On an overthrown pass to Johnny Knox during practice Wednesday, 2nd year cornerback Zackary Bowman went down and stayed down.
After replacing Charles Tillman at right corner back, Bowman was picking off Jay Cutler in practices and doing a good job of covering the Bears passing game. Until he injured his hammy.
Head coach Lovie Smith walked over to Bowman, who was laying on the ground surrounded by team trainers, and gave his diagnosis.
"We're always careful" Smith explained, "but we've had (quite a few) hamstring injuries through training camps, nothing serious."
Trumaine McBride steps in with the first team while Bowman likely takes the sideline for Thursday night's practice.
Bowman's history of injuries at Nebraska -- specifically, his Torn ACL during fall practice of his senior season -- earned him a reputation for never living up to his potential.
But Lovie Smith said the team wasn't concerned and pointed out that "it wasn't his hamstring in college".
Sports
TRAINING CAMP DIARY DAY 6:
* Another skirmish in line drills, but nothing big. Tyler Reed, Cody Balogh again. It seems it's the backups to the backups doing anything to get the coaches attention. Got me to thinking - remember the good ole days? Back when starters went at it in camp? I queried the most senior of the Bears reporters on the sidelines in Bourbonnais (Dan Pompei, Chicago Tribune; Fred Mitchell, Chicago Tribune, former Bears reporter John Mullin; and WSCR Radio & former Bears broadcaster Hub Arkush). Here's their favorites:
1. Alonzo Spellman and Andy Heck. Three straight plays. Heck won round 1. Spellman round 2. And round 3 started before the snap!
2. Curtis Enis and Rico McDonald in Dave Wannstedt's famous "Bull in the Ring" drill.
3. Steve McMichael & Mark Bortz
4. Steve McMichael and Keith Van Horne
5. Marc Colombo and Rosie Colvin
The scribes reminisced about how some of the best fights were when the Bears practiced against the Saints in LaCrosse or the Browns. Those were the days.
* Injury update: Hunter Hillenmeyer ankle this time, he's got to stay on the field if he wants to keep his SAM linebacker job. Sources say the injury was on the outside of his ankle -- he should be ok.
* Nathan Vasher looked much better in drills today, wasn't getting beat as much as the first few days of camp.
* 5Th straight day of pads! So "Un-Lovie" like. Whatever happened to Lovie Smith having the second easiest training camp next to Tony Dungy. I guess that was a title he didn't want.
* Jay Cutler looked sharp today, the zip was back on his passes. So much so, he threw a dart to Earl Bennett that ricocheted off #80's face mask, falling 10 yards back incomplete. Bennett had to go pick up his mouth guard which was knocked out on the incompletion. "Earl's caught hard passes from me before" Cutler said, "but, I never saw him use that kind of mouthpiece."
