Wow. That was fast. It took all of one drive for Rex Grossman to emphatically quiet the calls for Brian Griese. A 49-yard toss to a wide open Bernard Berrian put the Bears on the way to a victory so complete that Mariotti made his fastest leap onto a bandwagon I can remember. Fresh off his declaration that the Bears had no shot at a Super Bowl, Mariotti probably wishes he had waited for a game that mattered before making his prediction. I always find it amusing when Jay writes his "OK, this team might actually be pretty good" columns because you can almost feel him cringing as he's writing them. Negativity suits him much more naturally. He also seems to think he needs to keep Chicagoans from getting TOO excited, like we're a bunch of five-year-olds at a brithday party and someone just cracked open the pinata. "Please resist the temptation to multiply this victory by 16 and start the playoffs. But do view it as a springboard for optimism and a showcase of a team's natural capabilities. And do savor it as a reason to believe Rex in the City is more than a tease, especially if the defense provides him a weekly comfort zone." It's almost as if Jay thinks he's granting us permission to be excited. Oh wait, he does. "...you may hope for the best. Permission is hereby granted." Thanks Jay. We were already on board and hoping for the best. Welcome to the bandwagon, just don't act like you're the one driving.

The Sun-Times published its obligatory football preview this morning. Telander and Mariotti had their columns next to each other and two things struck me: 1) Essentially they wrote the same column. 2) They went about it very differently. I'm not blaming either of them for having similar columns. Anything previewing this Bears season says basically the same thing: They should probably win the division and anything beyond that depends on whether the offense (Grossman) can be at least adequate. Telendar's headline: This could be the year if Rex can be the guy Mariotti's: Playoffs, yes; Super Bowl, there's no way Basically they go through and make a lot of the same points about the outlook for this Bears season, but Telandar gives Grossman and the Bears at least a puncher's chance, which is basically how I feel. It's not that I even disagree with some of Jay's points. Like him, I can't figure out how the Bears did absolutely nothing to upgrade the WR/TE position this offseason, and I know there have to be lingering concerns about Rex, who is still a largely unknown talent. Still, they made the playoffs last year with essentially zero offense. Whether it's Grossman, Griese or even a second-year Orton if injuries really strike, shouldn't the offense still improve some? Everyone is in his second year in Ron Turner's system, which should help. And the quarterback play, no matter who it is, ought to be better. Just remember: The Ravens won a Super Bowl with a quarterback tandem of Tony Banks and Trent Dilfer. Anything can happen these days in the NFL. Sure, it's more than likely the Bears won't take the whole thing. Which is precisely Jay swoops in like some kind of swami to boldly decree it, then gloat afterwards. It's like he's out there to cripple every ounce of offseason optimism and goodwill in Chicagoland. To borrow from yesterday's Christmas metaphor: If opening day is Christmas, Mariotti is the Grinch. Whether that makes me Cindy Loo-Hoo I don't know, but I'm not qoing to let him steal my presents. OK, enough holiday analogies. I'm just glad football is back.

Hope everyone had a pleasant holiday weekend. I myself am coming off two fantasy drafts and am looking forward to the first NFL Sunday, my favorite day of the year. You know that feeling when you're five and you can't really fall asleep because it's Christmas Eve? That's how I'll be this Saturday night. Maybe I should seek help. Anyway, Mariotti's column from today irks me on so many levels I don't quite know where to begin. How about the beginning? "So this is what we're doing in Chicago, laughing at his clownish blooper throws and mocking his stubby gray hair. Sorry, but I refuse to revel in the demise of Brett Favre, a folk hero who transcends silly civic grudges. Many of you will spend the week dancing on the man's grave, wanting him to feel the pain he inflicted on the Bears back when he and the Packers won 18 of 20 and turned a rivalry into a 209-mile waste of time." Typical "I'm a better, more sophisticated human than you" Mariotti condescension. I think most Bears fans understand Brett Favre and what he has meant to football. That said, after watching Favre treat the Bears as his own personal highlight reel for so long, finally seeing the tables turn is cathartic. I'm not going to apologize for reveling in the fact that the Bears might finally win a few. And neither should you. Now Jay steps in with his almighty opinion: "Me? I'll be immersed in regret that Favre didn't retire last winter, allowing him to avoid the misery of a swan song doomed to resemble a dead quail." Oh, great! Another Favre should/should have retired column! I haven't read 12,000 of those in the last two years! I'm so excited I can't stop using exclamation points! Any informed football fan knows the deal with Favre: He still has some juice left and his team is awful, but it's tough to leave somelpace when you're a cross between Superman and Jesus in the eyes of your fans. Do I think he probably should have retired? Yes? How much do I think he cares? About as much as he cares what Mariotti thinks. Why do sportwriters feel like they're performing some kind of sacred duty in determining when athletes should retire? Sure, I wish Jordan's ill-fated Wizards comeback had never happened, but when I catch old Bulls highlights I don't think "this is all tainted because he played for the Wizards." What athletes do at the end of their careers doesn't erase or tarnish a spectacular beginning and middle. Transcendent athletes have the right to determine when it's their time, simple as that. Personally, I'm not ready to bury Favre just yet. A lifetime of being a Bears fan has left me too scarred to be comfortable against him, not matter what happened last year. I'd even expect to have a nightmare about him Saturday night, but I won't be able to sleep anyway.

Fresh off yesterday's scathing critique of his constant negativity, Jay appeared to be all rainbows and sunshine this morning while touting Jermaine Dye for A.L. MVP. Not only that, he admitted to being one of those who once thought signing him in the wake of losing Magglio Ordonez was a terrible move. A column with a positive tone in which he admits to being wrong? Is it possible we're getting to him? To be quite honest today's column was decent. I agreed with most of it and there were only one or two parts that made me throw up in my mouth. But just in case we started to like him too much, the old Jay shined through at the end of the column with a complete tangent about Ozzie Guillen supposedly ordering Freddy Garcia to plunk America's favorite bat tosser, Delmon Young: "If the Blizzard was trying to wriggle his way into the good graces of umpires everywhere by hitting Young, it's a strange time and place. Focus on the playoff race, please." Leave it to Jay to take a break from an upbeat column about an underappreciated star to take a random shot at a favorite enemy. I guess the Jay we've all come to know isn't going anywhere after all.

"He was Coach of the Regular Season, not Coach of the Year." That's how Mariotti began his Tuesday column about the possibility of Lovie Smith eventually losing his job if he sticks with an ineffective Rex Grossman too long. He really seems to take this perverse joy in rooting for people to get fired or demoted. Maybe that's hypocritical of me to point out since I'm constantly rooting for the Sun-Times to demote Jay to paperboy. So be it. Anyway, Jay's basic argument is the Bears cannot afford another season of sub-par quarterbacking with the division there for the taking, and Grossman must be demoted if he can't get the job done. So if Grossman sucks, the Bears should play Brian Griese. Really? You think so? If there's one thing Smith has proved during his coaching tenure, it's that he has no problem making a change when someone isn't performing. Doesn't anyone remember Grossman's dramatic halftime entrance last year when a fair number of people still thought the Bears should stick with Kyle Orton? At least now if Lovie has to make a tough call like that Jay can claim he thought of it first. Sure, I wish Grossman had performed better this preseason, but it's still the preseason. Everyone seems to forget most of Griese's heroics are coming against second teamers. Preseason games have to be about the worst measure I can think of to figure out who should be starting and who shouldn't. Ok, maybe astrology or a Scrabble tournament would be worse. But still, preseason games aren't great either. I want to see Grossman when it matters before we start clamoring for his head. And let's keep in mind that in Grossman's biggest game to date, last year's playoff loss, Rex played pretty well against a good defense while his own defense let the team down. Maybe it's just the silly fan in me being too sentimental, but I've waited too long to see if Rex can take over the team to throw it away over a few poor preseason performances. I understand football isn't like baseball where you can lose your first 10 games and recover by the All-Star Break. I understand if the Bears drop their first two games and then switch to Griese but wind up missing the playoffs by a game, everyone will point to those first two Grossman starts. I can live with the risks. Grossman's had a tough start to his career and I want to see him get a chance to succeed. Yes, Jay, I'm hoping things go well for an athlete in Chicago instead of rooting for them to fail. You should give it a try sometime, it feels good.