What is the Rex Grossman Factor you ask? Why poor Rex? I’m from Chicago and he exemplifies what I’m about to write about. “The Rex Grossman Factor” consists of three parts, the first part would be to achieve a high level of success in his position, the second is to have his confidence destroyed by attacks from fans and media, and the third is the total collapse of everything he has aimed at his entire life.

Basically, Rex Grossman brought a winner wherever he went. He leading his Bloomington South (IN) High School team to a 5A title in 1998, passing for 3080 yards and 44 touchdowns. He was also named Player of the Year at Indiana and named to the All American team. Yes, Rex was on his way to do something special. Rated and labeled as one of the best prospective quarterbacks in the Midwest. He ranked in the top five in the nation.

He went to the University of Florida. I’m not going to bore you too much with statistics and crap, so bear with me. Rex was a Heisman Trophy finalist his sophomore year. Let’s face it, 9164 yards in three seasons speaks for itself, even if there’s no defense in college. He broke all kinds of records, fifth all-time in his conference by passing, the list goes on and on.

Drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round (22nd overall) and signed on July 25, 2003. Things were looking good for Rex and Chicago. We finally had a quarterback, even though I hadn’t seen an NFL snap in his life, he was the band-aid that was going to stop the Chicago quarterback’s bleeding. Rex was a winner, more promising than any quarterback the Bears had thrown onto the field.

Rex is then sidelined at the start of the 2003 season and Chris Chandler and Kordell Stewart get the call up as starting quarterback, under Dick Jauron.

Goodbye Dickie, hello Lovie. In 2004, Lovie, newly appointed head coach of the Chicago Bears, proclaims that “Rex is our quarterback.” Rex starts the season and three games later, he has a torn ACL late in the season. As Bears fans, we’re used to seeing our quarterbacks take a beating, so that’s okay, we’ll just have to move on without him.

Come 2005 and the Bears look great and feel great. Rex then breaks his ankle in a preseason game and misses most of the season. However, he was able to return at the end of the year and put the Bears past the Green Bay Packers to clinch a playoff spot. And then he was blown out by the Carolina Panthers in a game where Rex was tense and nervous and never found a rhythm the entire game.

Now this is our year. Come 2006 and Rex is healthy and can shoot the ball, we all think as Bears fans. We get through the first half of the season, Rex is named player of the month for September, he had seven games with a 100 passing rating and yes, five games that were atrocious. Mainly, he was what we had to work with and, in fact, he was working.

We’re going to the Super Bowl and Rex had already started taking flak for almost everything he did on the field, taking us to the Super Bowl wasn’t good enough for the media or the fans, we were calling a General, a Captain. , to take charge and lead our troops to victory. Well, I don’t think Rex ever wanted to be that, but he had this expectation that he created early in the season and he wanted to live up to it, putting so much pressure on himself to get to that level of play, that Rex had started to crumble. mentally, never really finding a way to consistently stay on top of his game. The Bears lose the Super Bowl to the Indianapolis Colts at the end of the season.

Now, if you were to talk to any Bears fan, it’s Rex Grossman’s fault that the Bears lost Super Bowl 41. In fact, after that, everything the Bears did wrong was Rex’s fault. The media and the fans, just day after day asking for his head, just saying the nastiest things and tearing the poor guy down. It was horrible.

2007 rolls around and Rex gets off to a couple of rocky starts when Soldier Field booes Rex Grossman just for being on the field and chants Brian Griese’s name. The boy from Indiana with the golden arm who was going to take us somewhere was finished. Having played in only 28 games, Rex had a 23-5 record.

“The Rex Grossman Factor” is that of the many things that make or break all of these athletes, it’s not what you see on the field or court. But it’s what these guys have to deal with day in and day out. All the exposure they get, especially in a big city like Chicago, finding a way to keep a level head and handle all the crap thrown at them.

I heard a song on the radio that someone had remixed, about Rex Grossman, when the Bears were undefeated in the fall of 2006. He was lord our savior. A year later people want to see his head in a guillotine. Because he didn’t win the Super Bowl and he played badly. He then got criticized to the point that no human being should, he’s not the devil and he’s not even that bad of a quarterback, but if you believe what you see and hear you’d think Rex Grossman would eat your kids and take away your pop warner football team to the bathroom.

My heart goes out to any of these guys who make a mistake on the field and can’t take the pressure. If we had people in our lives doing that to us every second of every day, some of us wouldn’t be able to do our homework and whatever. I know they’re professionals, and it’s what lifts them above everyone else, that’s why they get paid to play child’s games and be role models and super stars. But the fans and the media make it something that it doesn’t have to be.

Enough already! Stop trying to bring down all these guys, to me it’s the same as people beating up Jessica Simpson for gaining a few extra pounds or Britney Spears is at the bar having a drink. Why do we hold people like that to such a high standard? than ourselves. The simple fact of being in the public eye does not make you different from others, we are all the same. I hate to think that we live in a society where we feel better about ourselves by making other people feel completely inadequate. We are creatures of habit and repetition, most people who are bombarded with negativity, all the time, become susceptible to believing it themselves, practically destroying their will or desire to do anything.

So my friends it’s “The Rex Grossman Factor”