Bears and history: Forget about it

MIAMI -- They're just a footnote now, the 2006 Chicago Bears. They're the team Peyton Manning beat for his first Super Bowl title -- his first title of any kind, in fact, be it high school, college or professional football.

They're the team Tony Dungy conquered to validate his Hall of Fame credentials and become the first black coach to win a Super Bowl.

The Bears are a happy memory to all of Indianapolis, which will embrace the 29-17 Super Bowl victory like a Bob Knight tirade. It might well have been 46-10, mind you, but the Bears clung to the Colts like fleas on a dog, somehow remaining within striking distance in the fourth quarter, only to be buried under another turnover avalanche.

Now it's all over. Cancel the parade. Set up the tee time.

''We're done,'' a team spokesman said when asked if there would be a season-ending news conference today or a consolation party Tuesday.

See you at the scouting combine in Indianapolis -- of all places for the brain trust to have to reconvene.

Beleaguered quarterback Rex Grossman may as well work in the Bears' public-relations department given his reaction when asked if he'll read the newspaper reports of the game or watch it on tape.

''The season is over,'' said Grossman, who won't be studying his performance anytime soon. ''Not until we start back up again. Not until the offseason workouts.''

It hurts too much to come this close and lose. Cornerback Charles Tillman said it was a much worse feeling than last year's first-round bow-out against Carolina. Center Olin Kreutz lamented that the team didn't play its best. Linebacker Lance Briggs put the disappointment in perspective.

''A real emptiness,'' he said. ''Destiny not fulfilled. It's a long season to get to the Super Bowl. We just did too much to get here and not win it.''

Briggs said it was a Bears loss as much as a Colts win, but you weren't sure whether you believed him. Manning was named game MVP after a dominant if not entirely perfect performance.

''It was one of those deals where Peyton kind of had our number as far as knowing where we were going to be,'' defensive tackle Tank Johnson said. ''He was just kind of moving them down the field.''

A wet and dreary night seemed the perfect backdrop for an upset, especially when the Bears opened the game with Devin Hester's kickoff return for a touchdown. But in the end, it was too much Manning, too little offense and way too many turnovers.

The Bears' defense did a valiant job of trying to limit the Colts' point total, but they simply couldn't get off the field against the NFL's top offense. In a stretch bridging the second and third quarters, the Colts ran 23 of 24 plays. Manning picked the Bears apart, and the exhausted defense seemed willing to accept survival over the dream of domination.

The pass rush couldn't get to Manning, and the Bears had no answer for the short passes to Joseph Addai out of the backfield.

But it was the offense, and particularly Grossman, that supplied the death blow in the fourth quarter.

In fairness, it was always going to be too much for Grossman to beat the Colts' defense with his arm. The Bears needed a balanced attack but couldn't get their running game going despite a couple of big runs from Thomas Jones. Cedric Benson fumbled on his first touch of the game and left shortly thereafter with a knee injury.

The Bears offense, unable to get first downs, ran just 19 plays in the first half, six of them while backed up in its own end.

Grossman was left to direct a comeback, and the killer moment arrived when he opted to pick on a novice cornerback named Kelvin Hayden. A graduate of Hubbard High School who starred at Illinois, Hayden was lined up on the left side, where Nick Harper heroically lasted into the second quarter with a high ankle sprain. The Bears knew it was important to attack that spot, but when Grossman threw a high-arcing ball, Hayden outmuscled Muhsin Muhammad for his first career interception and returned it 56 yards for a touchdown.

It wasn't the scenario Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner pictured when he moved Hayden from receiver to cornerback during his coaching days at Illinois. Hayden led the Illini in receiving one year and was playing cornerback the next. Hayden lives in Chicago in the offseason and laughed that he's in for some grief. He can always flash his Super Bowl ring.

Hayden's pick was the first of two consecutive interceptions by Grossman, who also fumbled once. The Bears' inability to win the turnover battle, especially after forcing an interception by Manning early, had to be a huge disappointment for coach Lovie Smith, who has built his defense with a philosophy of stripping the ball and making big plays.

''When you turn the ball over as much as we did tonight, it's really hard to win,'' Smith said. ''The turnovers really did us in tonight.''

Smith was thrilled for his former mentor Dungy, who joined Tom Flores and Mike Ditka as the only men to win the Super Bowl both as a player and a coach.

But Dungy's greatest achievement comes in breaking the color barrier with a Super Bowl victory. It's a fantastic honor for a guy with Hall of Fame credentials after producing nine straight winning seasons, popularizing the Tampa-2 defense and launching a veritable family tree of coaches.