Chicago ? Jay Leno and David Letterman have made Bears jokes almost nightly.

A columnist from the Los Angeles Times referred to the Bears as “Da Bums” and as “the Munsters of the Midway.”

A gentleman from ESPN said of the Bears, “You wonder how they reached the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl.”

A fellow from a Chicago paper proposed after the Super Bowl that it might be best for all concerned if Rex Grossman went to a different team.

A football writer for Sports Illustrated suggested the Bears try to trade for Houston’s David Carr, who is the quarterback of one of the NFL’s worst teams.

A guy from Fox Sports cracked “if Grossman were added to the presidential ticket, Barack Obama probably couldn’t carry Cook County.”

A columnist for the Denver Post wrote Grossman “stinks” and, furthermore, “Truth is, the Bears are vastly overrated.”

That guy put those last two comments on the record before the Super Bowl.

What is going on here?

How did the Bears go from being one of the top teams in football to the butts of jokes and to the targets for all sorts of verbal and critical abuse?

How did a seven-point underdog lose a game by 12 points and suddenly turn into a different kind of dog?

How did a team win its division a month early, win its conference championship game by 25 points, win 15 of its games and lose four, only to end up on the receiving end of an almost daily bashing?

A week ago this day, the Bears were on a wet field in Florida with the favored Indianapolis Colts, a team led by perhaps the best quarterback of the 21st Century.

At the end of a quarter, the score was Bears 14, Colts 6.

Chicago’s fans must have been as proud as punch. Their heroes were up by eight. A 92-yard kickoff return put the Colts in a hole. Grossman threw a touchdown pass. Thomas Jones broke a 52-yard run. In a word, the Bears looked super.

At halftime, the Bears were behind, but only by two. They didn’t touch the ball much. But there was a Colts fumble and a missed field goal. It was still anybody’s game.

At the end of three quarters, the score was 22-17.

It wasn’t a blowout. It wasn’t a Bears embarrassment. The favored Colts were up five. They did not score a touchdown on the Bears’ defense in the third quarter. Manning passed for 54 yards in this quarter – big deal.

In the end, Indianapolis did win. A team that was expected to prevail by a huge majority of NFL analysts – many of them former pro coaches and players with a certain amount of expertise – did, in fact, beat the Bears.

Hadn’t the Bears had a spectacular season? Weren’t the Colts supposed to beat them? Why did the Bears suddenly seem to be getting a worse beating in the postgame than they did in the game?

I have been to Super Bowls decided 42-10, 46-10, 48-21 and 52-17.

I saw a team John Elway quarterbacked be torn to shreds 55-10. Now that’s the kind of thrashing a team could get embarrassed about.

Denver obviously should have gotten rid of that Elway bum.

Twenty-three teams lost games from Super Bowls I through XL by margins as bad or worse than the Bears’ just was.

But now they are bums? They were lucky to make the playoffs? They were vastly overrated? They ought to dump a quarterback who went 15-4 and go get the quarterback of the Houston Texans?

Madness, madness.