http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...bears-headlines</p> <font color="#0000ff">Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb opened some ears when he told HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" that black quarterbacks are criticized more often than white quarterbacks. McNabb stood by his statements Wednesday but also expressed a little empathy for the Bears' Rex Grossman.</font></p> <font color="#0000ff">...</font></p> <font color="#0000ff">"Off hand, I probably wouldn't give you that. I wouldn't know," McNabb said. "Was I? Yeah, I was criticized a little bit. [More] than Rex Grossman? I don't think anybody, especially me, was criticized that much. "But you know what? Early on, nobody talked bad about Rex Grossman. It was just late in the year. Rex Grossman … although he may not have been playing well toward the end of the year, they still finished the season off [13-3]. And it took for his head coach to say, 'He's our guy, he's the quarterback of this team, we're going to roll with him.' " McNabb said people are trying to dig too deep, that he made his comments not to single out anyone, but to say black quarterbacks have to do a little extra to prove themselves. "I never said Peyton [Manning] doesn't get criticized," McNabb said. "I never said Carson [Palmer] doesn't get criticized. I never said Tom [Brady] doesn't get criticized, because they do. We get criticized a little differently." Bears coach Lovie Smith was asked about McNabb's thoughts on Grossman and his comments about black quarterbacks. "If Donovan McNabb said it, he's a guy I respect a lot. And for him to have that type of feelings, there has to be, I assume, something to it," Smith said. "But I'm looking at Donovan from afar. He has to answer those questions. "I just know what our quarterback has gone through. I would agree with that first part of what he said, that Rex Grossman has taken more criticism than any quarterback in the National Football League. I'll definitely agree with that."</font> </p> I think I said something to that effect the other day. Maybe McNabb is listening to me </p>
