Brown's ninth Pro Bowl berth adds to Hall of Fame resume
Coach Lovie Smith chose the occasion to inform the team that left guard Ruben Brown had been added to the NFC's Pro Bowl roster. He will replace Philadelphia's Shawn Andrews, who bowed out with a neck injury. It will be Brown's ninth trip to the Pro Bowl and adds to his Hall of Fame resume.
Brown gives the Bears eight players selected to the Pro Bowl. Defensive tackle Tommie Harris, of course, will not participate because he remains on crutches after hamstring surgery.
Brown barely could contain his glee after practice, but his focus remained the same. He went to eight Pro Bowls with the Buffalo Bills but never reached the Super Bowl.
''It's good to hear, but right now it's really about the Super Bowl,'' he said.
It gives some purpose to Brown's trip, too. He already was headed to Honolulu the week after the Super Bowl to hang out with center Olin Kreutz and other friends.
''Now I won't have to bug Olin all day,'' he said. ''I'll have something to do.''
Said Kreutz: ''He should have been there from the beginning. ... We used him a lot in our run game. He's a staple guy on pulling and we run a power play with him a lot, so he's kind of our staple run guy. So he deserves to be there.''
PRE-SNAP COMMOTION: The Bears are not overly concerned about the gyrations and many directions and audibles Peyton Manning yells at the line of scrimmage. The defense could get some assistance from a crowd that might be up to two-thirds in favor of the Bears, considering they come from a substantially larger market and have a deeper fan base.
The more noise there is in Dolphin Stadium, the tougher it will be for Manning to get work done just before the snap.
''I wish you guys would ask him [about the pre-snap routine],'' strong-side linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer said. ''Maybe Peyton will tell us. I think sometimes it's a check and sometimes it's just to try to get you out of position, try to get you to show your hand. So we'll be ready for it.
''They do a great job of getting people out of position. They're as hard a team to read as anybody, just in terms of whether it's going to be a run or a pass or where you might think the action might be headed. So it will be a tremendous challenge for our defense.''
BACK TO WORK: The Bears spent Thursday installing the beginning of their game plan, one that quarterback Rex Grossman has been going over with offensive coordinator Ron Turner for two days. Wide receiver Mark Bradley (sprained ankle) is the only injured player.
''It's one of those moments that it really hit me,'' Grossman said about getting the game plan. ''I'm about to go get the plays that we're going to call in Super Bowl XLI. It puts things in perspective that this is real and it's coming up, and I couldn't be more excited.
''We were practicing with game balls today, the actual game balls with the Super Bowl logo on there. It was chilling.''