While controversial Chicagoland political figure Edward Vrdolyak was on trial for fraud last December, dozens of people wrote letters to the judge vouching for his character. Two of them were the Bears’ Brian Urlacher and ex-Bear Tank Johnson. (Vrdolyak was ultimately sentenced to probation.)
Urlacher Vouches For Defendant, Gets Defendant’s Name Wrong?
↵The letters have been made available to the public and posted by the Chicago Tribune. Johnson’s is pretty by-the-book; it’s Urlacher’s message that I find interesting. Within, he refers to Vrdolyak as both “Mr. V” and “Mr. Y.”
↵One possibility is that the file on the Tribune’s website was put together automatically using a handwriting-to-text program, and that Urlacher’s handwritten “V”s look like “Y”s. This, or some other clerical error, seems likely to me. Regardless, it’s amusing to envision the possibility of Urlacher being asked to support a political figure he doesn’t know, making up anecdotes about barbecues and fishing trips with him, calling him a “father figure,” and mailing it in to the judge without nailing down what the guy’s last name was. It would certainly be the first ever disingenuous mark against the Chicago political system’s pristine, transparent reputation.
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