UPDATED: Piccolo awards to be announced this morning

The Bears will host the annual ceremony for the 2007 recipients of the Brian Piccolo Award this morning at Halas Hall. Its something that means a lot to the franchise and theres plenty of good that comes out of it. Typically, the NFL forks over a six-digit check to the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund, and thats a worthy cause. Its a little known fact that the Piccolo fund benefits from player fines, so that money for horse collar tackles and other infractions gets put to good use.

Center Olin Kreutz has won the veteran award three of the last four seasons, the only three-time winner. Returner Devin Hester captured the rookie award last season. Tight end Greg Olsen would figure to be a good bet for the rookie award this time around. Whos going to bet against Kreutz for the veteran award?

Well check back with details a little later on after some fun on the Tri-State.

UPDATED: As most now, Brian Urlacher was selected as the veteran recipient of the award and Greg Olsen was chosen as the rookie winner. Urlacher made some brief comments and then left the building without addressing his contract situation.

It was an important day for him to show up. The McCaskey family is very proud of the tradition of the award and it means a lot to the organization. Urlacher knew as much, but this doesn’t change the tenor of his standoff with the team. At least it shows his teammates appreciate him.