Alex Brown was a big part of the Chicago Bears defense for eight years, I’m sure he didn’t want to leave in what he considers his prime. Brown had a lot to say about his departure from Chicago, here’s what he said:

“I enjoyed my time and I appreciate the Bears for giving me the opportunity to play, the city of Chicago, there wasn’t a better place to spend eight years of football. I got to see a lot of highs and lows and had a lot of fun with all of it.”

“I believe I can play four or five more years, I mean good years, shoot, over the last four, five years I have been so close to having the magical number everyone looks for as far as sacks (10). As far as what I have been doing, I’m in my prime still.”“The streak, you gotta go to work, you get paid to do your job as best you can. I don’t think I was doing anything special or out of the ordinary. If you’re healthy, you go out and play.”

“I would love to play at Soldier Field again, I would love to come back and play. To be on the opposite side of the field and see all my friends, that would be pretty weird, but I am sure we would have fun with it.

“But that first day (last Thursday) when they told me, it was tough. I had spent so much time there. I understand it is a business, but that doesn’t make it not tough. My teammates, they understand it’s a business. If we play long enough, it’s going to happen to everybody. I’m not going to sit here and throw anyone under the bus and say they said this isn’t the right thing for the Bears do to. Maybe there are some different opinions, but that’s OK. We’re all going to be fine.”

“Mark played very well last year and he can be that good and better this year, moving, that is one of the thing Izzy has needed to figure out, where he is going to play and now he’s gotten a boost of confidence from the coaching staff so he can focus on that. I’m really flattered people have been saying stuff about the team missing me. We changed players like crazy over the last eight years. The Bears will move on.”

“I’m ready to go, I’m a three-down defensive end. I still think I’m the best overall defensive end in the league.

“For eight years, I’ve done exactly what is right. They drafted a defensive end every year and they brought in Wale (Ogunleye). I just went out and played football. I’m still going to do that.”

all quotes from chicagotribune.com