Brown faces an uncertain future following injury

LAKE FOREST -- Bears safety Mike Brown started feeling sorry for himself soon after he knew his season had ended due to torn foot ligaments -- that is, until his wife Erin intervened.

"I was having a pity party and my wife ended that pretty soon," said Brown. "That's why I married her.

"She told me to stop feeling sorry for myself about an hour into my pity party, so I got over it pretty quickly."

Still, Brown admitted Thursday it will be difficult being around the 6-0 team and not playing the rest of this season after going on season-ending injured reserve Thursday due to the surgery he had Wednesday to repair torn ligaments in his right foot.

"I love to play the game," said Brown, who earned his first Pro Bowl invitation last season. "I wanted to be a part of this (sucess) because I feel like this is something very special and it's going to continue to be something special.

"It just (stinks) that I can't be a part of it. But hey, life isn't fair. I've enjoyed the six games that I've played this year. I've had a lot of fun and no one can take those six from me. It just is what it is. The only thing that I could tell you is that I have a lot of heart and I'm a hard worker and I know I'll be back. That's the positive I take out of it."

Whether Brown will be back with the Bears next year will be determined in off-season personnel meetings by general manager Jerry Angelo and coach Lovie Smith, and has little to do with his own desires.

"That's other peoples' decisions. I want to be back," Brown said.

When this regular season ends he will have failed to start in 28 of the previous 48 games due to injuries. A torn Achilles tendon and a calf strain cost him 18 regular-season starts and his torn foot ligament will cost him 10 starts. Brown in 2004 signed a five-year, $15 million deal and the Bears paid him salaries of $2.04 million for two games in 2004, $2.39 million for 12˝ games last year and $2.44 million for six games this year. His salary is $2.44 million in 2007 and 2008.

"I feel like the coaching staff wants me back," Brown said. "I think Jerry would want me back too, I really do.

"But I've been around this business long enough to know that nothing's guaranteed and being on IR two years out of three, that doesn't give me any negotiating power. So it is what it is, but I know I'll be back playing football next year. I know I will be."

Rehabbing yet another injury does not worry Brown. He did it in 2004 after suffering the torn Achilles. He had to undergo some rehab last year after a calf muscle strain which took him out of the Bears' playoff game with Carolina in the first half.

"That doesn't scare me at all," he said. "I'm a self-motivated guy and I'm going to have no problem getting healthy. That's what I have to do if I want to continue playing this game and it's something that I do want to continue to play.

"I know I can come back and play at a really high level. I feel like I'm one of the best safeties in the league when I'm healthy playing and that's my goal: to get healthy so I can continue to play at that level."

Brown never considered quitting the game after the injury, even though he was feeling sorry for himself.

"If it was career-ending, yes, but it's not," he said. "It's an injury that happened. I know people are going to say (I'm) injury prone. I think every football player is injury prone. You're prone to injury when you're out there."

Brown called it more of a freak injury than anything else.

A screw had to be used to help re-attach the ligament in Brown's right foot during surgery. No thought was given to keeping him around for the playoffs just in case he heals faster than expected.

"I think I'll be out of the cast and off of crutches in probably about 10 weeks," he said. "But that's not enough time to get my strength back and be in football shape. It's just not possible."

Brown will maintain a role on the sidelines at home games and in meeting rooms at Halas Hall to help younger players. He's uncertain if he'll be able to go on many road trips due to the heavy cast he's wearing.

"It'll be coach Brown now as we see it," coach Lovie Smith said. "Mike can give quite a bit of leadership, he has a lot of knowledge that he can lend to the rest of the guys in that DB room."