When the Chicago Bears opened training camp last year, the focus was on whether or not middle linebacker Brian Urlacher had called quarterback Jay Cutler a word we don’t use on this Web site but that could be translated to mean “soft.”

A week before training camp this year (the Bears report to Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill., on Thursday) Urlacher was again involved in some name calling. This time, Fox News blowhard Glenn Beck referred to Urlacher as a “neo-Nazi” during a segment on his show. Apparently all guys with receding hairlines who choose to shave what they do have on top can be lumped into that category.

“One of my buddies called me and told me that I was going to think it was funny and it was funny," Urlacher told Vaughn McClure of the Chicago Tribune. “It's dumb. I think people blew it out of proportion.

“I don't think the guy was being malicious. He has a show, he was being funny, and that's it. He didn't know who I was, obviously. Even if he wouldn't have apologized, it wouldn't have been a big deal to me. I don't care about all that stuff.”

Beck later apologized on the network’s Web site.

"During a segment about myself being named one of the ‘blackest white folks we know’ by the Web site theroot.com, I made a few comments about some others on the list. Now, I know absolutely nothing about sports, so I didn't realize that one of them was NFL star Brian Urlacher.

"Since then, I have been informed by my staff that Brian -- uh, Mr. Urlacher -- could kill me with his thumb in nine seconds if he wanted to. Although if we are talking about people in Chicago wanting to beat me up, he's going to have to stand in a very long line.

"Anyway, I apologize to anyone who was offended. I just made a neo-Nazi joke based on the short hair and white skin; I don't actually think he has fascist plans to take over the Earth."

There you have it.

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