The stigma attached to Rex Grossman nowadays is nearly palpable. Last night in the chat, I simply typed, "Rex Grossman is not as bad as most people think." In the ensuing exchange, I was bombarded with messages telling me how much he sucks. I never even said he was good. My point was proven. He's not a good quarterback, I'll agree. He'd also presently be the best quarterback on the Niners, Chiefs, Raiders, and Lions. There could be more, but those are the obvious ones.
This stigma isn't just reserved for opposing fans. Legions of Bears fans act like he's the worst QB ever, which is saying a lot from people who have watched Jonathan "The Mighty" Quinn, Moses Moreno, and Cade McNever (among about a thousand other stiffs). It wasn't one iota surprising on Sunday when Grossman was booed. Immediately when Kyle Orton hit the turf, I texted my brother with: "Great, now a bunch of idiots are gonna boo after every incompletion." Sure enough, flocks of boos were heard in Grossman's direction in the third quarter.
It did not please Brian Urlacher.
"We've got a quarterback who comes in off the bench and leads us to a victory, and they boo him right out of the gate," he said. "Poor guy. Lucky for him he's resilient and he came back and led us to two scoring drives. But man, it's tough."
Urlacher did note that he didn't blame the fans for booing the defense during a second quarter in which they yielded 23 points to the hapless Lions offense. He was just annoyed with the treatment of Grossman.
Lovie Smith, on the other hand, doesn't like booing in any situation.
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"The fans are a big part of what we're doing," Smith said. "When you go through adversity, I see everyone rallying together [and] using positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement has never really worked for me. ... I would just hope that most of the time we'll hear positive reinforcement to help us get through some of those times. That's what a team does."
I can see both sides. I mean, the fans should be allowed to express frustration after watching the Lions shred our once vaunted defense for 23 points in a quarter. On the other, they threw a shutout for the other three quarters. Concerning Grossman, it's not going to help anyone to sit there ready to boo at the first sign of any sort of futility. He hadn't seen relevant game action all season, so there was likely going to be some rust.
Let's give him a shot, and realize he's going against a very staunch defense this weekend in the Tennessee Titans. Don't be one of those idiots that acts like one of Pavlov's dogs ... automatically booing every time you see number eight on the field, because that's what you've been conditioned to do.
Lovie Smith and Brian Urlacher to Fans: Stop Booing Rex Grossman originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:52:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
