Cinderella's Demise in Chicago

Brian Urlacher holds the NFC Trophy with QB Rex Grossman and Coach Lovie Smith in the background

Who couldn’t resist a Cinderella story? A New Orleans team who has never won a Super Bowl now just a game shy of appearing in Super Bowl XLI has been christened the Cinderella Team. I'm sure Hollywood producers are thinking about which actors they need to cast to get their story on screen. Everyone – even some Chicagoans – wanted the Saints to win. Eight former NFL players are convinced the Saints will send the Bears packing. CBS, the network airing the Super Bowl on February 4 wanted the Saints to win, predicting more viewer appeal nationally. New Orleans needed it. It sounded like America needed it. ESPN has been transformed into a pro-Saints station. The atmosphere had a ring of a post-9/11 World Series where everyone was rooting for the Yankees.

Well, the Yankees did not win the World Series in 2001. And the New Orleans Saints must now seek their Cinderella story elsewhere.

The Bears are the NFC Champions! And they are going to Miami!

The Bears never trailed the entire game. But after Reggie Bush tauntingly somersaulted for an 88-yard touchdown to close in at 16-14, I became worried. Seriously worried. The scene of Bush sprinting away from five (or was it six?) Bears reminded me of Forrest Gump scoring a touchdown (run Forrest, run!). Boy, that kid was fast! But the nail-biting stopped there. And as Brian Urlacher later said: "Bush was fast. But he wasn't fast enough."

After drawing a penalty for intentional grounding and making it 18-14, Grossman orchestrated a 4 for 4 drive that ended with a 33-yard touchdown to Bernard Berrian. This perhaps was the biggest play of the game -- the one where the Bears decided to keep the momentum all to themselves. The Saints didn’t have a prayer after that. The Bears forced a fumble, Cedric Benson and Thomas Jones connected for two more touchdowns making it a 39-14 final score.

The much maligned Bears QB Rex Grossman was 8 for 14 for 107 yards in the second half after a lackluster 3 for 12 for a measly 37 yards in the first.

The Bears critics are silenced. But you can hear murmurs about the Bears being the worst 15-3 team in NFL history. I won't be surprised to see ESPN start cheering for the Indianapolis Colts.

But as Berrian put it after the game, "Go on, pick against us again. I dare you all. Pick against us in the Super Bowl, we don't care."

Touché.

--------------------
Photos © Chicago Tribune