What we once loved about Urlacher, a humble guy from small-town New Mexico who thrilled a blue-collar football town in the Midwest, has deteriorated into a typical ego-and-greed soap opera. - Jay Mariotti

Blah, blah, blah and more hypocritical blah.

There really is not that much more to discuss about this morning’s back page tirade. After all, this column* has already been previously hashed over multiple times while grilling Urlacher in the process. But at least on this go around, no private text messages were published. Apparently the copy & paste functionality to Jay’s word processor malfunctioned last night.

But it does appear that the angry dwarf is a little forgetful on the issues of obligating contractual requirements. How about a little reminder?

But Mariotti’s detractors did not get their wish. In late July, he was given a contract extension at the Sun-Times through 2009 - hammered out in negotiations during the columnist’s abrupt vacation - while keeping his regular gig on the popular show Around the Horn on ESPN.

Mariotti, 47, would seem to be living the dream of every kid in J-school: a widely read column, a measure of national celebrity, a combined salary north of $500,000, and the power to make sports gods squirm. Or scream, as in Ozzie’s case.

So who needs friends, right? - Dirk Johnson

Vacation? Alrighty then!

To date, Brian Urlacher has yet to missed any required time with the Chicago Bears in order to prepare for the upcoming NFL season. Yes, that might change in 24 hours. But tomorrow is the future and right now we are discussing the present.

So in other words, Brian Urlacher is still on “vacation”.

And what is this little rant about you defending the virtues of the “working-class man”? Jay Mariotti now speaks for the hardworking backbone of Chicago? Yeah right.

Is that why a coward who dares not enter the White Sox clubhouse, habitually labels our town as “The City of Weak Shoulders”?

How awfully condescending of Jay to chide the linebacker for neglecting his New Mexico roots in lieu of the big city with all of its sins.  After all, Geno must be wondering aloud on whatever happened to daddy’s girl after leaving Pittsburgh to embark on a journey of pissing off athletes and sports fans.

Trust us Jay. Chuck the Chair-Builder would still rather pay for a seat at Soldier Field to watch Brian Urlacher play football rather than fork over a nickel to read your column* in the Chicago Sun-Times.

And if Urlacher is transforming himself into “unsympathetic figure”, obviously he is only going to become more famous.

Right Jay?