Rex “The Wonder Dog” Grossman drops back against Tampa Bay last month.

It seems that everyone turned against the quarterback who came out of college so highly touted. Signed for an enormous amount of money, his first two season in the league were a disaster. Fans and sportswriters alike wanted his scalp. He was judged a bust, a has been before he had even gotten started.

Rex Grossman of the Chicago Bears? Nope. John Elway, Hall of Fame Quarterback from Denver:

For this man, the Denver Broncos gave up Chris Hinton, Mark Herrmann and a No. 1 draft choice?

For a man with a 47.5 completion percentage? For a man with twice as many interceptions (14) as touchdown passes (7)? For a man who was the lowest-rated quarterback in the American Football Conference?

For John Elway?

Where is the return on that investment?

It was called the Trade of the Century in May of 1983, when the Broncos obtained Elway from the Colts for Hinton, Herrmann and a first-round pick in the ‘84 draft. Bob Irsay’s pockets got picked, they said. The Broncos got Elway for far less than what other teams had offered the Colts before the ‘83 draft.

It still may be the Trade of the Century, but the emphasis may switch to the Colts. Hinton was an All-Pro guard in his rookie season in Baltimore. Elway was an all-low quarterback.

“I really don’t think it can get any worse than it was last year,” Elway said as Denver’s 1984 training camp opened.

It began in Minnesota in the last exhibition game of ‘83, his first as the Broncos’ starting quarterback. Elway was sacked five times and was 100 percent ineffective. Denver lost, 34-3.

It ended in Seattle in the AFC wild-card playoff game, Elway standing on the sideline in favor of Steve DeBerg. The long day’s journey into night closed with Elway silently leaving town just after Christmas, accompanied by none of the hubbub and clatter that marked his arrival.

I have never seen such manufactured controversy and useless hand wringing over anything in my life. The idiocy surrounding all the criticism of Chicago quarterback Rex Grossman – a player who will be starting his 23rd game of professional football on Sunday against Seattle – is beyond the normal griping and complaining that fans are wont to do. The invective heaped upon Grossman is especially shocking because not only has the guy won 13 games his first full year as a starter but he has passed for more yardage and thrown more touchdowns than any Bears quarterback in a single season save one – Erik Kramer.

Very few NFL quarterbacks come out of college and dazzle right off the bat. Dan Marino was one. Joe Montana was another. But Brett Favre threw 24 interceptions his second year in the league (only 19 TD’s). And Peyton Manning may have had 55 TD passes his first two years in the league but he also had 43 interceptions.

And John Elway? After 26 games, Elway’s stats were very similar to Grossman’s (including a 76.8 passer rating his second year compared to Wonder Dog’s 73.9). Elway completed 57% of his passes for 2600 yards. He had 18 TD’s and 15 interceptions. Grossman completed 54.6% for 3100 yards with 23 TD’s and 20 interceptions.

He also showed flashes of brilliance, leading the league by racking up a QB rating of over 100 7 times.

And he showed flashes of awfulness by also leading the league in QB ratings under 40 (5).

While this would normally drive any football fan nutzo, what has my dander up is the jaw dropping stupidity of talk radio jocks (and pretend jocks) and many fans who actually think the kid is a bust after 22 games and should be benched or traded. The kid won 13 games, passed for 3,000 yards and fans want to trade him in for…what? A shot at drafting Brady Quinn or some other college phenom?

Or perhaps we trade for a better quarterback or sign one in the offseason via free agency? Who? Looks like Jake Plummer might be available, a guy who hasn’t won anywhere in his life. Or perhaps someone currently playing backup?

This is crazy!

And the Bear’s current backup, Brian Greise, has never won a playoff game. Greise will not, cannot take the Bears to the Super Bowl. But Wonder Dog can. Perhaps not this year. But if he can continue to stay healthy, Grossman will take his place among the NFL elite quarterbacks very soon. And if the Bears can maintain their high level of play on defense, there should be absolutely no reason why they can’t win a few Super Bowls in the next 5 years.

The mindless Rex-bashing is led by Ron Jurkovic, former player and current host of the most popular sports radio talk show on the air in Chicago:

“Rex cannot take this team to the Super Bowl, but most of the city knows his crappiness can stop them from going there,” said retired 10-year NFL veteran John Jurkovic, part of the “Mac, Jurko and Harry Show” on Chicago’s ESPN Radio 1000. “The defense will take them there, the special teams will take them there, but Rex just needs to go along for the ride and quit being a moron.”

Jurkovic is joined on the show by Dan McNeil who was fond of saying that Michael Jordan was finished as a basketball player the year he returned from his days playing baseball. Jordan went on to win the MVP of the league twice as well as 3 more world championships proving that McNeil knows about as much about sports as my pet cat Snowball.

And the fans who call in are even more ignorant – the big reason I stopped listening to sports talk radio years ago. Egged on my any number of hosts, the fans who call into these shows don’t know squat about the game and make fools of themselves railing against young Wonder Dog. After listening for about a half an hour in the car yesterday, I had to turn it off before I blew a gasket (not in the car, in my head).

With Grossman, the Bears will suffer through games where he will look like a junior college transfer from Iowa who just walked out of the cornfield. He will also have games where he dazzles. This is the price of youth. In a year or two, Grossman will be putting up all pro numbers and fans will forget they ever wanted to get rid of him. Or he will be gone and putting those numbers up somewhere else. And these very same fans who have directed the most vicious barbs at Grossman demanding his exit will then complain that the Bears should have hung onto the kid and waited until he matured.

Then again, if Wonder Dog doesn’t come through this Sunday, he may want to consider a disguise of some sort – at least until the season begins next year.

UPDATE

According to the Trib Sports Blog, there are still hundreds of tickets left for Sunday’s game.

There’s a good reason for that:

Maybe it’s the price. That aforementioned pair of tickets will run you $650—before Ticketmaster adds their convenience fees, handling fees, processing fees… and whatever else they tack on these days. At least it’s late enough in the game that you can pick your tickets up at Will Call rather than get stuck for shipping fees.

“Other teams’ fans just aren’t willing to spend that kind of money for a playoff game,” StubHub spokesman Sean Pate told the Daily Herald. “Bears fans are more passionate. They’ll put college tuition on hold for a big game.”

I went to a Redskins-Bears playoff game at old RFK Stadium in DC back in 1984 and paid $500 for two tickets. But that was from a season ticket holder not a ticket broker. Bears won as Walter rushed for more than 100 yards and the defense stifled the Redskin offense.

If the Bears can get by Seattle, I don’t think they’ll have any problem at all getting rid of tickets – at any price. This town is ready for a Bears run to the Super Bowl. And a chance to go to the big game by winning next week will have this town in an uproar – absolutely mad with Bear fever.

Be still my beating heart…The Bears and Jack Bauer all in one day. Can I stand it?