Still time for you nonbelievers to hop aboard Bears' bandwagon

For many of us, the No. 1 reason to watch the Super Bowl for the past 21 years was to see which companies had the best commercials. This year we've actually got a reason to pay attention to the action between the ads. Our own Bears will be in the big game for the first time since 1986. A week from Sunday, they'll take on the Indianapolis Colts, and in the days leading up to the game, Da Bears likely will be the No. 1 topic of conversation in many homes, offices, taverns and anywhere else where two or more people gather.

Bookies have made the Bears a seven-point underdog against the Colts. While it might seem humiliating being underdogs to a team from a state whose residents can't even decide what time zone they want to be in, the Bears themselves don't seem to mind. In fact, they seem to prefer to play with a chip on their shoulder. Although they were slight favorites in Sunday's NFC title game against the New Orleans Saints, many experts predicted a Saints' victory. In the end, the Bears won by 25 points at snowy Soldier Field.

All season long the Bears have had to deal with doubters -- and some of the biggest ones have come from right here in Chicagoland. Going 13-3 in the regular season wasn't enough because, the experts said, they had an easy schedule. Thrashing the Saints hasn't seemed to helped them increase their reading on the respect-o-meter. The prime source of agitation continues to be that the Bears each week have the nerve to select Rex Grossman to be their starting quarterback.

That angst seems to be even more magnified as experts handicap the Super Bowl in which the Bears will again start Grossman and the Colts will start -- someone cue the choir of angels -- Peyton Manning. The fact is that Manning and his Colts have been one of the biggest choke teams in the NFL in recent years. That they managed to defeat the New England Patriots, a team on a downward spiral, in the AFC title game has been blown out of proportion. The Colts could -- and it says here they will -- easily revert to their former selves when they meet the Bears on Feb. 4 in Miami.

Instead of doubting the Bears, fans should savor the moment. Since the 1940s, these opportunities haven't come along all that often for our National Football League representative. Go out and treat yourself and your kids to a Bears cap and T-shirt. Enter the office 100-square pool. Go out and buy orange and blue table cloths, cups and dinnerware for your food and beverage spread on Super Bowl Sunday. But don't worry about Grossman and the underdog role.

Look how far the Bears have come this season. They're one of two teams from a league of 32 teams still standing. And there is a lot more to the Bears than the unfairly maligned Grossman. There's the gritty defense, the durable running backs, the reliable receivers, the dazzling special teams and much more.

And even though they're underdogs, don't forget: Underdogs often win. Haven't you ever seen the movie "Hoosiers"?