It was only a few weeks ago that Brian Urlacher sported a gold jacket as he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Get a load of Urlacher now: The former Bears linebacker dons a pink T-shirt tucked into belted dad shorts and striped knee-high socks on the premiere of “Rob Riggle’s Ski Master Academy.”

“Believe it or not, I don’t have (that outfit) in my personal wardrobe. It came from the stylist on the show,” Urlacher told the Tribune by phone.

Urlacher plays a goofy canoe camp director named Brian Urlacher who irks Riggle as he runs a jet ski school across the lake. Riggle and his misfit staff spend the summer battling various obstacles to success including deaths, bad press and an overly-enthusiastic Urlacher.

The eight-episode Sony Crackle comedy is set to premiere Thursday. Fans with Amazon devices have access now to a special advance debut via the Sony Crackle app. On the premiere, Riggle mistakes Urlacher’s pleasantries as smugness. “He just big-timed me. He does this every time I see him. He acts like he doesn’t remember taking a (expletive) next to me at the ESPYs one year ago. One,” Riggle said.

Urlacher said the story line is completely fictional. “I've never been to the ESPYs first of all. I would never big-time (Riggle). I think he big-timed me one time in Tahoe, though, at the golf tournament. (He) just blew me off for dinner. I texted him for dinner, and he just didn’t even write me back... He was like, ‘Oh, ignore.’ And the next day he was like, ‘Oh, I just saw your message this morning.’”

Former Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher runs a canoe camp on "Rob Riggle's Ski Master Academy." Warning: Graphic language
Urlacher signed onto the series after connecting with Riggle during a 2014 USO tour that also featured future Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, country music singer Kellie Pickler and actress Dianna Agron. Though the group spent days together entertaining America’s troops overseas, Urlacher said he wasn’t invited to Markle’s recent wedding to Prince Harry. In fact, he doesn’t know much about the royal nuptials.

“I really like United States so I pay attention to what goes on here,” said Urlacher, 40. “I don't really pay attention to what goes on overseas or in other countries, unless it affects us, then I’ll pay attention.”

The camp director part is not Urlacher’s first TV role. He played himself on an episode of “Entourage” and an episode of “According to Jim,” but he said he has no plans to pursue an acting career. He also said he wouldn’t do a reality TV show because people change their personalities when there are cameras and microphones on them.
When asked if he’s watching “Very Cavallari” — the E! network reality series featuring his former teammate, quarterback Jay Cutler — Urlacher said, “Oh yeah, I missed that one.”

Urlacher prefers shows about fishing — “Deadliest Catch,” “Wicked Tuna” and “Monster Fish” — and shows about Alaska (“Alaskan Bush People”).
“Anything that's on Discovery or Nat Geo, I’m pretty much watching it. Oh, ‘Naked and Afraid.’ I do watch some kind of terrible shows on VH1, ‘Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood,’ ‘Basketball Wives.’ Those are like my guilty pleasures. When I want to see some drama, I’ll watch those,” Urlacher said.

He also recently binge-watched “Game of Thrones” and “Billions,” but joked that he spends much of his time working as an Uber driver for his teenage son, who’s involved in various activities. He was able to film Riggle’s series over four days in Malibu, Calif.

“I literally had a blast. Usually I don’t like doing stuff like that because I feel like it takes me out of my routine because I'm a routine guy,” he said. “It was fun being around all those funny people all the time. And I usually dread the filming part because I’m not an actor, that’s not what I do, but it was fun because they made me feel comfortable. They didn't make me feel dumb for screwing up my lines. Even sometimes when I screwed up, they went with it. They just used the one I screwed up, so it was a lot of fun.”