One More Try for Akiem Hicks

Akiem Hicks is playing Sunday against the Green Bay Packers and it will take more than a five-week-old ankle injury to prevent it.

This might be his last game in this rivalry so he wants to maximize the experience.

"I take rivalry games very seriously," Hicks said. "I think that back to your earliest memories, playing ball in high school and stuff like that, a rivalry game is a big deal and you should take it as that when you go out there to compete.

"My time spent in New Orleans we had that rivalry with the Falcons, and I took that very seriously. A coach told me once that if you can't play well against your division opponents, what good are you to the team? And I took that to heart. We're going to play you twice a year and you're going to try to play your best ball."

Hicks so respects the rivalry he has tried twice to come back from injuries to face the Packers. He'll do it now, but this week the sprained ankle he had seems to have healed enough so there isn't a risk. It seemed far more severe Nov. 8 when he hurt it against the Steelers.

"By the time I landed in Chicago it had swollen up ridiculously and it's just been a process to stop the swelling and keep it in check and under control," Hicks said. "Over the past two weeks some of that swelling's went out. I've been able to run. This week it's just been a crazy improvement, just felt better, able to move more, put this 330 pounds down on that ankle, you know what I mean? So it feels good, I'm approaching myself."

Hicks wasn't able to return effectively in 2019 when Hicks when he tried to play after missing seven games with a dislocated elbow. He did this type of thing again in October by trying to come back too soon from a groin injury, and wound up leaving the game after only xx snaps.

"I understood what I was doing when I stepped into that game just as I did in 2019 when I dislocated my elbow," Hicks said. "I knew my elbow wasn't ready to play. And sometimes being lost into today's age playing a sport, you've got to be able to push through some of those things."

Pushing through is important to him because of the fact it could be Hicks' final weeks as a Bears player. A Bears player since 2016, he has beaten the Packers only in 2018.

Hicks became a bit emotional pondering the possibility it's his final Bears-Packers game after six seasons in Chicago. His name was involved in offseason trade talk and they haven't sought to extend his contract, so he seems to be trying to cope with the reality he won't be back in 2022.

"I think that's the unfortunate reality," Hicks said. "You know the unfortunate reality of our business sometimes is that no matter what you do all good things come to an end. I can throw every cliche I want you know?"

Hicks gave a big sigh and commented to media members, "I didn't know you guys were going to get to me like this."

He has been in the league now long enough to know the calculating business side as opposed to the emotional player side.

"At first it hurt and then I understood," Hicks said of not getting a deal. "Ultimately I respect the decisions that are made. Some of them you want different things for yourself but that's just not how the business works."

While Hicks became a bit wistful about his time with the Bears, he changed his attitude entirely when it was suggested he was thinking of retirement at age 32.

"No, no. Oh no," he said. "It's not time to stop playing. I think what tells me that, right, if I can answer that part of the question, that first three quarters against Pittsburgh, you couldn't find anybody hotter on the field.

"People were getting hit, people were laying down. I know how to play this game at a high level. No matter what happens, I believe that I can play this game for another 3-4 years, and hopefully I end up in a place that will want me to be myself and play the game at a high level like I can."

Chicago could always use a player of this sort.

"I don't think I'm even ready to answer that question, honestly," Hicks said. "Because I put it to the back of my mind and it's something I had to do in order to approach this season appropriately. I had to put it to the back of my mind in training camp. I'm going to revisit that in January.

"But what I can tell you now is, I've appreciated these last six years playing here in Chicago. I would challenge you to find another person on this team that has bled and fought and lived and died with this team the way that I have. Whatever comes from that, I accept, but as far as right now, I'm just ready to play some more football."