Playboy.com: From your rookie season on, you have always had tremendous support in the locker room and among your coaches. That's unusual in the NFL, where if a player gets injured they say, "Too bad," and get someone else. Why do you think you were able to maintain that support when other guys might have been forgotten men?

Rex Grossman: They see what I do in practice and they see the work I put in. I think there's also some sympathy for what I have been through. The guys saw all the rehab I had to do when I had the knee injury. They trust what I can do and they were excited about what I could do as a quarterback. One other factor -- nobody had really stepped up and gotten the job done at quarterback for the Bears, either. They believed in me and that always makes you feel great.

Playboy.com: How did you envision this season before it started? Did you see this team rolling through the first seven games undefeated and becoming a mid-season Super Bowl favorite?

Grossman: I knew we had a good team. People are surprised by how well we're doing on offense. But I used common sense. I know what I can do. I know what our great offensive line can do. I know what our receivers can do. I really like our offense and I really like our offensive coordinator (Ron Turner). So if we just went out and played the way we were supposed to play and feed off of our defense at the same time, I knew we were going to be tough to beat.

Playboy.com: Compare the coaching styles of the Bears' Lovie Smith and Steve Spurrier, your coach at the University of Florida.

Grossman: They are both great coaches who get their players ready to play. Both are extremely smart from an X's and O's point of view and both are gifted leaders. You want to play for both of those guys. They each have this certain edge that gets more from players than most other coaches.

I think Lovie's defensive expertise has helped the offense. He has drawn up a few plays for us that he knows can exploit defenses that are similar to ours. He knows the weakness of his defense and there are a lot of people that play a very similar defense. We've gotten a couple of touchdowns this year from his input on the offense.

Playboy.com: What's your opinion of Terrell Owens? Could he have helped the Bears this season had you signed him?

Grossman: I think he's a distraction. A lot of it is his fault. But the media also has an obsession with him. It has to be a distraction to any team. We're just fine with the receivers we have. He's a great player but we're doing just fine.