Brian Urlacher: “I don’t have a desire to play.”

Brian Urlacher annouced his retirement earlier in the offseason, but as we all know, that is no guarantee. And for a time, that looked like it may be the case with the former Bears linebacker.

A report surfaced at the end of May that Urlacher might have accepted a job with the Dallas Cowboys had they shown interest early in the offseason. From there, rumblings continued off and on, but nothing ended up coming from it. Despite that, the idea remained in the back of some people’s minds due to the whole Brett Farve situation we saw far too often.

But now, it appears to be official: Brian Urlacher will not play in the NFL anymore.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Urlacher said:

"“My agent , when I told him … I just want to retire. He went through every scenario, what if so-and-so calls? What if they offer me $10 million? I don’t want to play. I don’t have a desire to play. I’m not in shape. I haven’t been doing football stuff."

That statement makes it seem as though Urlacher was never really prepared to play again, even if his dream scenario came to fruition. That his agent wanted to keep options open, but Urlacher just was not interested.

I think we can all put away any ideas that Urlacher will end up returning. He isn’t in shape, and he doesn’t want to come back. But we can all agree that Urlacher will be in the Hall of Fame some day, and he deserves to enjoy his retirement after a long and successful career.