Even though I am a Bears fan, I'm kind of glad that THIS Bears team did not win the Super Bowl.
Simply put, I don't like this team, and I don't think I'm the only Bear fan that feels that way.
Rex Grossman illustrated perfectly the reason why I don't like this team. No, he didn't do it on Sunday with his predictably awful performance. He did it earlier in the week, when he pontificated in a Chad Pennington-esque soliloquy about how the media (and by proxy, the fans, he didn't say it, but you KNOW he was thinking it) are ignorant and don't know what they are talking about when it comes to football.
That, in a nutshell, is the vibe that this Bears team has emanated since Jerry Angelo set Dick Jauron up to fail so he could fire him in 2003, and completed the process of making the Bears his team. Rex isn't the only Bear to emanate this sour aura, it's almost a requirement for anyone associated with this team.
It's a standoffish, hostile vibe that pits the Bears against the fans and media that want to embrace and love this team but can't fully do that because, well, it's hard to fall in love with a team if they make it impossible for you to even fall in like with them.
So, as I said before, Rex isnt' responsible for this air of reticence and righteous indignation the Bears stride around in, the unspoken contempt that this team holds its fans in, but he has become the symbol of it.
Never in my life would I imagine that Chicago Bear fans could so revile the quarterback that led them back to the Super Bowl after a quarter century wandering in the NFL desert. You would think that person would celebrated, revered, and lofted to almost godlike status amongst Bear faithful, no matter how imperfect he may be. But, with Rex, that's obviously not the case. I don't think it is all his fault though.
The Bears have seemingly decided that the way they are going to prove they are smarter than you is to win a Super Bowl with a quarterback that everyone else says you cannot win a Super Bowl with, Rex Grossman. They will stick with him thru all the fumbled snaps, all the head slapping decisions, all the making the same mistakes over and over and over again. They will stick with him because they are trying to prove a point, the point that they know football and you, Mr. Bears Fan, do not.
So maybe that makes me "not a real Bears fan", to not want to see this version of the Bears, which seems to want to win just to stick it to its fans, succeed. So be it. I'll still be a Bears fan long after Rex, Jerry Angelo, Tank Johnson, Muhsin Muhammad, and any of the rest of the prickly pears on this team are long gone. I've still got time for my team to win a Super Bowl. Time, however, is running out for this bunch.
1 comment:
David Carr is looking for a starting job
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