I'm not sure I get this. Grossman had a bad Super Bowl - after having had a bad series of games prior. Clearly, he had some good games this season. But he did lead all NFL quarterbacks in poor games as well. Rush Limbaugh however, thinks it's racial:
LIMBAUGH: And before we go to the break here, folks, I've got to get something off my chest. You know, the game was the game. And the game was what it was. But I - I can't handle anymore press criticism of Rex Grossman. They're writing his name W-R-E-C-K-S. They're just -- worst quarterback ever to play in the Super Bowl. And it's been like this since the Green Bay game -- actually since the Arizona game, a little crescendo of it in the Green Bay game, the last game of the season for the Bears. And it's just unrelenting! It's just -- they're focusing on this guy like they don't focus on anybody! And I tell you, I know what it is. The media, the sports media, has got social concerns that they are first and foremost interested in, and they're dumping on this guy -- Rex Grossman -- for one reason, folks, and that's because he is a white quarterback...
LIMBAUGH: It's, yeah, they're just all over this guy. They can't wait for this guy to fail. They are hoping he fails.
CALLER: Yes, they're terrible.
LIMBAUGH: They're talking about before the game, they're talking about him as the worst quarterback ever to play in the Super Bowl and they're asking [Bears head coach] Lovie Smith all during the week, "When are you going to bench the guy, Lovie? At what point in the game?" And that's the only time Lovie Smith apparently lost his cool a little bit during the week with, with media sessions. You know what this is: The media - you, you know the social things. I don't need to go into this.
CALLER: Well --
LIMBAUGH: They, they just want this guy not to do well 'cause he's a white quarterback.
CALLER: Even during the game last night. Before, before they went on the air they were all saying who they were going to pick and why and everything and when the, you know, the - they made their first runback with the score - then they started turning the tables on everything. It's like, "Now, wait a minute. I heard what you said before the game started." You know? Now they're changing tunes because --
LIMBAUGH: Well, because they're -- no -- they were all acting surprised. Everybody was acting, "Whoa. Grossman can actually complete a pass. Why nobody thought this would happen. Let's stop everything and give him the MVP now. He actually completed a pass." But he came through for them in the end. All those fumbles. The wounded-duck interceptions. He gave them the copy they wanted to write today all last week.
CALLER: Well --
LIMBAUGH: They were hoping to write that Grossman was an embarrassment and that Lovie Smith needs to seriously bring in somebody to compete with him next training camp. I can, look it, I feel for the guy. He's, apparently, bores, bears up under it rather well or has borne up under it rather well or so his teammates say and so forth. But the guy's been targeted for destruction.
I think Limbaugh's off-base here. Grossman had an up-and-down season, which is not all that unusual for a young, first-year starter. But the nature of sports radio, sports television, and internet sports is to over-analyze, overstate, over-hype, and over-criticize. If Grossman is being 'targeted for destruction,' it's because his poor play in the most important games of the season put him right in the crosshairs.
Audio is here.
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