Getty Former Bears guard Kyle Long is back in the NFL.
Could former Chicago Bears guard Kyle Long follow in his Hall of Fame father Howie’s footsteps and sport the silver and black? Per NFL insider Adam Schefter, the recently un-retired Long is heading to Las Vegas for a meeting with Jon Gruden’s Raiders on Monday. Schefter added that following his scheduled visit in Vegas, Long is headed to Kansas City to have a sit down with Andy Reid and the Chiefs.
Three-time Pro Bowl G Kyle Long, who is coming out of retirement, is scheduled to visit Monday with the Las Vegas Raiders, per source. Long is scheduled to visit KC next. Long’s father, Howie, had a Hall-of-Fame career for Raiders and another Long now in play for the franchise.
NFL insider Adam Caplan also added via Twitter that “at least 10 teams” have shown varying interest in the former three-time Pro Bowler, so it looks like Long is about to have an eventful offseason.
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Long Loves Bears, Has Zero Interest in Returning to Chicago
In a recent appearance on DaNoNamePod, which features former Bears’ o-linemen Olin Kreutz and Jason McKie, Long expressed regret about the saltiness that seeped out of him when his career with the Bears was over. “I should’ve just kept my mouth shut and understood the business. When guys ask me what’s Chicago like, I say it’s football heaven,” he said, via Daniel Greenberg of ChiSportsUpdates.
Long once declared he would never play for any team other than the Bears, but he has since come out and said he has no intention of playing in Chicago under head coach Matt Nagy and his current staff. When a fan recently called him out on Twitter for changing his mind, Long was swift in his response:
@Bear4Kyle They killed that guy
The first-round pick for Chicago in the 2013 draft, Long made the Pro Bowl in each of his first three seasons before getting bit hard and often by the injury bug.
Hip, back, foot, ankle and shoulder injuries — to name a few — all hampered the 32-year-old throughout his seven years in the league. Long was a standout when healthy, and he was always a leader in the locker room, but he hasn’t played more than 10 games in a season since 2015, and thus, he’s likely looking at a one-year “prove it” deal, with the Raiders and Chiefs the current frontrunners to land his services.
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Long Has Been Itching to Return to Football
After leaving the game in January 2020, anyone who follows Long on social media knows how badly he has missed playing football. After serving as an analyst for CBS Sports all of last season, he’s now ready to get back on the field. He got specific when speaking with 670 The Score about what he missed most about football during his year-long absence.
“I miss sitting next to the d-line after a hard practice and talking smack about how they all said I was holding,” Long told The Score. “I miss sitting with the offensive line at breakfast at six in the morning. I miss the group texts. I miss all of it, man. I miss competing. I miss lining up and saying, ‘watch this sh–.’ Like, you get in the huddle, the play’s called, you turn to your buddy and you say, ‘watch this s***.’ I miss that.”
Now, he’ll get his chance to do it all again — but for the first time in his career, he’ll be doing it with a different team.
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Ex-Bears Starter Garnering Significant Interest Among AFC Teams: Report