Brian Urlacher injury isn’t the end, but the end is near

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Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher grimaces as he’s checked in the end zone after hurting his knee Sunday in the season finale at Minnesota. | Andy King~AP

Updated: February 3, 2012 8:15AM

MINNEAPOLIS — In a brutal sport, it was a rare show of respect.

Or maybe it was different from simple respect. More like a jolting awareness, mixed with respect and gratitude.

With just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter Sunday, Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher fell down in his team’s end zone, crumpled by a left knee injury.

The quiet in the inflatable can known as Mall of America Field was stunning. It was the kind of quiet reserved for those horrifying head and spinal-cord injuries, the ones where the player is stretchered off the field and the crowd awaits a thumbs-up sign from the victim.

This was clearly only a knee injury. And it was in a meaningless game, the last for each team for two-thirds of a year.

But it was to a player who was having a fine season and a brilliant game — a game-high 10 tackles, three for losses — and whose last play, which occurred some 25 yards downfield from where he lined up, helped preserve the Bears’ 17-13 win.

And it was to a player who has been the defensive heart of the Bears for so long that even Vikings fans seemed stunned to see him down, to suddenly envision the Bears without the bullet-headed vet.

While the Vikings’ hyperactive and self-promoting Jared Allen was busy leading cheers for his sack history, Urlacher was playing with stealth and fury, the way he always has played.

He recently had been voted to his eighth Pro Bowl, a reward for a season in which he played without failure — until he lay there in the end zone, 315 seconds from the final whistle.

‘It was definitely scary’

It was a critical third-down pass play, and Urlacher and Bears cornerback D.J. Moore and safety Major Wright had collided around Vikings receiver Percy Hardin like a juicer around a lemon, and Urlacher had twisted his left knee badly as the pile hit the ground.

Bears players stood around their captain, seemingly confused.

A sprained medial collateral ligament was how the injury would be described.

‘‘It was definitely scary,’’ cornerback Tim Jennings said. ‘‘I don’t know how bad it is, but it didn’t look good. We’re going to keep ’Lach in our prayers.’’

When Urlacher finally rose and limped off the field, the crowd cheered, about half rising to give him a standing ovation.

He stood by the bench and cheered as the Vikings botched the ensuing field-goal attempt. Then he had an ice bag taped to his knee and hobbled out of the stadium.

‘‘When you think of Bears defense, you think of Brian Urlacher,’’ Jennings said.

Don’t we.

The 6-4, 260-pound man-in-the-middle has been called overrated and unable to fend off blocks and all kinds of things by critics and Bears fans alike.

But he has had more than 100 tackles in every season he has played — except 2009, when he broke his wrist in the opener — and he finished this season with 135 tackles, two fumbles recovered and three interceptions. And that doesn’t count the smart plays he makes for which there is no stat — making a quarterback throw the other way, funneling a runner into a teammate’s tackle, not going for a play fake, and so on.

With almost 1,800 tackles in his career, Urlacher seemed unfazed at age 33. How much gas does the aging super-truck have in its tank?

That was the subtle question going through everyone’s mind as the truck sat there, its tire flat.

Can’t keep returning forever

‘‘It was tough to see him hurting,’’ Bears tackle Israel Idonije said. ‘‘But we know he’ll be OK and be there for us when we start the season.’’

Will he?

He likely will. He always comes back, doesn’t he? With sidekicks Lance Briggs and Peanut Tillman and Julius Peppers, No. 54 will surely be there when the Bears start camp in July.

But excuse us if we wonder if maybe this isn’t the start of the end, the busted wheel that leads to the axle dropping.

Remember when Devin Hester was the greatest return man in the history of the game? It wasn’t but last October that he had a 73-yard kickoff return and a 69-yard punt return for a touchdown. Sunday, he had a total of 22 yards on two kickoff returns and four yards on two punt returns. The worst kickoff return this writer has ever seen — one in which Hester went backwards for an apparent safety — was luckily overruled by an offside penalty on the Vikings.

Will Brian Urlacher be back fine in ’12?

It’s good to hope so.