The worst battle cry: 'Boohoo'
Moping over injuries won't inspire Bears to playoff success
When it comes to professional football, self-pity might be the most dispiriting influence you can have in a locker room. It's Terrell Owens-terrible to the psyche of a team.
Bemoaning injuries is a form of self-pity that NFL teams are not supposed to allow themselves. If a player goes down on the practice field, you move the ball 10 yards away and continue on while the trainers do their work. Injuries are a part of the game, and the message has to be that the next guy steps in and the team moves forward as if nothing happened.
Lamenting bad luck is a loser's refrain. It leads to a deterioration of confidence, a sense of resignation and -- worst of all -- excuse-making.
It's an important point to remember because the Bears seem to feel victimized by their undermanned condition and the criticism they've received for subpar play while dealing with injury issues. It's one thing to hear players wail about their short-handed roster but quite another when defensive coordinator Ron Rivera and coach Lovie Smith mention injuries when defending the defense.
The Bears aren't the same team that opened the season at full strength with a shutout of the Packers. Safety Mike Brown (foot) is gone, and he's not coming back. Ditto for defensive tackle Tommie Harris (hamstring).
But Tank Johnson returned from his suspension Wednesday, and injuries that have slowed or limited Nathan Vasher, Charles Tillman, Todd Johnson and John Tait shouldn't keep any of them off the field when the Bears open their playoff run. Sure, the Bears aren't the same team without all their stars aligned, but what team is?
The Buccaneers took the Bears to overtime with their third-string quarterback. The Lions were a play away from beating the Bears with a makeshift offensive line and no running backs known outside their own households.
The new threat in the NFC is the Eagles, a team that lost arguably its two best players when pass rusher Jevon Kearse and quarterback Donovan McNabb went down. Eagles coach Andy Reid said last week the guy who brought him out of his funk after the McNabb injury was none other than Cowboys coach Bill Parcells, who called to remind Reid that the Giants once won a Super Bowl after losing quarterback Phil Simms.
Maybe Parcells ought to give the Bears a call and tell them to buck up. Or maybe Brown's wife, Erin, should give the team the same speech she gave her husband after he was diagnosed with a season-ending injury.
''I was having a pity party, and my wife ended that pretty soon,'' Brown said at the time. ''She told me to stop feeling sorry for myself about an hour into my pity party. I got over it pretty quickly.''
Someone yelled out that winning the Super Bowl was the objective.
''OK, well, are we going to have an opportunity to go do that?'' Parcells asked. ''How about the other 20 teams [that won't make the playoff field]? Thank you.''
The Bears are so close to the coveted prize, with a first-round bye and home-field advantage already secure, it's no wonder that lethargy has crept into their play. They've been flat in the second half the last two games, especially on defense. The question is whether it's physical or mental fatigue.
A personnel boss for a recent opponent wondered if the Bears still are lifting weights with the same regularity as they did earlier in the season. He said they look physically weaker and smaller than they did. Another observer dismissed that, saying the Bears just haven't been mentally into the game. They're playing cautiously, like a team trying to get through a game without getting hurt.
It's a dreary part of the season, playing out the string and waiting for the playoffs after achieving all the goals. But there has been no sense of abandon, no ''flying around the ball,'' as the coaches say.
Where is the team that once seized its season by the throat? Have injuries robbed the Bears of their aggressiveness?
The Bears are a scheme-driven team, and when they're riding high, everyone wants to credit the scheme they play. When it starts to fall apart, it's because certain players weren't available. You can't have it both ways.
Fact is, the Bears returned all their starters from last season, signed a key free agent in Ricky Manning Jr. and used their first five draft picks on defense for the first time in team history, including their top selection on a player (Danieal Manning) to effectively replace Brown.
It could be the Bears are going through an uneven stretch and will get their act together in the playoffs, like the 2005 White Sox or the 2006 Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals did. If that's the case, all is well.
If not, that's when the real pity party will begin.