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NFC Championship game | Bears 39, Saints 14 Wait’s over for Chicago They hugged, the 48-year-old black man and the 82-year-old white matriarch whose father was one of the founding fathers of this league. Most of all, Halas was this town’s “Papa Bear,” a legendary player, coach and owner. When he died in 1983, there were no black head football coaches in the NFL. Smith and McCaskey didn’t say much to each other when they embraced. Didn’t need to. They knew what the Bears’ 39-14 thumping of the Saints in Sunday’s NFC championship game meant. It meant that Smith, who grew up loading hay onto a watermelon truck for 3 cents a bale in Big Sandy, Texas, was going to join the Colts’ Tony Dungy as the first black head coaches to take their teams to the Super Bowl. It meant that finally, after 21 years of waiting for Bears fans, Chicago is heading back to the big game. Yep, that’s right Denny Green, we can go ahead and crown ’em now. Crown ’em NFC champions. “I’ll tell you what,” Smith said in his easy Southern drawl, “it doesn’t get any better than that. Going into this week, we heard a lot. We went into this game with the best record in the National Football League, and we really didn’t get a lot of respect. Not many people gave us a chance to win the football game, but our guys didn’t buy into that. They bought into each other.” All along, these truly were Lovie Smith’s Bears, or, as they’re calling them in East Texas, “La Bears.” The talk this week was about how La Bears weren’t stealing the heart of Chicago like Mike Ditka’s Bears did in ’85. This year’s team was too dry, boring, uninteresting, kind of like their coach. But nobody seemed to care as night fell Sunday in a raucous Soldier Field. The Bears fans, the same ones who booed Rex Grossman throughout the season, cheered him loudly at the podium. “They’re loving you now!” Fox broadcaster Terry Bradshaw yelled to Grossman. “One more game!” Grossman said to the crowd. Good Rex and Bad Rex both stayed home Sunday. Good-enough Rex took their place. He threw the ball away instead of forcing throws into coverage, and when the Saints sold out to stop the run in the second half, Grossman made them pay. He finished 11 of 26 for 144 yards and one touchdown but completed all four of his passes for 78 yards on a crucial drive that gave the Bears a 25-14 lead. You could see Smith’s fingerprints everywhere, but especially on Grossman. Smith took heat all year for sticking with Rex. The two shared a special moment on the field. “I hugged him,” Smith said, “and I told him I loved him. I just knew what he had gone through this year, and it was only fitting he got a chance to celebrate like that.” There was nothing flashy about the Bears performance, only a gritty team effort. The defense forced four turnovers and a safety, and running backs Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson combined for 183 yards rushing. The Bears talked after the game about how they had taken on Smith’s personality. They said they weren’t individuals looking for attention, and you got the feeling they were pointing their fingers right back at Reggie Bush. The game turned when Bush caught an 88-yard Drew Brees touchdown pass that brought the Saints, who were down 16-0, within 16-14. Bush made a highlight-reel play, but on his way into the end zone, he pointed at All-Pro linebacker Brian Urlacher, flipped into the end zone and then danced. Urlacher looked as if he didn’t even notice, but some of his teammates sure did. It seemed as if the game turned again right there. “I was just like, ‘What an idiot. A young idiot,’ ” Bears center Olin Kreutz said. “I don’t think he’s earned the right to do that. Maybe he thinks he has because of the publicity he gets.” The Bears’ defense recoiled and then attacked. They forced Brees, who was sacked three times, to throw the ball away in the end zone, which resulted in an intentional-grounding penalty and a safety. The Bears led 18-14 and would have control the rest of the game. Smith had dreamed of the moment when he could hand McCaskey her father’s trophy. Turns out, the reality was way better. “There’s no feeling like it,” Smith said. “When you’re in this position, you don’t know exactly how to act, what type of emotion you’re supposed to have, but they’re just all natural right now. “I’ll feel even better to be the first black coach
to hold up the world-championship trophy.”
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J. Brady McCollough - jbrady@coveringsports.com (email) - 816-868-2621 (cell) |
