March 1, 2009
Chicago happy to see Rex Grossman go
But there's really no good reason for it
History will be kinder to Rex Grossman in Chicago than Section 146 at Soldier Field ever was.
Grossman officially becomes an ex-Bear at 11:01 p.m. Thursday when NFL free agency begins, so start rehearsing your toasts now to celebrate Chicago's favorite quarterback to hate being Rex-iled from the city.
When Chicago baseball fan favorites Mark DeRosa and Joe Crede left town, it created civic angst. Meanwhile, Grossman, one of two Bears quarterbacks to start a Super Bowl, has been getting offers to drive him to O'Hare since 2007.
Bears fans will miss him like they miss frostbite. Not since Cade McNown has Chicago been so happy to rid itself of a quarterback.
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That's not fair, and that's the point.
Nothing about Grossman's tortured six-year tenure with the Bears ever was fair, from the rash of injuries that wrecked his progress to his treatment outside Halas Hall.
Critics will add that nothing about any so-called quarterback competition involving Grossman ever felt fair either. What coach Lovie Smith and the Bears called loyalty others interpreted as entitlement, and Grossman was doomed.
That the Bears won 19 of 31 games Grossman started didn't matter. The perception Grossman hadn't earned the opportunities the Bears kept giving him reduced his margin of error and hurt his image as much as any bad interception.
The disappointment in Grossman's decline could be understood. Grossman lacked consistency and the high-risk, high-reward approach ultimately made him too erratic to trust.
The trademark confidence that helped make Grossman a first-round draft pick and a Heisman Trophy runner-up had vanished. Without it, a smallish quarterback with limited mobility because of injuries cannot succeed. When Grossman started to doubt himself sometime during the start of the '07 season, his big arm suddenly became no big deal.
What's much harder to understand as Grossman departs is why Chicago revolted against the person as well as the quarterback. Big jerks have come and gone through the city's sports gates without becoming the polarizing force Grossman oddly became.
The guy even was booed at Soldier Field Family Night last August. The public probably never will know the worst of the abuse he took.
Unbearable indeed.
"Some of my home games felt like away games," Grossman said Wednesday in a Sirius Radio interview.
It speaks to how deeply scarred Grossman feels that he specifically turned down requests from the Tribune and other Chicago media, according to agent Eugene Parker, and broke his prolonged silence on a national satellite radio show.
"I want to prove to everybody in Chicago, I want to prove to everybody in the media, in the NFL and to myself that I am one of the best quarterbacks in this league," Grossman said.
He should settle for aspiring to be a really good one or even consistent. To offer one last critique, whether it's his potential or the open receiver, Grossman needs to embrace the comforts of middle ground.
That's mild criticism compared to what Grossman grew used to here. To say all the abuse comes with the territory of being an NFL quarterback lets too many fools off the hook. The treatment was over-the-top.
There was the time Grossman called the media "ignorant" at the Super Bowl and occasional comments that raised an eyebrow about his focus. But Grossman never consistently behaved on or off the field in a way that merited the silliness that marred his Bears stay.
Strip away emotion and sentiment and the numbers tell this story: Grossman deserves credit for helping lead the Bears to a Super Bowl but, because of injury and inconsistency, still fell short of expectations for a first-round draft pick. Though disappointing, Grossman's achievements still were too respectable to become Chicago's most polarizing athlete since Sammy Sosa's latter days.
Consider only two Bears quarterbacks have started Super Bowls— Jim McMahon and Grossman, who ranks among the franchise's top 10 in career attempts, completions and passer rating (70.2). The Bears have won five playoff games since Super Bowl XX and Grossman started two of them.
Mike Tomczak started two of those postseason victories (in 1988 and 1990) and eventually led the Steelers to a playoff appearance in 1996.
After Jim Harbaugh left he played so well for the Colts that his name is part of the team's Ring of Honor.
If Grossman finds life after the Bears better too, it shouldn't surprise fans in Chicago. We already know it won't please many of them.
dhaugh@tribune.com
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