Wow. I've covered a lot of major sporting events, but this one already is by far the craziest. And we haven't hit the three-ring circus that is media day, which begins early tomorrow morning. It's the day when all players from both teams are available to answer media questions at Dolphin Stadium, That should be a whole lotta fun. And funny.

It was my first day in Miami, although the Bears beat me here and arrived last night. Coach Lovie Smith and six players were available for interviews Monday. Brian Urlacher wasn't one of them. I'm pretty sure Urlacher was happy about dodging the mob since he's a pretty quiet guy. That left embattled quarterback Rex Grossman as the center of attention. He handled the icky questions pretty well. I have to admit, it's one thing to talk about a guy's weak performances, it's a whole other thing for a pack of reporters to fire a barrage of questions at him for 20 minutes, many of them rephrasing the same question -- "How do you feel about your reputation as a bad quarterback?" Smith pointed out Grossman has handled the questions all season, so he's used to the scrutiny. Grossman was classy about it and never seemed to let the comparisons to Peyton Manning get under his skin.

Urlacher''s teammates had a lot of praise for him in his absence. They all refer to him as the quarterback of Chicago's defense and point out he wasn't on the field when the Colts beat the Bears a few years ago during their last meeting. They all expect big Url to do big things on Super Bowl Sunday.

I'm working on some stories for tomorrow's Trib, then I'll jump back on the blog to provide more updates, photos and audio from today. Look for more entries soon.

Posted by ilimon at 04:25 PM | Permalink