WRECKS GROSSMAN

Bears fans realized the glaring difference between a winner and a loser when Kelvin Hayden returned Rex Grossman’s floater for a touchdown in the fourth-quarter of Superbowl XLI cementing a victory for the Indianapolis Colts. A season later and not much changed. Grossman was benched three games into the 2007 season, and once again Chicago’s quarterback carousel was set in motion. Rex eventually regained the starting position before going down with knee injury in week 14 for the remainder of the season. He ended the season with a 66.4 Quarterback rating and throwing only four touchdowns but seven interceptions. So now Rex’s contract is up, and Chicago can finally end this failed Rexperiment, right? Apparently the Chicago Bears organization thinks otherwise.

This past weekend, the Bears signed the oft-injured, oft-scrutinized Rex Grossman to a one-year deal, securing him at least a chance to compete for the starting quarterback position. Questionable move? You can be the judge, but lets be honest here, the quarterback free agency pool this year is anemic. The Bears figured that the best option would be to re-sign their one time gunslinger of the future, but what do they see that the fans don’t? The same fans that boo Rex whenever he fumbles a snap or makes a cringe-worthy scrambling decision. Is this smart management for a team that was one win away from a Superbowl championship two years ago and couldn’t even reach the playoffs a season later? I thought the point of the off-season was to improve your team. This is no such improvement and equivalent to going backwards.

The entire Chicago Bears organization needs to realize something about Rex Grossman – Chicago is his only option. I don’t have top-secret sources in the know on NFL free agency or working in the NFL combine, but I’m going to go ahead and guess that absolutely zero teams called Rex’s agent Eugene Parker to inquire about the Grossman’s status. There are teams looking for a starting quarterback next season, but how desirable are they for mediocrity? Even those rebuilding like Miami or Atlanta probably never even considered bringing in Grossman. No NFL teams did. Grossman’s only shot at a starting role would be in Chicago. He knows this and Chicago Bears organization knows this.

Grossman spills his love for the Bears in the recent press release for this re-signing saying, “They drafted me. A lot of bad things have happened to me since I’ve been here with injuries and things, but the 2006 season was a special one. We almost completed the ultimate goal. I want to finish that. I want to finish what I started and I want to be a Bear for the rest of my life.”

Of course he loves the Bears. They are the only organization in the national football league I can think of that would reward a quarterback with a $2 million contract for losing them the Superbowl.

The only bright side to this entire situation is that Love Smith has promised that there will be a competition for the starting QB position in the pre-season, most likely between Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman. From the way things are shaping up, it appears the Bears will draft a quarterback and cut veteran Brian Griese. Kyle Orton, while not spectacular, did manage to scrape together consecutive wins when he started the final three regular season games, but it’s obvious he isn’t the future franchise QB.

So if Orton becomes the starter, what then? Will Grossman be able to handle being the back up? Before the season ended, Grossman said he wanted to go anywhere where he would have a shot at being the starter. Guess what Rexy? Chicago is your only shot. You have to be naive to think that anywhere else you’d fly up the depth chart like an Eli Manning or a David Garrard. Rex should be sending flowers to Jerry Angelo’s office to thank him for keeping his professional football aspirations alive. If the Bears had shunned him, he would be searching Craigslist for a job, not the other 31 NFL teams.

Quarterback problems once again plague the monsters of the midway and it’s barely March, but what else is new? The real question is which comes first: Bears finding a franchise QB or the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series. Right now, it’s too close to call.