Right Wing Nut House

Good Rex or bad Rex?

It was midway through the second quarter of the preseason match-up with the 49′ers and it appeared all doubts regarding Rex Grossman could be laid to rest. He had marched the Bears up and down the field, throwing for nearly 200 yards and was pinpoint in his accuracy.

Then, in a matter of minutes all that changed. A fumbled snap in one series and an interception returned for a touchdown by the Niners in the next brought back a flood of memories from the previous season where Wonder Dog’s troubling inconsistency and bonehead plays at the wrong moments made him the target of the media and fans alike who believed he could never take the team to the Super Bowl. Grossman proved them wrong - to a degree. But his sub-par performance in The Big Game brought all the questions and criticisms back in a rush.

Rex “The Wonder Dog” Grossman will be playing his last year in a Bears uniform. The standard of performance has been set so high for him by fans and the media that he will inevitably fail and be booed out of town. Nothing less than a near perfect season and Super Bowl victory is what the fans are demanding of Grossman - something he cannot possibly deliver; certainly not with the Bears having to play a first place schedule and the prospect that every team in the league will now be gunning for them. If the team manages 9 wins this year, they will be fortunate indeed. That still may be enough to get them into the playoffs considering the weakness of the NFC North Division. But it won’t be enough to save Grossman’s job or his career here in Chicago.

It is a shame. Grossman is the most talented Bears quarterback in a generation, perhaps longer. With all the injuries he suffered early in his career, last year was his first full season as a pro. It seems a little unreasonable to expect such perfection from a player with that kind of limited experience but there it is. This is the reality Grossman must deal with this year.

Coach Lovie will not be as patient with Grossman either. A couple of bad games for Wonder Dog and we will probably see Brian Griese. The former Michigan standout who spent 5 productive years early in his career in Denver only to see his fortunes plummet in Tampa Bay and Miami is a solid, serviceable pro. And that’s the best you can say about him. He will set no one’s hair on fire nor has he shown the kind of talent and leadership in his career that would give people the idea that he is anything except what he is now; an excellent back-up quarterback.

But in the end, Lovie may believe that Griese gives the team the best chance to win because the 10 year pro will be able to take care of the ball and not make game-altering mistakes. Griese, in other words, won’t win any games for you. But he won’t lose many either. That may be the determining factor by season’s end as to whether the Bears stick with Grossman or not.

As for the rest of the team, the defense should be better, the offense has been, on paper, marginally improved. And Special Teams may be down a notch or two.

OFFENSE

Gone is durable and dependable RB Thomas Jones, replaced by the sometimes injured but hugely talented Cedric Benson. While the Bears thrived with the two backs under contract, the guys didn’t get along very well and it was proving to be more and more difficult not to make a guy they drafted higher than any Bear since 1975 (#4 overall) and who they are paying $35 million over 5 years the number one back. Benson didn’t win the job based on his performance but rather on the economics of football. Now he must deliver. He must carry 25-30 times a game, punish defenses with his size (225 lbs), catch the ball out of the backfield, and block like a tight end. In the pre-season, he looked improved as far as the latter two requirements. But his durability will be key. There simply isn’t any other NFL quality running back on the team.

The offensive line is back intact. A veteran unit anchored by perennial pro bowler Olin Kreutz at center, they must give Grossman (or Griese) time to set and throw. And a big part of that passing game will now be placed on the shoulders of the tight ends.

In the modified West Coast Offense the Bears are running, the tight end is key. He is the first option on many passing plays and an outlet receiver on many others. Desmond Clark is an adequate blocker but was never a huge part of the offense. The Bears believe they have solved that problem by drafting Greg Olsen out of Miami in the first round. The kid can play. He gives Rex a nice, big target between the hash marks and has proven to possess a good pair of hands. He also has some speed which means that Lovie will be able to slot him on occasion, putting him up against a DB rather than a LB.

Unfortunately, Olsen has a sprained knee at the moment and they will probably hold him out of the opener today against San Diego. But word is that offensive coordinator Ron Turner has a slew of special packages where they will utilize Olsen’s talents to the fullest. This is just the kind of thing that will take pressure off of Grossman and improve his performance. Wonder Dog has proven in the past that when he looks for the TE, the offense thrives. Having a huge talent at that position can only help.

The other addition to the offense is moving return phenom and reserve nickle back Devin Hester to the offense as a receiver. This is a dubious move for the simple reason that the kid is liable to get dinged up at WR which will slow him down when he goes back on punts (Lovie will evidently not use him on kickoffs). And there is always the chance for serious injury as well. Hester won’t duplicate his 6 return touchdowns from last year. But if he can get a handful of TD’s catching the ball, then the experiment will prove to have been worth it.

DEFENSE

Gone is problem child Tank Johnson (cut for bad behavior) as well as DT Alfonso Boone and Ian Scott lost to free agency. But the Bears replaced that trio with three other excellent defensive linemen in Anthony Adams, Dusty Dvoracek, and veteran Darwin Walker. Adams is a load at NT and should be an excellent run stuffer at 300 lbs. Walker was a fixture for 7 years on the Eagles D-line and is one of the best in the business. And Dvoracek, last year’s 3rd rounder for the Bears who was forced to sit out the entire year with a knee injury, is being whispered as a potential Steve McMichael clone. Mongo was a fan favorite and there are some at Bear’s camp who are saying the kid reminds them of him.

Back from injury are DT Tommie Harris and FS Mike Brown. When Brown went down early in the season, the Bears defense was ranked number one in football. By year’s end, they had dropped to fifth. This was no accident. As good as Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs are at LB, it was Brown who was quarterbacking the defense. It was he who called the coverages and would audible so effectively at the line of scrimmage. Clearly, if Brown stays healthy, the defense will be improved.

Harris will give Lovie the flexibility on the D-Line to keep running 8 or even 9 linemen out there during the course of the game. This has a telling effect on the opposing O-Line and by crunch time, the Bears can dominate the line of scrimmage late in the game. Rookie sensation Mark Anderson (12 sacks) has been moved up to a starting position at the end which may help Adewale Ogunleye. Teams can’t double team both ends at the same time which will leave one or the other with single coverage.

LB Lance Briggs is a wildcard. Will he let the bitter feelings of being slapped with the “Franchise Player” tag affect his play? After swearing he would never play another game in a Bears uniform, Briggs signed late in July and was doing fine - until he wrecked his $150,000 car and left the scene. Hopefully, that is not a harbinger of things to come as the Bears need the talented OLB - especially in pass coverage.

The defensive backfield was bolstered with the addition of SS Adam Archuleta who played well for Lovie in St. Louis but was a bust when he signed a huge free agent contract with the Redskins last year. A hard hitting run stopping and blitz specialist, Archuleta will be shuttled between SS and nickel back. The guy had a nose for the quarterback in St. Louis and he may be one of the big, pleasant surprises of the season.

The Bears are deep and talented on defense. They will probably be called upon to win games by themselves as they did last year.

PREDICTIONS

Who knows?

Which Rex will show up on any given Sunday will determine the success or failure of the team this year. But more than anything, Wonder Dog must take care of the football. I think Lovie will put up with sub par performances as long as he doesn’t turn the ball over - and the team is winning.

Can Benson stay healthy and beyond that, fulfill his enormous promise? Much depends on that too.

Can Mike Brown and Tommie Harris come back from injury and lead the defense back to dominance?

Can Lance Briggs grow up and play ball?

Will Archuleta continue to be a bust? Or will he regain the form that made him one of the best defensive players in the league 3 years ago?

Questions that can only be answered on the field. What we are sure of is that My Beloveds have a killer schedule, playing the Chargers, Eagles, and Redskins on the road while hosting the Cowboys, Broncos, and Saints at home. And with divisional opponents Green Bay and Detroit much improved, the division will be no cakewalk either.

I’d love to see the Bears back in the Super Bowl but recent history shows that teams who were runners up in The Big Game rarely even make the playoffs the following year much less return. But if the Bears remain reasonably healthy, they have a good chance of beating the odds and winning the division.

And in the playoffs, anything is possible.

TODAY’S GAME

The Chargers had 11 pro bowlers last year and feature the best offensive player in football, RB LaDanlian Thomlinson as well as perhaps the best defensive player in football in LB Shaun Merriman. They may be the best team in football as well.

The Chargers are playing at home and are hungry. Expect a close game for at least a half or perhaps two and a half quarters before the Bears defense wears down and San Diego runs away with it.

Final: San Diego 31 Bears 13.

BAD DOG! BAD! BAD! BAD!

Apologies for not posting anything about my beloveds and their Super Debacle earlier. And no, it was not because I was prostrate with grief or hospitalized for an attempted suicide.

For those who may not be aware, I work 3 days a week - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - from 10:00 PM - 6:00 AM at a convenience store. For just sitting around for 8 hours, I get an obscene amount of money. It really is offensive to me that someone is willing to pay me what some employees make in a 40 hour week just because they can’t find anyone else to work the graveyard shift on the weekends.

Be that as it may, it truly is an exhausting ritual to constantly change my bio rhythms in this fashion. And since I was beginning to feel like I was coming down with a cold, I took yesterday off and slept around 12 hours. The entire weekend, I think I managed around 9 hours of sleep so I hope I am forgiven my sloth.

As for the game, I thought my analysis of what would happen and what the Bears needed to do to win was on target. I still can’t believe the Bear’s defense went into a shell and failed to attack the Colts offense. But I predicted Hester would return one, that Wayne would probably catch a long one for a TD. I also predicted that Indy would score more field goals than touchdowns (4 FG attempts to 2 TD’s and that if the Bears corners played off the Indy wideouts, it would be a very long, depressing day.).

That last was the key to the game. By playing 5 yards or more off Harrison and Wayne, the Bears defenders were out of position when Manning began to toss flat passes to his backs. By the time a Bear defender showed up, the Indy backs were already 5 yards downfield. Manning nickled and dimed the Bears to death.

And anyone who puts the onus for this loss on Rex Grossman doesn’t know anything about football. Yes, Wonder Dog was bad. But I would also mention that he didn’t have a chance to show what he could do because the offense never had the damn ball! When the game was actually on his shoulders in the 4th quarter, it was almost like he wasn’t even warmed up. I thought he was reasonably accurate but suffered from the fact that there didn’t appear to be an offensive game plan. Or at least one that would have made a difference.

No team will win a Super Bowl if the defense gives up 400 yards. You can have the greatest quarterback in history and the Bears still would have lost because the defense played soft. The fact that this is exactly the same problem the Bears had last year in their playoff loss to Carolina makes me question the overall coaching in this game and whether they changed strategies as a result of the weather. It was almost as if the coaches were playing not to lose - a sure way to defeat. In any case, Lovie was outcoached by Dungy.

So my beloveds are now 1-1 in the Big Game. And, as I mentioned in my preview, I don’t think it will take another 21 years before the Bears make a return visit. Next year, Grossman will be better, Brown and Harris will most likely be back, and there will be lessons learned so that when they make a run at the brass ring again, they’ll at least realize what it takes to grab it.

With the potential loss of Lance Briggs to free agency, a huge hole could open up at outside linebacker. However, I think the Bears will slap a franchise tag on Briggs which will bring him back for another year but not at the kind of salary that he would get in free agency. And they will use the nearly $30 million they have available under the cap to improve. Perhaps acquire an outstanding offensive lineman via free agency or another impact player at D-back.

One thing is sure; Lovie Smith won’t let them fall back. And if they can stay reasonably healthy next year, the playoffs are almost a certainty even with their much tougher first place schedule. As Indy proved, you don’t need that first round playoff bye to win it all.

A disappointing loss to be sure. But it should make most of them hungry again next year. And this time in the Presidential election year of 2008 when the NFL crowns a brand new champ, I really believe that my beloveds have as good a chance or better to be on that podium accepting the Lombardi Trophy and being acknowledged as the league’s best.

Rex “The Wonder Dog” Grossman

I got your Super Bowl lock right here. Take it to the bank. Frame it, bronze it, put it on ice.

The Chicago Bears will defeat the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI.

I know, I know. The answer is some really potent Lebanese Blonde and you can’t have any.

But you don’t have to be smoking nothin’ to look at this game and see a narrow Bears victory in the offing. The fact is, the Colts need Peyton Manning to step up big time while the Bears only need Rex “The Wonder Dog” Grossman not to screw up.

And the Bears defense is replete with playmakers with a nose for the ball and a demonstrated ability to cause turnovers anywhere on the field. The Saints swore they spent the entire week before the NFC Championship game stressing ball security and look what happened to them; 4 fumbles (3 lost) and an interception.

Finally, when this week started, I would have given the game to the Colts. But something happened to the Bears on Media Day and the days since; they got mad. They got mad about the Colts being coronated by most of the country’s sports press. They got mad about hearing how inadequate Wonder Dog is. They got mad about people still questioning their greatness after winning 15 games.

But even beyond that, the Bears are surprisingly mad at…Da Bears - the 1985 version of The Beloveds. Apparently they don’t like the constant comparisons between the two teams (much to their disadvantage) nor do they appreciate how players from that team are popping up all over TV and bragging how their team was so much better than the 2007 Beloveds.

And if you’ve never seen an angry Bear, I suggest you keep little children and women from watching the game because it’s gonna get bloody. The Colts might be a confident and intense crew, ready to give their best today. But the Bears appear to me to be the more emotional club. That defense is going to be flying around the field delivering titanic blows while seeking to strip the ball on every play. Manning will get his yards but I think the defense stops the Colts from scoring touchdowns, holding them to field goals while the offense gets good field position a couple of times thanks to some timely turnovers. And perhaps Hester breaks one.

Of course, all bets are off if Wonder Dog chokes. While Rex proved he can manage a big game, I think in order for the Bears to win, Grossman is going to have to make plays. And if he’s just a bit off and gets picked a couple of times early, it will be a very long and depressing day for The Beloveds.

Here are a couple of keys that I see making the difference between victory and defeat for both teams.

BEARS O-LINE VS. INDY D-LINE

Bears need to run the ball. Indy needs to stop the run. In the end, it may be that simple. If the Bears rush for more than 150 yards, they probably win. And on pass protection, if Feeny can get to Grossman before Rex can get rid of the ball, the chances increase dramatically for Bears turnovers .

Conversely, if the running game is clicking, Feeny is slowed down by play action and Rex gets the extra second or two to set his feet and fire the ball. Watch and see how much pressure Indy puts on Grossman right off the bat. Ron Turner may use the draw play a lot if Indy’s ends are charging upfield.

Indy can afford to blitz a little more given Wonder Dog’s inexperience. But Bears backs Jones and McKie have been excellent all year at picking off blitzing backers before they get to Rex so Indys red dogging may actually play into the Bears hands.

If the Bears are still within 10 points midway through the third quarter, watch them start really pressing the run, hoping they can wear down the Indy defense. They’ve done it many times this year and tonight should be no different.

BEARS CORNERS VS. MANNING & CO.

No players on the field will have a tougher job than the Bears cornerbacks in covering the talented trio of wide receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, and Indys bull-necked tight end Dallas Clark.

Harrison may have lost a step but is still cat-quick and crafty. Wayne is a burner with great hands and a knack for finding the soft spot in the zone.

But the X-Factor has to be Dallas Clark, a 265 pound tight end with speed and soft hands. Covering the tight end will be nickel back Ricky Manning, Jr. Ricky has had a great post season and will have his hands full with Clark. Expect help for Ricky from Urlacher and Briggs - especially Urlacher as Peyton Manning likes to find Clark down a seam in the middle of the field. Urlacher broke up two passes against the Saints in just such a circumstance, covering the slot receiver 20 yards downfield.

Ricky must be aggressive or Clark will manhandle him. The same goes for the other CB’s Nathan Vashar and Charles Tillman. If they give the Indy wideouts room, the game will become a nightmare. Peyton Manning is just too accurate and the Indy receivers are just too good getting yardage after the catch for our corners to play 5 yards off the ball and try to keep everything in front of them. Wayne especially doesn’t like contact at the line so pressing him makes sense. Harrison, however, thrives on press coverage, giving him an opportunity to make one of his patented double moves that has made more than one NFL cornerback look silly. This is where the Bears pass rush comes in. If they can get to Manning before Harrison or Wayne are finished running their routes and the Indy QB has to check down to Addai or Rhodes, there’s a good chance the defense can stop Indy in their tracks.

I expect a couple of big plays by Wayne - perhaps even a long score. But if the Bears want to win, they cannot do so by simply trying to “contain” the Indy attack. They must be aggressive and stop it cold.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Indy has the edge in their field goal kicker. Bears have the edge in their punter and return unit. Vinatieri may be the best clutch kicker in history. Any conditions, any situation, he can hit from up to 55 yards out. The Bears pro-bowler Robbie Gould is excellent but untested in this kind of pressure cooker. Look for Viniatieri to hit at least 3 perhaps 4 field goals during the course of the game. I think The Beloveds defense will bend, not break which will give the Indy legend plenty of opportunities to score.

If Wonder Dog is underperforming, the Bears will rely on punter Brad Maynard to get them out of trouble. Maynard is one of the best in the league at nestling the ball inside the 20 yard line and if he can keep Indy pinned and give Manning a long field to work with, the Bears chances for victory will increase significantly.

What else can you say about Devin Hester that already hasn’t been said? The rookie’s mouth must be watering at the prospect of going up against one of the worst kick coverage units in football. This doesn’t translate into touchdowns but I think there is a very good chance that Hester will indeed break one and thrill Bears fans watching throughout the world.

All in all, the Bears special teams should clean up. But Vinatieri has a nasty habit of showing up at the worst times - like when you have a 1 or 2 point lead late and the legend lines up to break your heart. But Hester was made for the Big Game and I think he will shock us all.

SUMMARY:

Give Indy the advantage in the passing game, field goal kicker, and pass rush.

Give My Beloveds the advantage in defense, special teams, and the ability to cause turnovers.

Intangibles are even. Indy has been disappointed so many times they feel this is their year. They are supremely confident.

The Beloveds feel they get no respect and are mad as hell about how they think they’ve been treated by everyone.

As far as coaching, another wash. In-game adjustments? Advantage Indy. Preparing his players and motivating them? Lovie.

This game will turn on one or two plays made either by the Indy offense or Bears defense/special teams.

Prediction: Bears 21 Colts 20.

The spectacular skyline of one of the greatest and most beautiful cities in the world - Chicago, Illinois

The Indianapolis skyline. Not the corn, the buildings in the distance.

Tomorrow, I will give my Official Super Bowl Preview - a must see analysis and breakdown of all the match ups and keys to the game.

But today, I thought I’d size up the two cities. You know - show the relative strengths and weaknesses of Chicago and Indianapolis - to determine which city might come out on top when examined side by side.

This is a completely unbiased analysis done with my usual regard for accuracy and the truth.

Or not.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Chicago:

From Wikpedia:

Chicago is a major city in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city is the largest in the Midwest, and with a population of nearly three million people, Chicago is the third-most populous city in the United States. The Chicago Metropolitan area, informally known as Chicagoland, has a population of over 9.4 million in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana making it the third largest in the United States.[1] Chicago is located along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan and is a major center of transportation, industry, politics, culture, finance, medicine and higher education. Chicago is informally called the “Second City,” the “Windy City,” and the “City of Big Shoulders” (from Carl Sandburg’s poem Chicago).

Indianapolis:

Also from Wikpedia:

Indianapolis was founded as the state capital in 1821. Jeremiah Sullivan, a judge of the Indiana Supreme Court, invented the name Indianapolis by joining Indiana with polis, the Greek word for city. The city was founded on the White River under the incorrect assumption that the river would serve as a major transportation artery; however, the waterway was too sandy for trade. The state commissioned Alexander Ralston to design the new capital city. Ralston was an apprentice to the French architect Pierre L’Enfant, and he helped L’Enfant plan Washington, DC. Ralston’s original plan for Indianapolis called for a city of only 1 square mile, and, at the center of the city, sat the Governor’s Circle, a large circular commons, which was to be the site of the Governor’s mansion. The Governor’s mansion was finally demolished in 1857 and in its place stands a 284-foot-tall (86.5-meter-tall) neoclassical limestone and bronze monument, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument.

Okay. Let me get this straight. The city has been a mistake since the beginning. It was founded on a river that never became anything more than a backwater on the inland waterway because the dummies didn’t notice it was too sandy for trade. They commissioned a guy to design the city who helped L’Enfant design Washington - perhaps the most maddeningly confusing, screwed up design for a major city ever put on paper.

No? I lived there for 8 years and let me tell you, L’Enfant may have had a nice eye for beauty and all that but it’s obvious the guy never got a drivers license. Anyone who has entered Dupont Circle at rush hour knows what I’m talking about. Without the kindness of strangers, I still might be driving around that damn circle looking for a way to get back on Connecticut Avenue.

And obviously, this fellow Ralston was delusional. A capitol city only one square mile in area? And the governor’s mansion sitting in the middle like some kind of goddamn palace? All of it set down smack in the middle of nowhere?

Gives me the creeps…

FAMOUS CITIZENS

Chicago:

John Ashcroft
Wesley Clark
Hillary Clinton
George Halas
Michael Jordan
Paul Butterfield
Ted Nugent
Kanye West
Frank Lloyd Wright
Ernest Hemingway
Studs Terkel
Al Capone (bang! bang!)

Indianapolis:

Isaih Thomas (St. Joes HS, Westchester, IL)
Quinn Buckner (Thornridge HS, Dolton, IL)
John Dillinger (via Chicago, IL)

Rumor has it that the pig used in the film Babe is from Indianapolis but the mayor denies any of his relations have ever appeared in film.

FAMOUS CUISINE

Chicago:

Chicago style pizza, Italian sausage, Stewarts Coffee, cheeseburgers, Vienna hot dogs, Italian beef.

Indianapolis:

Well…let’s see. Can we come back to this one?

FAMOUS LANDMARKS

Art Institute, John Hancock building, Sears Tower, Lake Michigan, “The Magnificent Mile,” Lake Shore Drive, Rush Street, Billy Goat Tavern.

Indianapolis:

Great big statues where pigeons gather. The laundromat. The Jungle Jim at Riverfront Park. The Pool Hall.

2ND CALL - INDIANAPOLIS: FAMOUS CUISINE

I’m thinking! I’m thinking!

WHAT RESIDENTS DO FOR ENTERTAINMENT

Chicago:

Civic opera, world famous symphony orchestra, Field Museum, clubbing ’till dawn, fabulous restaurants, Goodman Theater, dozens of bars where you can have a naked girl give you a lap dance.

Indianapolis:

Watching sidewalks roll up at 10:00 PM. Eating at Domino’s. Hanging out at the mall. Going to the edge of town and watching the corn grow. Pig races. Dozens of bars where drunk Hoosiers throw up all over you.

3RD AND FINAL CALL - INDIANAPOLIS: FAMOUS CUISINE

Um…do Boilermakers count as food?

PRO SPORTS FRANCHISES

Chicago:

Bears (NFL)
Bulls (NBA)
White Sox (MLB)
Cubs (Well - they call themselves pros anyway)
Blackhawks (NHL)
Fire (MSL)

Indianapolis:

Pacers (NBA)
Colts (NFL)

They also boast a race track where cars go very fast around and around in a circle for a couple of hours while 500,000 people get drunk, take off their shirts (men and women), and hope that something interesting happens.

Hall of Fame Middle Linebacker Mike Singletary personified the ‘85 Bears defense.

The roar would start even before the team ran out from the tunnel to take the field. It was a primal sound, the kind of noise one might hear at a gladiatorial contest where the crowd anticipated blood being spilled or animals loosed upon unfortunates tied to stakes in the middle of the arena.

And then, as if shot from the mouth of a cannon, Mike Singletary would lead 1985 edition of The Beloveds on to the field at full gallop. The crowd, already working themselves into a fevered pitch, would scream even louder. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this Bear’s team was something special. And people appreciated the fact that the contest that was about to unfold would prove as entertaining an afternoon of football as had ever been seen in Chicago for all the long history of this team in this town.

This team. This town. The 1985 Bears were a team for the books. Not just sports record books mind you. The 1985 Beloveds could have provided fodder for tomes from a couple of academic disciplines. There was the sociological phenomenon that were the 1985 Bears - a team that united a city as it perhaps had not been united before. The influence of the football team permeated all levels of society in Chicago, all income groups, all races, creeds, ethnicities, and classes. Then there was the economic impact of that team. If you had something with a Chicago Bear on it or the Bear’s logo, it sold out. Retailers couldn’t keep the stuff on the shelves. The city also estimated that year that each home game brought an additional $20-30 million dollars to Chicago businesses.

One might be tempted to even explore the religious angle to the story of the 1985 Bears although prayers offered for victory by priests, ministers, rabbis, imams, and clergy from every faith on gameday might be stretching my point a little too far.

The team’s march to the Super Bowl that year was filled with some of the most memorable moments in the long and storied history of Chicago sports. There was that incredibly dramatic performance by Bears quarterback Jim McMahon against the Vikings on September 20th. On the sidelines at the start of the game due to a sore shoulder and infected leg, McMahon convinced Da Coach to send him into the game in the middle of the third quarter with my beloveds trailing 17-9.

The very first play from scrimmage, the punk QB threw a 70 yard TD to speedster Willy Gault. Then, following an interception by Wilbur Marshall, McMahon’s first play in the series was another TD pass, this time a 25 yarder to WR Dennis McKinnon. Finally, getting the ball back after a Vikings punt, McMahon coolly led the team down the field, topping off his third quarter effort with a 43 yard strike once again to McKinnon.

Three touchdowns in 6:40, turning a 17-9 deficit into a 30-17 lead and an eventual 33-24 victory. It is the stuff of legends. And the nearly speechless ABC crew televising the rare Thursday night contest began to talk about the Bears as serious contenders.

There was the 49′ers game a few weeks later with the defense swarming, darting, and burying the Super Bowl Champs 26-10, avenging the humiliation of the 23-0 drubbing meted out by San Francisco in the NFC Championship game the previous January.

Then there were the Green Bay Packers. Ditka hated the Packers. He hated everything about them. He most of all hated their coach Forest Gregg. In the team’s 23-7 victory, Da Coach sent in “325 pound” defensive lineman William “The Fridge” Perry in goal line situations for the offense. I put Perry’s weight in quotes because it was obvious to all that Perry may have been 325 pounds at some point in his life - high school perhaps - but weighed closer to 380 that night.

Lining up in the backfield as a blocker for Walter Payton, Perry made Packer linebacker George Cumby the answer to a trivia question by knocking the poor unfortunate halfway to Peoria and opening a gaping hole for Payton to walk into the endzone. Later that year, Perry would actually run the ball for a touchdown in the Super Bowl and later in his career, catch a pass for a TD. But it was that magical night against Green Bay that started the Perry legend that has endeared him to Bears fans to this day.

There was the 44-0 blowout of Dallas and the playoff wins in the cold and snow against New York and the Rams before the lopsided 46-10 triumph in Super Bowl XX - all memories cherished by fans for the last 21 years.

That team was as unique a group of players who ever suited up together. The disparate and clashing personalities somehow all seemed to meld together to form an unbreakable bond - a bond that extended to the fans as well. There were quiet ones like Fencik and Gayle. There were loud ones like McMichael and McMahon. There were funny ones like Perry and McKinnon.

And presiding over the mayhem was the fiery Ditka who was at war with everyone - his own players at times, his own coaches (especially defensive coach Buddy Ryan), the press, the opposing players and coaches. One would think that if he could swing it, Ditka would take on the popcorn vendors at the game so combative he was. And the city ate it up.

It was the defense, of course, that brought out the beast in fans. Much has been made of the 2007 version of the Bears defense in comparing it to the 1985 crew. This is silly. The Buddy Ryan led group were nothing like this year’s cat quick, cerebral, position-conscious crew. That 1985 bunch were like animals in a zoo that Ryan kept locked up for 6 days without food and then opened the cages on Sunday afternoon to feast on opposing players. The flew around the field like madmen - ravenous beasts swarming, grappling, fighting, and hitting like a ton of bricks. Opposing teams were terrified and it showed.

This year’s defense is good and will be better with the return of safety Mike Brown and defensive tackle Tommie Harris next year. But even when they were playing lights out the first 8 or 9 games of the season, they relied more on deceiving the other team’s offense than frightening them to death. The NFL will be a long time before they see the likes of that 1985 crew again.

They are all in their late 40’s and 50’s now. Recently, the plight of some of them has been highlighted, shining a light on the crime that is the NFL pension and health care system for retired players. A couple of them are suing the league and the NFL Players Union for what they consider unfair treatment. But most of the 1985 Bears who survive are fit and reasonably well off. We lost Sweetness in 1999 to a liver ailment and Todd Bell to a heart attack at age 43 in 2005. The remainder pass in and out of memory as they appear here and there on television, calling to mind a glory that will always be remembered but can never be recaptured.

No matter what the 2007 Bears do on Sunday, they too will enjoy a modicum of immortality. And judging by their quality coach and the quality ballplayers he has assembled, I feel confident in saying that no matter what happens this year, the Chicago Bears will probably not take 21 years to get back to the Super Bowl.

But Lovie Smith could win a Super Bowl every year between now and the time he retires and it will not dim the memories or the rub the luster off that 1985 squad - the most beloved of all Bears teams.

Actually, if Smith wins on Sunday, it wouldn’t hurt. No sir…wouldn’t hurt at all…

I wonder what Picasso would have said?

Living in Chicago and its sprawling suburbs and ex-urbs this week has been an experience that any long time resident will never forget and will relish for the rest of their lives.

This is especially true if the sun rises and sets only for Our Beloved Bears. Always much more than a sports franchise and something slightly less than a religious icon, The Beloveds in many ways have defined the city of Chicago for more than three quarters of a century.

Chicago has always been a working class town whose immigrant population prided itself on displaying a tough, no nonsense, hard working personae. The poet laureate of the working class, Carl Sandburg immortalized that personae in his incredibly descriptive and strangely lyrical poem Chicago:

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

And the lesser known stanza that has spoken to Chicagoans for generations:

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Tough words. Tough town. Is it any wonder that the city so desperately loves its football team? Sandburg may as well have had the Bears in mind when he wrote that poem. “Stormy, husky, brawling” could describe any Bears defense of the last 50 years.

Those of you who live in other great American cities where sports teams play for championships on a more or less regular basis will, I hope, forgive the excess of civic pride which has morphed into a kind of fevered insanity over The Beloveds and their trip to the Super Bowl. Each day that passes brings the city closer to nirvana - that blissful, dreamlike state where all cares and concerns are set aside and visions of Bears linemen doing a sack dance over a prostrate Peyton Manning dominate the figments of fans all over town. A euphoria beyond drugs, beyond revelation, beyond the moment your divorce became final has captured the city and turned ordinarily logical and reasonable Chicagoans into raving lunatics. Consider:

1. The world famous lions that grace the entrance to the world famous Art Institute of Chicago were fitted recently with football helmets bearing the insignia of the Chicago Bears:

2. A Chicago resident, Jennifer Gordon, sold advertising space on her pregnant belly to Ubid.com. Her asking price? Two 50 yard line tickets to the game in Miami.

3. Bears at the Brookfield Zoo were treated to a pinata in the shape of an Indianapolis Colt’s football helmet. After utterly destroying the enemy symbol, the Ursus arctos toyed with the remains to the great satisfaction of onlookers.

4. The CNA Building in the loop configured its lights to spell out “Go Bears” after dark. Several other office buildings also programmed messages of support including “Da Bears” lighting up one building on Lake Shore Drive.

5. Both local sports talk radio stations sent their entire contingent of on air hosts to Miami. That means that more than 50 big mouth, arrogant, opinionated, and truly dumb Chicagoans who don’t know jack about football are living it up in the sun while the rest of us are freezing to death.

Hizzhoner, Da Mayor got into the swing of things. The traditional bet between mayors of the competing cities usually involves an exchange of some kind of tasty cuisine that each city is noted for.

You can see Daley’s dilemma immediately; what is there to eat in Indianapolis that any Chicagoan would recognize as food?

Not always known for his tact, Daley graciously gave Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson an out by ignoring tradition and substituting volume for quality:

Dozens of delicacies from the city’s finest culinary establishments are offered including, the world’s finest coffee roasted and blended right here in Chicago. Several tins of Stewart’s Coffee will be delivered along with cheesecake, ribs, burgers, sausages, nachos, pizza, beer, wine, nuts, hot dogs, Italian beef, popcorn, pretzels, candy and cinnamon rolls.

Peterson has yet to offer anything to eat in return from Indianapolis which isn’t surprising. When you live in a city that boasts a famous sandwich joint known as “Illinois Street Food,” there isn’t much you can say or do to erase the ignominy.

Chicago sports fans have learned to savor these moments of success. And for Bears fans especially, who have been able to dance a victory dance only once in the last 44 years, this year’s incarnation of destiny’s heroes is particularly sweet because of its unexpectedness. No one in town really thought The Beloveds would make it all the way to Miami back in August when the season started. But here they are. And as much as the locals have gone over the edge of sanity and decorum in showing their pride in the team and the city, all of this is but a pittance compared to what would happen if the Bears actually win on Sunday.

The shoulders of this city wouldn’t be big enough to handle the weight of unadulterated joy which would pour forth and spillover into the streets if that were to happen.

UPDATE

LiMack in the comments reminds me that the Field Museum placed Brian Urlacher’s #54 jersey on one of the dinasours on display. I wonder if it was put on the T-Rex Sue?

The largest T-Rex ever found intact, Sue was a cause celebre in the scientific community due to the unusual circumstances surrounding her discovery. A seven year court battle that brought up issues of academic science vs. commercial fossile hunters as well as federal vs. private ownership of land made Sue’s journey to the Field Museum an epic trek indeed.

The size of Sue is beyond belief. She’s 42 feet long and an astonishing 13 feet high at the hip. It is unclear how T-Rex got around but if she were to have settled on her back legs, it is estimated that her head could have been 25 feet from the ground. Only Gigantasoraus, a South American therapod was a bigger meat eater.

Background on the case can be found here.

The first black coaches in the history of the Super Bowl. Tony Dungy of Indianapolis (left) and the Bears Lovie Smith (right)

The National Football League is the most successful professional sports organization in America, light years ahead of Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association in terms of marketing, promotion, and TV viewership. They are also by far and away the most insular, clubby, chummy group of evil rich, white males that ever banded together to make a fortune.

They are the only professional sports league in America who successfully broke a strike (1987) and, in so doing, got the players association union decertified. The way they accomplished this feat was the result of one of the most cynical betrayals of football fans imaginable; replacement players. Placing teams on the field that were little better than junior college outfits and calling them professionals, NFL owners brazenly fobbed off the games to the fans, the media, and even the giant TV networks and had the gall to count the wins and losses of the replacement players toward a team’s final record after the strike ended late in the season.

The league is extraordinarily tolerant of bad behaviour, even criminal activity. At least 35 players were arrested in 2006 - 8 members of the Cincinnati Bengals alone - on criminal charges ranging from gun possession to assault. Steroid use is still rampant, largely because the league continues to refuse to deal with it. A perusal of the NFL Crimes Newsblog will quickly disabuse anyone of the notion that the NFL could care a tinker’s damn what kind of criminals and scofflaws are representing them on the turf every Sunday.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love professional football. I love to watch it, to talk about it, to write about it. But it is good sometimes to take a step back and examine the cost of our obsession - the real human toll in broken lives, broken dreams, and broken spirits that, at bottom, are the responsibility of the owners and, by extension, their creation; the administration of the National Football League, Inc.

The league’s owners ride players like cheap horses until, unable to perform any longer, set them adrift to deal with a myriad of health and psychological problems on their own. The NFL Players Association President Gene Upshaw proudly proclaims:

“The bottom line is, I don’t work for [retired NFL football players]. They don’t hire me and they can’t fire me. They can complain about me all day long. They can have their opinion. But the active players have the vote. That’s who pays my salary.”

And so you are left with the fact that many NFL players retire into poverty and die much younger than is normal.

All this would be bad enough. But like other professional sports, the struggle of African Americans to achieve recognition much less equality in this multi-billion dollar industry has been a combination of insidious racism and cloying condescension. And nowhere is this borne out more than in the “storyline” that is emerging during this Super Bowl interregnum regarding the coaches of the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts - the first black head coaches to win through to the Super Bowl in NFL history.

Please note the year. It is the year of our Lord (or, for you agnostics out there, the Common Era) 2007. I don’t want to be a party pooper - especially since the NFL and an all too willing media are pulling a collective deltoid muscle patting themselves on the back for being so progressive and enlightened - but what exactly is there to celebrate about the fact that 144 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and more than 40 years after the Civil Rights Bill passed Congress, a person of color has led his team to the biggest sporting event in America?

Instead, the story should be what the hell took so long? The reason that this will not be the story is that the answer would reveal several uncomfortable truths about the NFL and perhaps American society in general that some believe should remain buried.

The dirty little secret in the NFL and, in all professional sports save perhaps the NBA, is not the success of Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith but rather of all black head coaches. In fact, black coaches are more successful as a group than the average. Why is that? It’s because the secret that is whispered in the halls of power in the NFL and the various teams is that in order to be hired in the first place, an African American coaching candidate must be better than the white candidate.

Why have black coaches been so successful? Seems as though it’s because a black man can’t get a job coaching in the NFL unless he’s uncommonly impressive. The eight black coaches in the NFL’s modern era have a combined record of 442-368-1, a .546 winning percentage. They’ve made the playoffs in 29 of their 50 combined seasons.

These results mirror what University of Pennsylvania economics professor Janice Madden found in her 2004 study of the differences in job performance between black and white coaches. She determined that the success of black coaches was “consistent with NFL teams ‘requiring’ that African-American coaches be better than Whites to obtain and to keep their positions.”

‘Twas an interesting conclusion, but it didn’t take a Ph.D. to figure that out. Old folks have been saying similar things for years. In a 1999 interview with Time, Chris Rock said he worked as hard as he does because “[he] was raised to believe that [black people] had to be better than white people to succeed,” a take on racism not unique to him.

The same held true for years regarding black quarterbacks and still does to some extent although players like Vince Young and Michael Vick are rapidly changing that dynamic. And the same could be said for front office positions. A variety of reasons have been given for the dearth of black sports executives, including the belief that African Americans aren’t interested in those jobs because of the salary differential between player and front office. But is that the real reason? Candidates for those executive positions come from a wide variety of backgrounds,and not all of them are former athletes. In recent years, there has been some progress in Major League Baseball in that a concerted has been underway to seek out and hire minority executives. And the NBA even has a program in place to promote ownership of franchises by minorities.

But it was only in 2002 that the NFL, threatened with a lawsuit by the Black Coaches Association, initiated a rule that whenever there was a head coaching vacancy, the NFL franchise had to interview at least one minority candidate. To say that this action, forced upon the league because of the scandalous lack of black head coaches, was a little late in coming would be an understatement. And this is the way it has been in the NFL for most of its existence. The rich white man’s club was perfectly content to use the African American to put fannies in the seats. But underneath the glitz and the glamour, the screaming fans and adoring press, there was the ugly undercurrent of discrimination based on skin color.

Can affirmative action “fix” this situation? Perhaps not. Perhaps, it is a simple matter of time passing and barriers being broken one by one until, as Martin Luther King so eloquently said, we begin to judge people “not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Or, in the case of NFL coaches, whether they are a part of the “the in crowd” who are at the front of the line when jobs are handed out regardless of past performance. In fact, real progress in the NFL should be measured not by the success to be had by black coaches, but perhaps by their failures as well:

That isn’t to say there hasn’t been progress in minority hiring in the NFL. It’s just that more significant milestones in the fight for equity in hiring have been overlooked. There was greater cause for celebration when Ray Rhodes, fresh off two horrendous seasons coaching the Eagles, was hired by the Packers in 1999. The same could be said when Dungy, after a string of disappointing postseasons in Tampa Bay, was hired by the Colts shortly after being fired by the Buccaneers.

After years of black coaches being passed over for retreads, Rhodes and Dungy — and, later, Dennis Green and Herman Edwards — had become retreads themselves. They’d become insiders, part of the head coaching network. Their names were considered right alongside other guys that, for whatever reasons, hadn’t gotten it done before but were still respected in the business.

That is progress.

Two men doing the jobs they’re paid to do? Not so much.

And to that, I say Amen.

So during the next two weeks as you listen to the self congratulatory tone among commentators and league officials about what a “tremendous achievement” it is to have a black coach in the Super Bowl, it may be well to keep in mind the history of the NFL and why that achievement - so long in coming - should only spur the league to redouble their efforts to bring equality of opportunity to all.

Rex “The Wonder Dog” Grossman celebrates after throwing a TD pass to Bernard Berrian.

There is nothing more satisfying than proving the world was wrong about you. When you know in your heart of hearts that you are right and everyone else is full of it and then go out and show your detractors how ignorant they truly are, the satisfaction is total.

This is how my beloveds reacted following their stunning takedown of the New Orleans Saints in yesterday’s NFC Championship game. Winning 39-14 in the wind and snow of Soldiers Field, the Bears proved many national analysts wrong - analysts who thought that the mighty Saints offense would blow the Bears into Lake Michigan.

Instead, it was the much maligned Bears defense that rose to the occasion. Save for a stretch in the third quarter where New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees shredded the beloveds secondary, the Bears defenders made one big play after another, pressuring the Saints star into numerous incompletions and sacking him 3 times - one of which resulted in a fumble recovered by the Bears. They held the vaunted duo of Reggie Bush and Deuce McCallister to a measly 56 yards rushing. And while Bush burned them once on a spectacular 88 yard touchdown pass, in the end he was a non factor.

The Bears front four played an outstanding game. The pressure they were able to put on Brees meant that fewer blitzes needed to be called. And the Bears corner backs stuck to the Saints receivers like glue, with Peanut Tillman fully redeeming himself from his disastrous game last year against the Panthers.

On offense, Wonder Dog was 3-16 for 37 yards midway through the third quarter. But he had 3 of his passes dropped and simply threw away another 4. He avoided being sacked and made generally good decisions, although he missed several open receivers as the ball seemed to sail on him when he was playing with the wind.

But Grossman stepped it up a notch in the latter part of the third quarter and into the fourth by going 8 for 10 including the 33 yard miracle catch by Berrian for a touchdown. No interceptions, no turnovers and good decision making - about the best you could expect from Wonder Dog for the day.

Where the Bears won the game was on the ground. Nearly 200 yards rushing with Thomas Jones gaining 123 yards on 19 carries. And Cedric Benson pounded out 60 yards on 24 carries. Kudos to the offensive line who also had no holding penalties and no false starts.

Special teams recovered a fumble and covered kicks brilliantly. And Robbie Gould went 3 for 3 on field goals in the difficult conditions. Devin Hester didn’t break one but he did have a couple of significant punt returns. Plus, he held on to the ball.

A true team effort all the way down the line. It’s hard to imagine a better effort given the conditions and the opponent.

And as I mentioned last night, I thought the Saints simply didn’t play their game. Brees ended up 27-49 for 319 yards but he had an interception and a fumble. And 128 of those yards came on two plays; one on the very first series, a 40 yarder and then Bush’s eye popping 88 yard scamper.

And what happened to the running game? In that weather one would think that the best course of action would have been a more determined effort to establish the run. But Coach Payton seemed to lose patience for some reason so Brees continued to test the Bears downfield.

And so this Bears team becomes a part of Bears lore. And the game itself will also be elevated to legendary status, guaranteeing that years hence, people will recall the time when the wind and the snow combined in a spectacle of grit and determination that carried the team from the cold confines of Soldiers Field to the sun drenched pitch in Miami for The Big Game.

Make sure you visit this site often for stories and updates as we Countdown to the Super Bowl here at the House.

The “Windy City Flyer” aka Devin Hester returns one against the Cardinals.

It’s so close, the city can taste it.

Just one more game. One more obstacle in the form of the New Orleans Saints and my beloveds will be bound for Miami and the Super Bowl two weeks hence.

Everyone in town is talking about the Bears. The story dominates the local news on both radio and TV. They’re front page news on both the Trib and the Sun Times all week. The suburban dailies have gotten into the act as well, running 3 column stories below the fold and giving the local angle on the game.

On sports talk shows, the gloom is palpable. It seems most of the “real” fans - you know, the ones who wanted to feed Rex “The Wonder Dog” Grossman to the lions prior to last week’s game - have given up on the boys in burnt orange and blue while making the Saints out to be the second coming of the San Francisco 49′ers whose Joe Montana led teams dominated the game in the 80’s.

I can understand their trepidation. On offense, the Saints are loaded. A trio of excellent wide receivers and the double doom combination of Deuce McCalister and rookie sensation Reggie Bush at running back make it a difficult task for any defense to stop them.

But there are several factors that mitigate against a Saints victory today, not the least of which is the weather forecast. It will be cold (temp in the upper 20’s) and a fierce wind that will probably play havoc with both the passing and kicking games. And if that’s not enough, there’s a 90% chance that snow will fall during the game. With 1-3 inches expected today, the ground crew at Soldiers Field will keep the field covered until almost game time. This will make the turf a little slick. Generally, this favors the offense since the receivers know where they’re going while defenses must react to the play.

A slick field will also favor the offensive lines for both teams since they will have the advantage of a push off at the snap of the ball. All told, this is where the game will be won or lost; in the trenches.

While this is a truism for any NFL contest, on a cold, snowy , wet day like today, the war at the line of scrimmage will become even more vital. And largely because of that, I have to pick my beloveds to squeak by the Saints in a close contest dominated by the running game and field goal kickers for both sides.

Here’s how I see the key matchups:

SAINTS OFFENSE VS. BEARS DEFENSE

Can the Bears stop the run? Probably not. But they must avoid the big play. They have proven in the past few weeks that even if a running back gains yardage on them, the defense has been able to stifle the opponents offense in other areas. And where my beloveds must absolutely stop the Saints is in the short passing game.

If conditions are as anticipated, Saints quarterback Drew Brees will use the flat pass to both Bush and McCalister as a way to extend the running game beyond the hash marks. Bush had 88 catches during the season and is a deadly weapon on the outside in the flat. And to counter this, Bears corners are going to have to be sure tacklers today. If Bush can get by the cornerbacks on a regular basis, it may end up being a very long day for my beloveds. Charles “Peanut” Tillman is an excellent run defender and a sure tackler. But the other cornerback Nathan Vashar is suspect. Both men must step up and be at the top of their games if the Bears are to stay in the game.

The Saints make devastating use of Reggie Bush by lining him up in several positions. He’s been at tailback, in a split set, in the slot, a motion man, and he’s even lined up at wide receiver. What the Saints try to do is isolate the youngster against a linebacker. Ordinarily, this is excellent strategy. But this would be playing directly to the Bears’ strength. Few linebackers are faster than OLB Lance Briggs and virtually none can beat Brian Urlacher. Brees might get a nasty surprise if he tries sending Bush up against one of those gents. Look for Bush to stay pretty much in the backfield and take those flat passes from Brees while trying to break one for a big play. They may try a few screens with Bush but the Bears have defensed the screen extremely well all year so they probably won’t get anywhere with it.

The Bears will probably employ a nickel package for most of the game. This will put enormous pressure on the defensive line to effectively rush the passer. With 5 defensive backs, they will try and keep blitzing to a minimum - unless Brees begins carving them up in the secondary. If that happens, look for Urlacher to come hard and come often.

In fact, the key to this game for the Bears is Brian Urlacher. If he plays as he’s capable of playing - if he dominates the game as he has shown he can do - there’s a very good chance that the Bears will win regardless of what the offense does. And if they can create some turnovers, it will be a long day for Brees & Co.

If conditions are bad, the Saints advantage at wide receiver may be blunted somewhat. Also, veteran Joe Horn is questionable with a sore groin. All told, I think the Saints will win or lose the game in the backfield. If Bush has a big game, they win.

But in the trenches, I think the Bears defensive line has a chance of dominating the Saints offensive line. New Orleans has a solid if unspectacular bunch protecting Brees but I believe by the fourth quarter, the Bears will have worn them down and will begin applying effective pressure to the quarterback. And if the game is close, that will be a difference maker.

BEARS OFFENSE VERSUS SAINTS DEFENSE

Which Wonder Dog shows up today will be immaterial. Good Rex or Bad Rex won’t matter in snowy, windy conditions, because it will be the running game that will score points. And while New Orleans has two outstanding backs, the Bears also feature two effective runners of their own. Thomas Jones will start the game. But I really think this will be Cedric Benson’s game.

Benson is a bull. Unlike Jones who falls backward when hit, Benson is always moving forward. And that extra half yard that Benson is able to get out of runs may spell the difference in difficult playing conditions.

And if Benson (or Jones) can move the ball on the ground, look for Wonder Dog to try a few passes in the middle of the field. Otherwise, Offensive Coordinator Ron Turner will have him on a short leash, having him throw flat passes to the backs, quick slants, and quick out patterns to Desmond Clark. In fact, Clark may be another key in this game. If he catches more than 5 balls, Rex is probably playing well enough to win.

The Saints have two good defensive ends in Wil Smith and Charles Grant who are more than capable of blowing up plays. My beloveds will probably double team Grant given right tackle Fred Miller’s less than stellar play lately.

But the rest of their line is somewhat undersized. If the game is close in the fourth quarter, look for the Bears to try and ram it down their throats and pound the ball using Benson as the battering ram.

It is not likely that Rex will take too many shots down the field. But if he does, speedster Bernard Berrian will have the edge on the Saints corners and safeties. Saints CB’s Mike McKenzie and Fred Thomas are adequate but scouts say they can be beat using a double move. Both Bears wideouts Berrian and Mushin Mohammed excel at the double move- especially Mohammed. If Wonder Dog can get them the ball in the windy conditions, my beloveds have a chance for some big plays.

It goes without saying that if Grossman throws two or three interceptions, the Bears will lose. Ron Turner will probably do everything he can to prevent that by keeping the ball underneath. Unless the Bears are getting beaten badly.

The Saints linebackers are quick to the ball and speedy. Any running game the Bears can muster will depend on downfield blocking by the guards who pull often. Rueben Brown is especially effective here and All-Pro center Olin Kruetz will also pull on occasion. If the Bears offensive line can knock the linebackers back a yard or two, the running game should open up a little. Otherwise, expect New Orleans to make Rex Grossman beat them by stacking 9 men close to the line and daring my beloveds to pass.

INTANGIBLES

Forget the fact that New Orleans is a dome team. With the Super Bowl as the prize, both teams will forget about the cold and snow and give it everything they’ve got. There will be no advantage to either team in that respect.

The Bears special teams may decide the ballgame - either way. Devin Hester looked scared last week and fumbled a punt while allowing both kickoffs and punts to hit the ground before he picked them up. He is perfectly capable of turning the ball over deep in Bears territory.

That said, he is also perfectly capable of bringing one back every time he touches the ball. He is an extraordinary weapon. And the Bears could really use a couple of long returns by Hester today.

If the game is decided by field goals, New Orleans must get the edge with the experienced John Carney. Robbie Gould may be going to the Pro Bowl but Carney has the leg to make the ball cut through the wind and split the uprights. Both men have proven themselves when the game is on the line however, so the edge is extremely slight.

And I think the punting game will play a role today. For that, the Bear’s Brad Maynard has it all over Steve Weatherford. In a field position game, the Bears will have a slight edge there as well.

When all is said and done, it will be a good game; hard hitting, good defense, and probably a couple of great plays by Reggie Bush. But in the end, the Bears will force the Saints into kicking field goals while the Bears should score a couple of touchdowns.

Final score: Bears 23-19.

ON TO MIAMI!

UPDATE

Ed Morrissey picks the Saints - partly because of their special teams?

Perhaps I’ve forgotten which Saint returned 6 kicks for touchdowns or which Saints field goal kicker is going to the Pro Bowl. My bad…

UPDATE II

Fifteen minutes to kick off and I just checked the radar. There’s a band of precip headed for downtown that should arrive by halftime. It’s light but appears to be a combination of sleet and snow.

Footing will be treacherous in the fourth quarter….

UPDATE III

Halftime: Bears 16-7.

Bears pressure has thrown Brees off slightly - until that last drive when they moved down the field with ease.

Storm is still moving toward Chicago but still appears around an hour away, Could be that the 4th quarter is played in snowy, windy conditions.

If the Bears are smart, they’ll try and build some confidence for Grossman (3-13 for 37 yards) by having him make short tosses to the backs in the flat. Right now, he’s a non factor.

Saints will come back but Bears will still win - maybe by 10 points.

UPDATE: MIAMI BOUND

I’ll have a recap of the game tomorrow but what we long suffering Bears fans are feeling right now is beyond description. The 1985 team was expected to go to the Super Bowl. In fact, they were expected to dominate the NFL for at least a few years. But injuries to the punk quarterback Jim McMahon and the flight of Defensive Coordinator Buddy Ryan along with some key players made the hill a little too high to climb.

This year’s team was expected to get to the playoffs but the Super Bowl? There aren’t too many pundits who predicted it at the beginning of the year and here they are. And given the angst of the fans and the media over the last few months as the defense disintegrated, the domination of the Saints makes this trip to Miami even more of a shock.

The Saints did not play their game. Field position had something to do with it but it seems like Coach Payton lacked patience when he was down by only two points. Instead of trying to get the running game going (holes were opening up in the 3rd and early 4th quarter) he continued his downfield play calling. He got yardage but no points. And of course, the Bears defense came up with huge play after huge play.

The conditions surprisingly seemed to bother the Saints. As the game went along, Brees got progressively less accurate while Grossman, who started out an unbelievably bad 7-22 ended up completing his last 6 passes - including the miracle to Berrian.

What about Rex? Let’s see how he does in the warmth of Miami. His best games were in the heat of September and October. We’ll see how he responds to this definitely sub par performance. It must be said that he threw no interceptions, no fumbles, and was smart with the football.

At this moment, I don’t really care. Everything else is forgotten as my beloveds - my dearly beloveds - are going to the Super Bowl.

Mike Ditka in a familiar pose.

The winds blow cold off of Lake Michigan in Chicago this time of year. Snow swirls around lamposts and street signs in ever widening eddies making little white vortexes as the city’s inhabitants, inured to the arctic cold, hustle along the broad avenues to their appointed tasks.

Grant Park is almost deserted these last few days as the temperature has dipped into the low twenties. On balmier winter days, you can usually find a couple of pick up touch football games to watch, the kids trying to imitate their gridiron heroes who cavort at Soldiers Field just a short distance away and who are usually done playing by this time every year.

Not so this year. For the first time since 1988, My Beloveds are going to play for a chance to go to the Super Bowl. The city is beside itself. Productivity has plummeted. Absenteeism has skyrocketed. Anything and everything with a Bear on it has been grabbed off the store shelves and displayed on cars, in the workplace, on front lawns and from apartment balconies.

Alternating psychotically between bouts of uncontainable excitement at the prospect of going to Miami for the Big Game and the cold, palpable fear of a devastating loss, Bears fans are in need of one gigantic Xanax or there is a danger that the mental health infrastructure of the city could collapse in a massive Chicagoland nervous breakdown.

And into this charged up atmosphere comes a betrayal so shocking, so shattering that some of the callers to the sports talk radio shows have actually wept in anger and sorrow.

Mike Ditka doesn’t care who wins the game this Sunday between the Bears and Saints:

It has been nearly 21 years since Mike Ditka led the Bears to the Super Bowl, and 14 years since he last walked the sidelines as their coach.

Yet on the eve of the Bears’ biggest game since 1989, “Da Coach” has his unique grip on this town again.

Many Bears’ fans were in an uproar over Ditka’s comments that he doesn’t have a rooting interest in the NFC championship game Sunday between the Bears and New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field.

He has ties to both teams, spending three forgettable years (a 15-33 record from 1997-99) as coach of the Saints. But it was in Chicago where Ditka became an icon; first as a Hall of Fame tight end and then as a larger-than-life coach who guided a larger-than-life team to glory in 1985.

The latest flap began Tuesday when Ditka told the Tribune, “I never root for anybody, really.”

Allow me to take you back in time to the year 1985 when the “Super Bowl Shuffle” Bears were not just beloved of the fans - any Bears team can make that claim. The relationship between the fans and the 1985 Bears was a sociological phenomena. I would venture to say that there has never been anything like it in the history of professional sports in America. The entire city, both football and non football fans, took that team and literally adopted it. The people adopted their swagger, their braggadocio, their kookiness. I daresay for a couple of months, the people of Chicago must have been insufferable louts.

And at the top of the crazy collection of characters who made up the team was Da Coach. Ditka with the jutting chin, the chest thrust forward in unspoken challenge to any and all who would question his team’s abilities or greatness. Ditka with the pugnacious prowling of the sidelines during games, smoldering like a volcano about to erupt and then exploding in anger or joy depending on the play of his charges. Ditka in the ref’s face. Ditka snarling at the opposing coach. Ditka and his assistant coach Buddy Ryan almost coming to blows during a game.

If there was ever a personality who evoked such powerful feelings of civic identity I am unaware of one. The triad formed by the coming together of Ditka, the city of Chicago, and the fans and residents was unprecedented and has endured despite Ditka’s desertion of the city for warmer climes. He is far more popular today than Michael Jordan whose luster was tarnished after leaving the Bulls by bad mouthing the team and then playing for the Washington Wizards for a couple of years.

So when Ditka came out and said that he wouldn’t root for the Bears, the town temporarily forgot about the game and buried its collective head in its hands:

Ditka’s comments caused a furor, as angry fans ripped the former coach for not being loyal to the team. It was as if they felt abandoned by someone many consider to be the ultimate Bear.

“Everyone understands he has an argument with the McCaskeys; he can’t get past that,” North said. “But they don’t understand how he can’t pull for the blue and orange. Those colors transcend anyone who runs the team. I mean, can you imagine Bill Walsh not rooting for the 49ers?”

The passion that Ditka still elicits speaks to his incredible popularity. His in-your-face approach to football, as well as life, resonated with a town that prides itself on being tough. His colorful and unpredictable persona never dimmed with Bears fans. He remains very much in their consciousness with his analyst work locally and nationally for ESPN.

“If Mike Ditka is on one side of Ontario Avenue and [Bears coach] Lovie Smith was on the other side the day after the Super Bowl, Mike would be mobbed,” North said. “He’s still the face of the franchise.”

Never mind that Ditka probably feels constrained by his position as analyst for ESPN not to take sides. Nevertheless, radio host Mike North of WSCR pointed out the obvious:

North was surprised Ditka didn’t stick by the Bears.

”It surprised me a whole lot,” North said. ”Usually, he shoots from the hip. He said he doesn’t make any predictions, but he predicted the Indy game [against New England]. Bears fans are his bread and butter. He can disassociate himself with the McCaskeys. We don’t care. He has an ax to grind with the McCaskeys, and probably for a good reason. But that has nothing to do with this game.

”Mike Ditka not picking the Bears is like Bear Bryant not picking the Crimson Tide.”

It’s hard to tell about Ditka sometimes. Toward the end of his run as coach of the Bears, he became a caricature of himself, emphasizing the snarling cynic rather than a sort of lovable grouch whose droll sense of humor made most of the media look forward to his post game press conferences. His over the top rants the last couple of years as coach proved grating to both players and management, although most fans never wavered in supporting him.

His neutrality may also have something to do with the way he exited the team:

Mike Ditka didn’t back down Wednesday from a shot he took at Michael McCaskey, again referring to the Bears chairman as a ‘’snake.”

Ditka first made the accusation during an interview with the Sun-Times’ Rick Telander for a column printed Wednesday. Ditka, fired as Bears coach after the 1992 season, elaborated during an interview with ESPN Radio’s Sean Salisbury and Steve Rosenbloom on WMVP-AM (1000).

”I dealt with a snake in Chicago,” Ditka said. ”I don’t really respect people who do those things. When I still had the job as the head coach, they talked to somebody behind my back. That’s a little disgusting. He talked to the guy he hired [Dave Wannstedt] before he fired me.

”You just heard it, and you just read it. You can book it.”

McCaskey is the son of Virginia McCaskey (nee Halas) who is still majority owner of the Bears. A classless twit, I wouldn’t put it past the younger McCaskey to have done something so underhanded although there’s no confirmation that indeed the Bears talked to anyone prior to firing Ditka.

Regardless of the past, there is real anger directed at him for the first time in memory. And if the Bears make it past the Saints, the story may get even bigger. This is one of those stories that will be driven by talk radio and bleed over into local news coverage not just sports. And judging by the messages left at Ditka’s website for his restaurant, he may want to keep a low profile while he’s in town for the game:

“My code-word for success is “ACE”: Attitude, Character, and Enthusiasm.” Well, Mikey, Your ATTITUDE stinks, you have no CHARACTER, and your ENTHUSIASM towards the Bears is pathetic. You can’t have it both ways, FELLA!!!

That “code word for success” is from one of Ditka’s best selling motivational books. He’s made a good living on the rubber chicken circuit, speaking at conventions and corporate gatherings about teamwork and improving yourself.

Is he in danger of losing all of this? No, but I believe that people in Chicago are looking a little bit differently at Ditka today than they were yesterday. And if the story continues into next week - and if Ditka can’t keep his mouth shut - he may do further damage to one of the most unique partnerships around. Ditka and the people of Chicago have come a long way together. It would be a shame if they parted company now.

UPDATE: 1/19

Ditka spent yesterday afternoon backtracking furiously from his statements of neutrality, giving several different explanations why he didn’t come out immediately in favor of the blue and burnt orange:

”I’m pulling and I’m rooting — as I always have every game this year — [for] the Chicago Bears,” Ditka said Thursday on WMVP-AM (1000) from his restaurant. ”Now, I thought I’d make that announcement on my show, not somebody else’s show.”

”Does anybody ever think the reason I didn’t want to say anything in the first place … maybe, maybe I didn’t want to jinx them?” he told Steve Rosenbloom and Sean Salisbury. ”Did anybody think that possibility?”

Frankly, that’s a load of manure. Ditka said on three different occassions and in three seperate interviews that he had no rooting interest in the game. It wasn’t until the firestorm broke that he suddenly became worried about “jinxing” the team.

Ditka, who coached (and was fired by) both the Bears and the Saints, said he would like nothing more than for the Bears to make it to Miami and win the Super Bowl. He dismissed any notion he would be jealous if coach Lovie Smith won the title.

”No, I’m not jealous about anything. I want the Bears to win. I’ve been a Bear fan since 1961 when I started. And I’ve always been a Bear fan. … If you’re asking me, the truth is that. And that’s how it is. People can assume anything they want to. I can’t control that. It becomes kind of humorous, really.”

What’s humorous is to watch as “shoot from the hip” Ditka spins, and spins, and spins his way out of trouble with his meal ticket - Bears fans.

Maybe he should re-read one of his motivational books, concentrating on the chapter admonishing readers to be honest with themselves.