Mariani signs with Bears

Marc Mariani is one of the most famous and recognizable former Montana Grizzlies around. And now, he’s a Chicago Bear.

Mariani, the former Havre Blue Pony great, signed a two-year contract with the Bears Tuesday afternoon and is expected to see the field as a punt and kick returner this Sunday when the Bears take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday at Soldier Field.

“I expect to be playing pretty quickly,” Mariani said from his hotel in Chicago Tuesday afternoon. “And I’m really excited about the opportunity. This is a team I wanted to play for, and one I’ve been keeping my eye on all season. This was my number one choice.”

Mariani spent four seasons and five training camps with the Tennessee Titans. He was selected to the Pro Bowl as a return man in his rookie season of 2010, and in his first two seasons with the Titans, he set several franchise return records. He returned one kickoff and two punts for touchdowns in his first two years in Nashville.

However, his next two seasons would be spent on injured reserve. In 2012 Mariani suffered a horrific broken leg in a preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals. He missed that entire season but was back healthy in 2013, until a shoulder injury derailed that season as well. Mariani was back in Titans’ training camp this past summer, but under the direction of new head coach Ken Whisenhunt, the Titans decided to part ways with the popular Mariani, cutting him after the final preseason game of the summer.

So, he spent the first 10 weeks of the regular season as an unrestricted free agent. And, with their return game in shambles, the Bears came calling. The Bears have struggled in the return game this season, averaging just 22.8 yards on 33 kickoff returns and 6.2 yards on 13 punt returns. In Sunday’s win over the Minnesota Vikings, Chris Williams averaged 14 yards on three kickoff returns and 5.7 yards on three punt returns.

And now they’ve turned to Mariani, who’s widely known as one of the most efficient returners in the NFL, as well as a special team’s standout on all sides of the ball. For his career, Mariani has averaged 25 yards per kickoff return and 11 yards per punt return. And while it’s 10 weeks into the 2014 season, Mariani couldn’t be more excited about getting back into an NFL game for the first time in three years, and even more excited about who he’s playing for.

“This is exactly where I wanted to be,” Mariani said of the Bears. “They had reached out to me a couple of times earlier in the season, but nothing ended up happening. But this week, it all went down really quick. I flew up here yesterday, met with them, passed my physical and that was it.

“I’m ready to go,” he continued. “I’m really excited and thankful for this opportunity. It’s a great situation for me. This is a great franchise, I think this is a great city. My sister (Katie) is living here now. I’m just really excited about this and I can’t wait to get out there.”