Jerry Angelo didn't draft Brian Urlacher, but quickly learned to appreciate the cornerstone linebacker during his 11-year tenure as Chicago Bears general manager.

“He meant so much to our football team, to the franchise," Angelo, who took after Urlacher's rookie season, told "The Boers and Bernstein Show" on WSCR-AM 670. "He just handled himself with total class. It’s hard to imagine that you could have the type of work ethic that Brian had, given all his God-given talents, but he worked as hard as any player we had in that locker room. You thought he was a college free agent the way he worked every day.”

Angelo, who was replaced as GM by Phil Emery after the 2011 season, said Urlacher's approach to the game helped make him a locker room leader.

“He had fun with all his teammates,” Angelo said. “I never really heard a bad thing said about him by anybody in the locker room. I don’t care if you talked to our equipment manager ... our trainers, certainly our players, we had a handful of coaches, like most teams have – everybody loved him. Not just as a player, but as a person. He really epitomized what football was about. Passion, having fun. ... He made football better. Looking back, you can’t really say that about a lot of players.”

Noting that "Brian could've been a great pass rusher," Angelo lauded Urlacher for adapting his game to the needs of the Cover-2 defense.

“He was the quintessential team player,” Angelo said. “That’s what I loved about him personally. He was about the team. Money never spoiled him. Regardless of what success other players had around him, he was as happy for the emergence of Lance Briggs and whoever else we that had on our team. Sometimes, players can get a little envious of one another. You never saw that with Brian Urlacher. He couldn’t be any more happier for his teammates. We brought Julius Peppers in, he was Julius’ biggest fan. It just says so much about the person, and we all know what a great player he was."

