Game time approaches, and a ritual commences in the Bears locker room.



Akiem Hicks takes a speaker and cranks up Lil Boosie’s “Set It Off.” The bass line thumps through the room. The rapping provokes and prods.



Instinct offers two options: flight or fight.



Head nods, fist pumps. And then Hicks, in a deep, booming voice you can almost feel in your chest, yells, “Let’s goooooo!”



He goes, and his Bears go with him. They charge out of the locker room and onto the field.



Just as Hicks was in the middle of what happened in the locker room, he’s usually in the middle of what happens in the game.



He can stop your run, he can stop your pass.



He doesn’t miss games. He brings energy, enthusiasm and determination.



He is that rare defensive lineman who has the explosive power to make blockers scatter like bowling pins, but who also has the deftness to finish a play.



In...