Gale Sayers is one of the most beloved players in Chicago Bears history, but that didn't stop linebacker Brian Urlacher from taking shots at the Hall of Fame running back.

Sayers recently criticized Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, questioned whether Urlacher can come back from injury and wondered whether coach Lovie Smith will be fired if the team struggles this season.

"Let me ask you a question: 'How many championships did Gale Sayers win?' " Urlacher told the Chicago Tribune. "How many playoff games did he win when he played? None. None. None.

"Does it bother me? There are enough people throwing daggers at us right now. Why does one of our ex-players have to jump in? There are enough experts talking [expletive] about us, so why does a Bear, an all-time great, have to jump in? I just don't like that."

Several former Bears, including some who now work in the media, have criticized the franchise, which has missed the playoffs in the three seasons since losing to the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI.

Speaking at a booster banquet for Boys Town in his hometown of Omaha, Neb., on May 4, Sayers said:

"Cutler hasn't done the job. Urlacher, I don't know how good he's going to be coming back [from surgery]. He's 33 years old [Urlacher actually turns 32 on Tuesday]. They need a couple wide receivers, a couple defensive backs. They haven't done a good job.

"If Lovie [Smith] doesn't do it this year, I think he's gone. He had a good team the Super Bowl year. Nothing came together for him the last couple years."

Ironically, Urlacher made headlines last season when, while rehabbing from season-ending wrist surgery, he watched a Bears game from his brother's home with a reporter from Yahoo Sports and ripped the identity of his team.

"Look, I love Jay, and I understand he's a great player who can take us a long way, and I still have faith in him," Urlacher told Yahoo. "But I hate the way our identity has changed.

"We used to establish the run and wear teams down and try not to make mistakes, and we'd rely on our defense to keep us in the game and make big plays to put us in position to win. Kyle Orton might not be the flashiest quarterback, but the guy is a winner, and that formula worked for us. I hate to say it, but that's the truth."

Sayers played from 1965 to 1971, exclusively with the Bears. His remarkable career was cut short by devastating knee injuries well before advancements were made in injury prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. He became the youngest Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee at age 34.

The Bears had some lean years during Sayers' career, including a 1-13 mark in 1969. That team also featured Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus, whose career also ended because of a knee injury.

"... Does [Sayers] know how to win football games? Does he? No," Urlacher told the Tribune. "How are you going to criticize someone else when you haven't done it yourself?

"He's one of our own, so that's why it's so frustrating."

The paper reached Sayers for a reaction to Urlacher's comments.

"When I am asked a question, I have to answer it," Sayers told the Tribune. "I don't want anybody to think I am afraid to talk about the Bears. ... Right now, the Bears are hurting. ...

"And Urlacher, how old is he anyway? He should know that himself, that he is on the downside of his career.

"If somebody asks me, 'How do you think the Bears are going to do this year?' If I say, 'Oh, they are going to win 14 ballgames,' they know the Bears can't win 14 ballgames. Why should I lie to the people? ... Football people understand that."

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Mike Ditka joined the chorus of Chicago Bears Hall of Famers who have come to the support of Gale Sayers in his controversy with linebacker Brian Urlacher.

The war of words started May 4, when Sayers criticized quarterback Jay Cutler's performance in 2009, questioned the future of coach Lovie Smith if the Bears struggle again this season, and wondered how well Urlacher will come back from season-ending wrist surgery.

Urlacher responded in a Chicago Tribune article Thursday by ripping Sayers for criticizing the Bears and questioning Sayers' credentials because the Hall of Fame running back never won a championship, or even a playoff game.

"I like Brian Urlacher a lot, I think he's one heck of a football player," Ditka said Friday on "Mike & Mike In The Morning " on ESPN Radio. "It's unfortunate to have this in the Bears family. I don't like it.

"I don't think Gale was being that critical, honestly. I think somebody asked him a question. They asked him about the state of the Chicago Bears. He answered very honestly what he thought about Cutler. He answered very honestly what he thought about the coach. Brian's coming off an injury. Brian's a great football player, he has to stay healthy, there's no question about that. Nobody can play when they're hurt.

"So I don't know where it was so inflammatory. I didn't see that. And I understand, your feathers get ruffled here and there. When somebody sees something they think is wrong, I don't think it's wrong to say it. Sometimes criticism pointed in the right direction can help you."

Sayers played from 1965 to 1971, exclusively with the Bears. Ditka played from 1961 to 1966 with Chicago, and he said criticism that Sayers never won a championship is misguided.

"[Dick] Butkus never won a Super Bowl," said Ditka, who coached the Bears to the Super Bowl XX title. "Was there a better linebacker? I don't know. I don't think there's a better linebacker.

"Super Bowls are won by great teams, not necessarily by great individual players."

Butkus backed Sayers, and he said he's also been frustrated by the Bears, who haven't made the playoffs since losing to the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI.

"It's a real reach to say: 'What did Gale do?' Urlacher wasn't even born yet, what does he know?" Butkus told the Tribune. "I say things to other people, too, about the Bears. It's total frustration. You think [Sayers] is saying it because he hates the Bears? You get so tired of sitting there watching them."

Hall of Famer Dan Hampton told ESPN Chicago that Urlacher needs to develop thick skin.

"You can't have thin skin if you can't win," Hampton said. "That's just the way it is. Buddy Ryan used to say, 'We're not in the business of playing football, we're in the business of winning games.'

"Ultimately, [the Bears] haven't been successful in three years. However you want to cut it, those are the facts. Gale Sayers just had the audacity to point it out."

Smith addressed the controversy during the team's minicamp Friday.

"Those are guys in the Bears family, when you're in the family, ideally, you'd like to keep things in," he said. "No one is happy with where we are right now. That's why you need minicamps and things like that.

"Our football team is better, and when we play better this year, everybody will be happy."

Hampton, who helped lead the Bears to the Super Bowl XX title, took exception to the theory that Sayers' lack of a championship should preclude him from commenting on his former team.

"The doublespeak part of the whole thing is since Gale and Dick Butkus didn't win a Super Bowl, maybe they don't have the right to say anything. Well, I beg to differ," Hampton said. "Their rings say 'Hall of Famer,' and last time I checked, that was a pretty select group."

Ditka said if not for Sayers' career-ending knee injuries, his records still would be standing.

"Let me say one thing about Gale Sayers: He was before his time," Ditka said. "First of all, he could have been the best two-way back/receiver in the league, ever.

"If he doesn't get hurt when he does, I'm telling you, nobody would ever break his records. I was there. He made me look good on blocks where I didn't know where I was half the time. The guy was unbelievable. I saw him. Brian never saw this, but that's OK."

Ditka also defended Sayers' character.

"You have to understand who Gale Sayers is," he said. "And understand the kind of individual he is. He's one of the most mild-mannered, easygoing guys I've ever been around. He would not hurt a flea. He would not say anything to harm anybody in any way. I truly believe that in my heart.

"He was asked a question. And you don't take time when you're answering a question to analyze everything you're saying about it. I didn't see anything bad about it, really. I don't think he was trying to scorch anybody. He was trying to lay out some facts that are pretty evident to people if they look at what's going on right now."

Ditka said the bottom line is that the Bears have more to worry about than Sayers.

"The Bears are in the North division. Right now, they have two concerns: Green Bay and Minnesota," Ditka said. "That should be their only two concerns.

"Unless they can control their division they're not going to win. And right now there are two teams that are playing better than they are, and that's Green Bay and Minnesota."

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For a big, tough linebacker, Brian Urlacher sure is sensitive.

Gale Sayers speaks nothing but the truth in answering questions at a banquet two weeks ago in Omaha, Neb., and next thing he knows, he is being torn apart by a guy who needs to stop getting annoyed by comments he thinks are mean and unfair and concentrate on making his team respectable.

Sayers told the Chicago Tribune he was just being honest. Good grief, the guy wasn't even being controversial.

"[Jay] Cutler hasn't done the job," Sayers said.

Um, that would be true.

"Urlacher, I don't know how good he's going to be coming back [from surgery]," Sayers continued. "He's [32] years old [this Tuesday]. They need a couple wide receivers, a couple defensive backs. They haven't done a good job."

For these factual observations, Urlacher found it necessary to rip one of the most revered players in Bears history.

"Let me ask you a question: 'How many championships did Gale Sayers win?'" Urlacher told the Tribune in one of the least classy retorts in memory.

"How many playoff games did he win when he played? None. None. None.

"Does it bother me? There are enough people throwing daggers at us right now. Why does one of our ex-players have to jump in? There are enough experts talking [expletive] about us, so why does a Bear, an all-time great, have to jump in? I just don't like that."

Boo-hoo. Now Urlacher is bragging about making it to the Super Bowl and being embarrassed. Sorry, doesn't work that way around here.

"If Lovie [Smith] doesn't do it this year, I think he's gone," Sayers said in answering another question and giving his opinion, which is basically acknowledged as fact.

"He had a good team the Super Bowl year. Nothing came together for him the last couple years."

Stop the presses.

Hall of Famer Dan Hampton joined Hall of Famer Dick Butkus in talking about Hall of Famer Sayers and telling Urlacher to grow up.

"This is the overarching point," Hampton said. "You can't have thin skin if you can't win. That's just the way it is. Buddy Ryan used to say, 'We're not in the business of playing football, we're in the business of winning games.

"Ultimately, [the Bears] haven't been successful in three years. However you want to cut it, those are the facts. Gale Sayers just had the audacity to point it out."

Sayers was not just admired, he was beloved. And after just six seasons, he was a legend, a player whose legacy has never dimmed, even in the shadow of Walter Payton's greatness.

You want tough? Try playing on Sayers' knees in the days before advances such as arthroscopy and the sort of therapy taken for granted by players like Urlacher, whose career could have been over after his neck injury, and again last year, if he had been playing in the '60s.

Sayers has earned the right to make whatever observations he wants to make about his former team for as long as he lives, the least of which benign comments that happen to be true.

"You're part of building a huge company, you're ultra-successful, you retire and the thing goes into crapper," Hampton said. "You're offended; you resent it. If you didn't care, you wouldn't say a word.

"The doublespeak part of the whole thing is since Gale and Dick Butkus didn't win a Super Bowl, maybe they don't have the right to say anything. Well, I beg to differ. Their rings say 'Hall of Famer,' and last time I checked, that was a pretty select group."

Clearly Urlacher is touchy because neither he nor his team has played close to anyone's expectations the last three years. Maybe because he smells the end of a career that, while impressive overall, individually speaking, still doesn't feel fulfilled. Or maybe because the Bears gave him $6 million guaranteed in a signing bonus last summer, he'll get more than $22 million the next three years and he feels guilty.

Or maybe not.

But Sayers' pointing out that Urlacher will be 32 this season, and that there is a question of how good he is going to be after missing practically all of last season with a serious wrist injury, was apparently too much to bear.

Hampton is not sure why.

"Last time I checked, most guys turn 32 and walk off a cliff," he said. "Myself, I turned 33, it was over. Just saying. There a reason why the league is filled with young guys."

That would be true. All of it.

And if Urlacher doesn't like it?

"If you don't like it," Hampton said, "go 14-2."

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As Brian Urlacher and the Chicago Bears prepared for their first training camp practice Friday, they knew there would be plenty of aggressiveness directed at teammates.

What Urlacher may not have expected was the resurrection of a verbal feud between himself and Bears legend Gale Sayers.

Sayers, appearing Friday on "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000, responded to verbal shots Urlacher took at the Hall of Fame running back in May for questioning how good the Bears will be this season.

"I was very, very surprised," Sayers said. "Do people want me to lie and tell them that I think they're gonna win the Super Bowl or they're gonna win 14, 15 ball games?

"I couldn't say that. So when the reporter [in May] asked me what did I think of the Bears, I said, 'Well, they got some problems right now.' Will they win the Super Bowl? I said 'No.' Then Urlacher, he came out and jumped on me, and I don't know why."

Urlacher first ripped Sayers for the Bears' lack of success while Sayers played from 1965-71, pointing out Sayers never led Chicago to a postseason berth. Urlacher, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, went on to say Sayers -- a Hall of Famer -- doesn't know how to win football games.

"In four, five, six years, he'll be up for the Hall of Fame, let's see if he makes the Hall of Fame," Sayers said. "It didn't bother me [what Urlacher said], because people knew that when I played the game of football, we had great players on our team, Dick Butkus and Mike Ditka, we just didn't have enough great players on our team.

"Whatever he said, I didn't listen to it and it didn't bother me."

Sayers, who said he hasn't spoken to Urlacher since the controversy surfaced, said it's a possibility Urlacher will make the Hall of Fame.

Sayers also had a parting shot for Brett Favre, who once again is contemplating retirement.

"I think he's a drama queen," Sayers said. "He's putting the Minnesota Vikings on hold until he comes back.

"And does he need the money? No. Does he need another ring? No. Go off, go in the sunset and play golf."

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