Rex Grossman Gets It Done, Thus Raising The Question, Can Rex Grossman Get It Done?

I thought after a convincing 39-14 win over a good Saints team in the NFC Championship, the Bears would finally get the respect they deserve from the press and oddsmakers. Looks like that might have to wait two weeks, as Vegas has installed the Bears as seven point underdogs in the Super Bowl.
While playing the "predict the line game" after the Colts thrilling victory tonight, everyone I watched the game with figured the Colts would be, at most, four point favorites. Three points was our guess though. I haven't been more than a half-point off for any of these playoff games and nailed the Championship game lines exactly last week, so being off by four means a number of things.
First, the oddsmakers intentionally put Super Bowl lines high to encourage betting. If the Colts played Chicago in the regular season on a neutral field, there's no way they'd be favored by a touchdown. Hell, even if the game was in Indy they'd probably only be favored by five or six.
Second, the Bears still get no respect. As a 13-3 team playing at home against a 10-6 squad, they only were getting 2.5 points, which is less than the standard three point bump home teams get.
The Wolfman, who sounded practically giddy when I made my congratulatory call earlier, says he heard last week that the AFC was getting an automatic seven regardless of who won the Championship games. I have no clue what to make of that. A quick Google search did me no good either. Either way, the line is too high and I'd be putting money on the Bears if I did that sort of thing.
Check back tomorrow for some thoughts on today's games. How great was the Indy/New England contest, by the way? When's the last time an NFL game lived up to the hype? As sporting events go, only the two Red Sox/Yankees ALCSs and the Texas/USC Rose Bowl were as good as advertised. The game was so great Antzo slept through the entire thing. On the floor. With his feet propped up on a cushionless chair.
This is the first Super Bowl in a while where I like both teams playing and genuinely wouldn't mind if either team won. I'll be pulling for the Bears, and will likely pick them, but I wouldn't mind seeing Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning win, as they seem like good guys. I'm going to get bored to death with the "black coaches" angle the media will endlessly hype this week, mainly because, while certainly an NFL first, this is not a seminal league event since no NFL franchise is going to look at Dungy and Lovie's success and say, "ahh, these black coaches are doing well, let's hire one too!" This isn't Doug Williams winning Super Bowl XXII, an event which helped get rid of the stigma that a black quarterback couldn't succeed in the NFL. There currently is no such stigma with black coaches. Nobody in league circles is saying "nope, can't hire Mike Tomlin or Ron Rivera because they're black." The recent hiring of Tomlin in Pittsburgh proves this. Everybody assumed Ken Whisenhunt or Russ Grimm was a shoo-in for that gig. Instead, the Rooneys went out of the family and hired a previously unknown, at least to me, coach from Minnesota. And it had nothing to do with his race.
For years people cited Art Shell's situation as proof that black coaches still weren't being treated right. Other coaches got second jobs, but Shell did not. This year's performance in Oakland should prove that the reason Art Shell was unemployed for over a decade is because he's an idiot, an affliction which has nothing to do with the color of his skin.
Dungy and Smith's achievement of becoming the first black head coaches in the Super Bowl should be noted, but should not be the focus of Super Bowl week. They are good head coaches of good football teams. And this is what matters.
And in case I forget about it, the Saints playcalling today was miserable. Throwing twice from their own endzone, leading to an eventual safety, was the beginning of the end for their season.