobbled him the final six weeks of the year. The biggest sting though came in 2006 when he suffered a Lisfranc fracture in his foot. One of the most serious types of breaks for an athlete. It landed him on injured reserve after just six games. This forced him to miss the Super Bowl a few months later.

Something he clearly hasn't gotten over as his reaction to a question about it during the Bears 100th anniversary celebration showed.

Mike Brown knows he would've made a difference that day

People forget how much Brown meant to the Bears defense. His playmaking skill and leadership from the back end were so huge to their dominant success. In the first six games that season, the Bears allowed seven points or less four times. After he was lost, they did only once the rest of the year. Nowhere was his absence felt more than in the Super Bowl itself.

Probably the most pivotal play of the game. The Bears had just jumped to a 7-0 lead in the 1st quarter thanks to Devin Hester's epic opening kickoff. They then intercepted Peyton Manning on the Colts' first series. It looked like they were about to force a punt on the next too. It was 3rd and 10 from the Indy 47. Then Manning found Reggie Wayne all alone down the field for a 53-yard score.

The play had badly fooled Bears rookie safety Danieal Manning, who bit on it so much that Wayne didn't even have to run the double move that was planned. Something that almost certainly would've never happened had Brown been on the field that day. It's something he still struggles with even today.

His career was never the same. He tore his ACL in the first game of 2007 and clearly had lost a step when he returned by 2008. It was such a sad end to a career that held so much promise.