VERSATILE PLAYER : Bear Defender Also Performs Off Field

When Maurice Douglass isn’t playing football in the Chicago Bears defensive backfield, he is, according to the team’s press guide, an ecdysiast.

According to Douglass, he’s a dancer. Most people say he’s a stripper.

Whatever his off-season activity is called, Douglass said it’s not really that different from football.

In both jobs, he is a performer.

“They’re both forms of entertainment, but football is a group thing,” Douglass said at the Bears’ training camp.

“When you dance, it’s just you by yourself--you have to do the best you can against this audience to make these people want to give you their money.”

People may not throw money on the football field, but Douglass is a good performer there nonetheless. The fifth-year veteran from Kentucky is quickly becoming known as the most versatile player in the Bears’ defensive backfield.

He has played every position in the secondary and started nine games last season, eight at free safety and one at strong safety.

“I’m like the utility man in the secondary--I’ve played every position that they have,” Douglass said. “When somebody goes down, I move over to their spot and that’s all I can do--just try to be steady and work the position to the best of my ability.”

With Dave Duerson back in camp after holding out, Douglass is honing his skills at strong safety again after working on playing free safety.

“I would like to get a chance to focus on one position, but being in a utility position . . . it gives me a little more opportunity to play,” he said. “There are always going to be injuries out there, so it gives you a chance to maybe play a little bit sooner than you would expect if you were just playing one position.”

As for his off-season job, Douglass said he started dancing in college for the extra cash. Now that he’s playing football, the 25-year-old native of Trotwood, Ohio, said he doesn’t need the money and often gives his tips to the other dancers.

He said he keeps dancing because it’s fun.

“You get a chance to be around a lot of girls,” he said. “But it can be kind of a hassle--they find out you play football and all of them want to mess with you then.”

For that reason, he said, he prefers to dance in cities where he is better known in a g-string than in pads and a helmet.

“I don’t usually do it too much in Chicago,” Douglass said. “People already want to follow you home and you dance there at the club, then everybody wants to.

“My girlfriend--she likes for me to dance, but she wants to come down to the show,” he said. “She hates for me to kiss the ladies when I’m out there dancing--but that’s just part of getting the money--you’ve got to tease ‘em a little bit.”