“Da Bears” 2/9/2006, 1
The following article ran in Illinois Central College’s student newspaper The
Harbinger on February 9, 2007.
Da Bears Flounder in Miami
As a sports journalist of a small community college newspaper, I have been instructed to stick to
“local” sports stories because my audience can find sports stories on the national level from
many other media outlets. This is true, but it will be hard to find any sports writer that feels so
strongly for, yes for, Rex Grossman.
Obviously the Bears played one of their worst games at the most inopportune time as they lost
Super Bowl XLI 29-17. They were manhandled by a surprisingly much more physical
Indianapolis Colts team. Even though the game was a disappointment in the eyes of the Bears
and their fans, they still had a very exciting and memorable season.
Let’s start with a certain quarterback named Rex Grossman. Sure he had seven games in which
his quarterback rating looked more like the frigid temperatures of Chicago in January instead of
that of a NFL starting quarterback. So if seven games were horrible then that must leave 12
games in which he was good ole’ gun-slinging Grossman. That would make him 12-7 as a starter
this season.
No, wait, because of the team around him the Bears were able to win three of those games in
which Rex was rather gross. So, as a starter Grossman was 15-4 which means he had a winning
percentage of .798. So get off his back, he did just fine and when he didn’t the rest of the team
picked him up, just the way it’s supposed to happen. Winning games is the only thing that
matters and Rex did that most of the time. He didn’t play well in the Super Bowl but blame is
deserved by all on the team, not just him.
Coming into the season everyone was unsure about who would be the starting running back for
this team. It was either going to be proven veteran Thomas Jones who battled preseason injuries
or the sophomore out of the University of Texas, Cedric Benson. As the season went along Jones
and Benson became one of the best one-two punches at running back in the whole league.
Benson would come in and bully the defense around then Jones would come in and beat them
with his speed and agility.
It looks like this combination can have fans excited for seasons to come if Benson doesn’t
complain about being the “backup” and as long as Jones stays health and the Bears aren’t stupid
enough to trade him or let him walk away.
We all know that head coach Lovie Smith is the brainchild of the Bears dominating defense, but
I am sure that defensive coordinator Ron Rivera is among the best in the league. Most fans also
know that majority owner Virginia McCaskey doesn’t spend enough money for anyone or
anything. That is evident when looking at how much they pay Smith and Rivera.
“Da Bears” 2/9/2006, 2
They are both at the bottom of the salary payroll for their respective titles and this will most
likely come back to bite the Bears in the butt. Now that Smith took the Bears to their first Super
Bowl appearance in 20 years, it is time that he gets paid the money he deserves. He will want
compensation for practically working for free (if receiving over a million dollars per year is
really considered chump change) this year and he will become one of the highest paid coaches in
football if McCaskey wants him to stay. Rivera is considered one of the front-runners for the
Dallas Cowboys head coaching vacancy and I can’t blame him for walking away after being paid
hardly anything this past year.
One of the best players the Bears have to try and reel back in the off-season is linebacker Lance
Briggs who is an unrestricted free agent. He is one of the best at his position but is always behind
the shadow of Brian “Bill George/Dick Butkus/Mike Singletary” Urlacher. Briggs deserves top-
notch money, but I don’t think he will get the kind of money he is looking for; Urlacher money.
He says he wants to stay in Chicago. I really hope that’s the case.
Two words: Devin Hester. A god among mere mortals. A second-round draft pick in last year’s
draft, out of the University of Miami, is one of the most exciting players I have ever seen.
Granted at times he couldn’t handle some kicks and continued to dangle the football out there
practically asking for the other team to strip it, but with his NFL record seven returns for
touchdowns he was a great pickup by the Bears in the draft. Congratulations to the scouting team
for that one.
So that leaves it at this year’s draft. What will the Bears do? Will they try to trade up and get a
quarterback? Maybe they will look to replace Lance Briggs (if he leaves) at linebacker. The
Bears, historically, have picked defense over offense in the first couple of rounds of the NFL
draft (with Benson in 2005 being an exception). Where are some concern points for the offense
or defense?
They have a good core of wide receivers and running backs (if they don’t trade Thomas Jones).
Desmond Clark is one of the most consistent in the league at the tight end position. Special teams
with Brad Maynard as the punter, Robbie Gould as the place kicker, and Hester as the return
specialist are hopefully set for the next five years. Either way it will be interesting to see what
Chicago will do in this year’s draft and I am excited to see exactly what will happen.
This has been a season in which many things went wrong (like losing Tommie Harris and Mike
Brown to injuries, two staples of the Bears defense) and everything was against the Bears but
they battled back and still reached the Super Bowl. Who knows, the game might have been
different if the Bears had all of their starters in hand and healthy. Not taking away from what the
Colts were able to do this year, but it certainly would have been a closer game if the Bears were
100 percent healthy.
This is a season in which they shouldn’t be shunned for their rather depressing performance in
Super Bowl XLI, but commended for their perseverance as a squad throughout the season, even
if it didn’t end with a ring on their finger.
“Da Bears” 2/9/2006, 3
In past years we haven’t had much to cheer about regarding Chicago Bears football and post-
season success but this year was different. It was nice. Thanks Chicago and I hope to see plenty
more NFC Championships to come.
It’s sad to think that there won’t be any football (college or pro) for another six months or so.
*Sniffle*
Oh well, MLB pitchers and catchers report to camp on February 13!