Time to show Lovie the money is now

For the moment, anyway, the security guard in his little hut can go home. Halas Hall, besieged by criticism for two decades, suddenly is a warm and fuzzy building that finally is feeling love from a city that rarely has trusted the bosses within.

''Usually this time of year, we're doing the autopsy on our team,'' said a cheery Jerry Angelo, who used to hurl cuss bombs at the media every January.

But now, the scene is pure bliss, with even the McCaskeys hearing nice words from fans and critics who've accused Virginia and her sons of not caring about winning and running the NFL's charter franchise like a mom-and-pop soda shop. ''It was a bumpy road a lot of times -- how I should sell the team and give Chicago competent ownership,'' Mama McCaskey said in a team-arranged interview with a pool reporter. ''OK, maybe I'm not competent, but Ed [McCaskey, her late husband] and I found the people to do the job. Actually, we found Ted Phillips, he found Jerry Angelo and Jerry found Lovie Smith.

''And here we are.''

Here are the Bears, in the Super Bowl again, at last rewarding their fans instead of punishing them with losing football and fat PSL bills. How sad if they were to blow this newfound goodwill by not showering Smith, the biggest conquering hero, with the state-of-the-art contract he has proved he deserves this postseason. Wednesday found his two superiors, Phillips and Angelo, trying to assure the nervous masses that Smith's deal will be finalized soon after the big game. ''Lovie Smith has indicated to me that he wants to be head coach of the Bears for a long time. That's my goal. That's the organization's goal,'' said Phillips, president and CEO. ''I know everybody wants to make a big deal out of the fact there is not a deal.

''I have no doubt we'll get a deal done.''

I wish I could be so sure.

At issue is whether the Bears, never forerunners in breaking new salary ground and still linked with Misers of the Midway traces in their DNA, will pay market value. What is fair? Well, if the Atlanta Falcons are paying $4.8 million a year for five years to an unproven college coach (Bobby Petrino) and if the best-paid NFL coach (Mike Holmgren) gets $8 million a season, then Lovie is owed in the $6 million-a-year vicinity. Knowing Phillips and his traditionally hard-core negotiating stances, Halas Hall won't agree.

Which presents quite the public- relations fiasco if Smith, a man who doesn't define himself by money but a proud coaching lifer nonetheless, decides to serve out the final year of his contract and become a free agent next winter. If that happens, the Bears will lose a coach who would be bombarded in a bidding war and receive his just rewards. And if they lose Smith, they'll be right back in the doghouse of fans who will scream, rightfully, why Halas Hall didn't do the deal in the idle time after the NFC Championship Game and why Phillips would fritter away a rare coaching find.

This really shouldn't require a lot of thought. Now that Smith has answered our doubts with a brilliant performance last week, why not just get it done so the matter isn't a major distraction during his daily media sessions in Miami? Phillips said both parties have agreed not to talk seriously again until after the game, but I highly doubt Smith and his agent, Frank Bauer, would say no if the Bears came through with a five-year, $32 million offer. While Phillips testily denied that talks broke off because the Bears offered less than $3 million a year, don't be shocked if he is focusing more on Smith's current annual wage -- a laughable $1.3 million, lowest in the league -- as a springboard of what he believes Lovie should make in his extension. The Bears have been skewered locally and nationally for their lowballing of Smith, yet rather than acknowledge an injustice, Phillips fired back with a rationalization.

''We're not embarrassed,'' he said. ''When we signed Lovie Smith to a four-year contract, it was a market-value contract for coaches who had not been a head coach in the NFL. He received a fair deal. And he'll receive a fair deal again.''

In any definition of fairness, trust me, Lovie has all the leverage. He'll decide what's fair and what isn't, and if he doesn't like the offer, he'll tell the public in his low-key, dignified way that he and his family will test the waters. Phillips should realize Smith has won the war and fork over the contract. All that could sabotage him is a lousy Super Sunday, and most agree the Bears at least will stay competitive with the Colts. Lovie has passed the tests. We don't have to love Rex Grossman, but Smith was right that the Bears could win with him as long as Rex didn't lose games. We don't have to like the Tank Johnson decisions, including the judge's permission to let him travel to Miami, but he seems to have stayed out of trouble the past month.

Most telling, Lovie has become the toast of a town that didn't have much time for him as recently as last week, when Mike Ditka dominated the hype. We're tough on coaches and managers around here, but Smith never sniped back even when the criticism was harsh. He's a classy, likable man who will be accepted as such, never thought possible in the domain of the terminally wired Ditka. Nor was Smith ever so mistaken to play the race card when things were going poorly, as Dusty Baker did more than once at Wrigley Field. When it comes to sports, Chicago is color-blind and tunnel-visioned. Win, and they love you. Lose, and they don't.

For all the tributes to Smith and Colts coach Tony Dungy for breaking racial barriers, it was important to hear a jolting, Bears-related reminder. Eleanor Pollard Towns is the 85-year-old daughter of Fritz Pollard, the NFL's first black player and coach in the 1920s. On Wednesday, ESPN.com ran a column in which she said Bears founder George Halas, Virginia McCaskey's father, helped support a color barrier in that era. ''He certainly did a lot to keep my father from going any further than he did,'' Pollard Towns said. ''I have heard my father talk about that down through the years.''

Fritz Pollard III, Pollard's grandson, was just as vocal. ''With George Halas, as great as he was, he did so much to try to keep African Americans out of the league. Here, Lovie Smith leads his team to the Super Bowl,'' he told the Web site. ''But it was a different age.''

Today, a black coach can make history and demand one of the highest salaries in his profession. Let's just hope the Bears get it right this time.

Jay Mariotti is a regular on ''Around the Horn'' at 4 p.m. weekend on ESPN. Send e-mail to inbox@suntimes.com with name, hometown and daytime phone number. Letters run Sunday.