Smith, Urlacher get down to business
They arrived on a sunny Sunday in a place that was 50 degrees warmer than the one they had left.
Breezy, low 70s, nice. Sonny Crockett, top-down weather.
Their boss, clad in a dark blue banker's suit with the tiniest of orange pin stripes, ever-so-pale orange dress shirt, orange power tie and black dress shoes, looked pleased as his men filed off United Flight No.9900 from Chicago.
But you didn't notice any golf bags being offloaded with the group.
Uh, no.
''It is a business trip for us,'' middle linebacker Brian Urlacher said at the press gathering at the Bears' Hilton Hotel a short while later. That's the Miami Airport Hilton, not the Paris Hilton, wise guys.
Urlacher, clad in black dress shoes, gray slacks and a blue business shirt that was unbuttoned at the collar -- the poor guy looks strangled even in a T-shirt -- informed us that, ''We had to wear our suits down here.''
Dress-up time, gentlemen, not fun time.
Apparently, coach Lovie Smith, wearing his own business-suit homage to the Bears' team colors, allowed Urlacher to remove his tie and coat before speaking to the press, so No. 54 wouldn't choke to death.
But the tone was already set by Smith for this entire week, this ritualistic bacchanalia with all the distractions that lurk like waving palm fronds held by a chorus line of bimbos and circus clowns.
As much fun as South Beach, the ocean, the night life and the endless parade of celebrities and media darlings and their vapor trails might be, it's not what this is about for Lovie.
Therefore it is not what this is about for his players, either.
Smith or Colts coach Tony Dungy is going to be the first black man to win a Super Bowl -- they tied to be the first to coach in one -- and the other vacation nonsense means zilch with history on the oline.
''We have real men,'' said Lovie, pointing out that he wasn't imposing a curfew for this night, but would have one afterward, ''and they know what's at stake.''
Smith thumbed through the Colts' media guide on the way down and was stunned by the 18 pages all about Manning.
''I'm one of his biggest fans,'' Smith said of the record-setting quarterback. Then he added, ''We have a couple of scholarship players, too.''
And prime among them is Urlacher, the defender who will line up facing Manning and study him like a biology lab frog.
''Brian Urlacher, as an inside linebacker, has it all,'' continued Smith. ''He's one best guys you'll ever meet, one of the best superstars you'll ever get a chance to be around. You can't find anyone with more talent than him, 6-4, 255 pounds, 6 percent body fat. He's a coach on the field. He knows our defense in and out. He is a perfect teammate. When do you want me to stop?''
Well, now.
Since it is Urlacher's turn to praise.
''He's a great coach,'' said the middle linebacker, ''and I really can't imagine playing for anyone else. And I don't want to.''
What the two have to do is stop Manning, with all his movements, and audibles, and yes, incredible release and accuracy.
Urlacher plans to try to make the person he considers a friend very uncomfortable. If he can.
''You can rattle him if you get pressure,'' he said, adding that ''it's hard to get guys in his face because they do such a good job protecting him and he gets rid of the football so fast.''
But here is the point, said Urlacher. ''No quarterback likes pressure. You get guys in his face or at his feet, they are not going to like it and they may make some bad throws. It's one thing to say, but you've got to do it.''
Motivation for rattling Manning's cage comes from the fact the Bears feel they are underrated and under-respected.
It was interesting on this afternoon when the Bears had arrived for the big event, and the Colts were not even traveling until today, that Smith looked so calm and confident and his main defensive guy looked so eager and confident.
''I don't like to be in the limelight,'' Urlacher confessed of his distate for media grilling. ''I've gotten better, but I'll never get comfortable.''
Playing and winning is all he can think about.
And Lovie Smith, the man in the nice clothes, at the head of the Bears convention?
He seems nicely in control.
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