Sometimes I find the best way to relieve stress is to step away from the problem and forget about it for a couple minutes. So please excuse me while I try to purge the Cubs from my thoughts.

Breathe in. Serenity now. Breathe out.

There, I feel better already. With my conscience finally free of the Cubs until at least the end of this column, I can focus on my other Chicago sports love: Da Bears.

Wait a minute. Memories of San Diego and the preseason are starting to come back. Nightmares of the Super Bowl are flooding my mind. I think I feel a headache coming on. Stress … returning.

I guess there’s no way to escape the stress that comes with being a Chicago sports fan, and for Bears fans the main source of this pain is the quarterback position.

While most of the blame falls on Rex Grossman, the issue extends to backups Brian Griese and Kyle Orton as well. That’s because the seemingly endless answer to the Bears quarterback question and the search for the ever-elusive franchise signal caller is not on this Bears roster.

There have been times when Rex, the prodigal son, has looked like the second coming of Brett Favre and the man Halas Hall has been searching for since before I was born, but recent memories paint a different picture. The memories that most of us recall are ones of a butter-fingered gunslinger throwing off his back foot to guys in the wrong uniforms. Not exactly an image that invokes confidence in the fans.

Grossman’s career numbers don’t help either. A 54.3 completion percentage and 27:27 touchdown to interception ratio aren’t stats you’re often going to see in Canton, Ohio.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Grossman – besides people calling him “Sexy Rexy” – is all the hype that he has yet to fulfill. He taunted us like we were a Vikings defensive back last season by playing like an MVP candidate until his Monday Night Football meltdown at Arizona in Week 6 when he was responsible for six turnovers. It was only downhill from there.

Of course, Rex could prove me wrong, but he’s going to have to do it soon, otherwise he is in serious jeopardy of getting the Carlos Zambrano treatment at Soldier Field.

If Rex isn’t the man, then the simple answer is to bench him, right?

Although that idea was tossed around at the end of last season in Chicago, that philosophy won’t work this year due to the loss of Thomas Jones.

The thinking behind yanking Grossman was to put someone in who can control the clock by handing the ball off to Jones and letting the veteran runner and the defense win the game. The problem is that with Jones gone, the unproven Cedric Benson will be relied upon to carry the offense in his first year as a starter, and after his debut he doesn’t seem ready to take on responsibility. With defenses locking in on Benson, they make the Bears beat them with their quarterback.

With the offense being forced to use the passing game, does either backup have the ability to play better than Rex if they are put in the starter’s role?

Throughout his career, Griese has shown that he is an underachiever. He had a superior running game in Denver and an offensive genius for a coach in Tampa and wasn’t able to win with either team. What about Griese makes anyone think he can win in Chicago with average receivers and a young running back?

As for Orton, he looked great during the preseason – and I’m not just talking about his new clean, shaved look – but his performances were against third-string defenses. Facing the speed of a starting defense, Orton will be pressured heavily by the same kind of blitzing that he encountered in 2005, and I don’t think defenders are exactly afraid of his speed and ability to make plays under pressure.

The Bears can win with any of these quarterbacks. Their defense and special teams are so superior that they should have enough to at least win the division, but no quarterback on this team is the answer for the long term.

The window on the Bears championship run isn’t even close to being over. The core of their defense is young and mostly signed to long-term deals, but it’s a shame to think about the dynasty that could be passing this team by because they don’t have a consistent quarterback to rely on.

Oh man, I think my headache just got worse.

Kyle Betts is a senior in Communications. He can be reached at [email protected].