NEW YORK -- When Rex Grossman climbed to the podium in the middle of Soldier Field on Sunday evening, the cheers were loud and strong and came right from the heart of Chicago.

   They were nothing like the moans and groans he heard with every pass he threw for most of the first three quarters of the NFC Championship Game.

Courtesy of MCT

Rex Grossman

   "Listen to them," Fox's Terry Bradshaw said just before he handed Grossman the NFC Championship trophy. "They're loving you now!"

   Sure they are, now that the Bears are the NFC champions and on their way to face the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI. But in the days, weeks and months leading up to the Bears' 39-14 win over New Orleans, Grossman's supporters were nowhere to be found.

   Callers to sports talk radio shows spent hours fretting about how he would throw away the Bears' big opportunity. Fans clamored for coach Lovie Smith to turn the team over to backup quarterback Brian Griese. And even now that the 26-year-old Grossman has accomplished something that no Chicago quarterback has done since Jim McMahon in 1985, he's still haunted by one question being asked all across the nation:

   Is Rex Grossman the worst Super Bowl quarterback of all time?

   "I don't know what his career record is now, but the guy just wins," said Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher. "I don't care what his stats are or anything like that. He's a winner."

   "People kept beating him down," added receiver Rashied Davis. "They beat him and beat him and beat him and beat him. Well, he has the last laugh, don't he?"

   He and the Bears were laughing a lot in the postgame locker room on Sunday, but they weren't chuckling during the season when Grossman was under siege. It wasn't as if the Bears were struggling behind their first-year starter (his first three NFL seasons had been derailed by injuries). They went 15-3 this season and Grossman is 19-7 as a starter in his four years in the league.

   "I've never seen a player go through as much criticism as Rex Grossman has had to go through this year," Smith said. "He's led us to 15 wins. He's outstanding off the field. He does everything anyone wants him to do. I have all the confidence in the world that he can get the job done."

   Still, there are reasons why Grossman, a former first-round pick (2003) out of Florida, has so many detractors. He completed only 54.6 percent of his passes (262 of 480) in the regular season for 3,193 yards, with 20 interceptions and 23 touchdowns. His quarterback rating of 73.9 ranked 29th in the NFL among quarterbacks who threw at least 150 passes. And he was the lowest-rated quarterback to reach a conference championship since Detroit's Erik Kramer (71.8) in 1991.

   Five times he had a single-game quarterback rating below 40.0, including twice in December _ a 1.3 on Dec. 3 and a 0.0 in the regular-season finale on Dec. 31, a loss to the Packers that he called a "meaningless game and one he failed to adequately prepare for," before eventually apologizing for those comments. In each of those games he had at least three interceptions.

   "But we know what he's capable of," Urlacher said. "When he has to throw it, he does. When he's had to step up, he has. He hasn't really had two back-to-back bad games all season long."

   In fact, he's had many, many good ones. He had seven games in which his quarterback rating was higher than 100.0 _ tied for the best in the NFL with the other Super Bowl quarterback, Peyton Manning _ and that didn't include the season opener when his rating was 98.6. Three times he threw at least three touchdown passes in a game, and five times he threw for at least 250 yards.

   "And how about Rex Grossman now?" asked cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. "He's a Super Bowl quarterback. What do people have to say about that?"

   Getting his team to the Super Bowl is certainly an accomplishment, but it's not necessarily a guarantee of respect. Just ask Trent Dilfer, who led the Baltimore Ravens to 10 straight wins at the end of the 2000 season, including one in Super Bowl XXXV. No matter how many clutch throws he made along the way, he's never been able to shake the notion that he was a mediocre (at best) quarterback who rode a great defense to the big game.

   Of course, it doesn't necessarily take a great quarterback to get to a Super Bowl (Chris Chandler, Stan Humphries, Vince Ferragamo, Kerry Collins, David Woodley) or even to win one (Mark Rypien, Jim McMahon, Brad Johnson, Doug Williams, Jeff Hostetler). In fact, sometimes it doesn't even take a good performance by a quarterback. In 1967, for example, the great Bart Starr had just nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions during the regular season, but he still led the Green Bay Packers to victory in Super Bowl II.

   Four quarterbacks have led a team to a Super Bowl despite completing fewer than 50 percent of their regular-season passes. That list includes a four-time Super Bowl champion (Bradshaw, 45.3 percent, 1974) and Jets legend Joe Namath, whose 49.2 percent completion rate in 1968 didn't stop him from backing up his Super Bowl guarantee.

   With Grossman, it's far too early to tell whether he's the next Tony Eason, the next Tom Brady or one of the many in between. Maybe if he beats Manning and performs better than he did against the Saints (11 for 26, 144 yards) he'll get some sort of vindication. Some thought he should have felt that on Sunday, just because he shook off a horrid start (5 for 20, 64 yards) and still won the game.

   "Redemption and all that, that's for you guys to write about," Grossman said. "I'm excited about this team."

   Grossman's much-maligned reputation is clearly not his favorite subject. Even before Sunday's game, when he was asked if all the criticism has been fair, he started to answer before he cut himself off.

   "I'd like to just not talk about that, to tell you the truth," Grossman said.

   That would be just fine with his teammates, too.

   "He's taken a lot of criticism this year," said cornerback Nathan Vasher. "I don't think anybody else deserves more to hold that (NFC championship) trophy. He's been our leader all season. We really feel like he can help us win one more game."

   "I don't know about vindication," Urlacher added. "He's a winner."

___

RANKING THE FIVE WORST SUPER BOWL QUARTERBACKS

   Of course, sometimes your eyes know better than the stat sheet. So the New York Daily News polled its five football writers _ Rich Cimini, Hank Gola, Gary Myers, Ralph Vacchiano and Ohm Youngmisuk _ to get their consensus on the five worst Super Bowl quarterbacks of all-time:

   1. David Woodley, Miami Dolphins, Super Bowl XVII: Best known for being the guy who came after Bob Griese and before Dan Marino. Squeezed in a Super Bowl in a strike-shortened season and went 0-for-8 in the second half.

   2. Trent Dilfer, Baltimore Ravens, Super Bowl XXXV: Giants fans still see his 38-yard TD pass to Brandon Stokley over Jason Sehorn in their nightmares. He was 11-of-24 for 115 yards the rest of the game. Ravens cut him a few months after his victory trip to Disney World.

   3. Joe Kapp, Minnesota Vikings, Super Bowl IV: Worst career passing stats of any QB in Super Bowl history, but the former CFL star was mostly a running quarterback. He threw like one, too. Chiefs coach Hank Stram on one of Kapp's Super wobblers: "That ball looked like it had helium in it!"

   4. Tony Eason, New England Patriots, Super Bowl XX: Part of the famed QB Draft Class of `83. Looked afraid of the Bears' 46 defense in week leading up to the game. Played like it, too. He was 0-for-6 before he was benched for Steve Grogan.

   5. Vince Ferragamo, L.A. Rams, Super Bowl XIV: Didn't have much experience before an injury to Pat Haden made him the starter down the stretch and through the playoffs. Had a 19-17 lead over the Steelers in the fourth quarter. Career went nowhere from there.

Others receiving votes: Rex Grossman, Bears, XLI; Neil O'Donnell, Steelers, XXX; Stan Humphries, Chargers, XXIX.