LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Minnesota safety Darren Sharper remembers it clearly, even though it's been more than two months since Chicago quarterback Rex Grossman threw a late touchdown pass to beat the Vikings at the Metrodome.
What happened next seems un-Rex like. The Bears' young quarterback started to talk trash to the Vikings. Apparently big-time.
"In 10 years in the league I haven't had a quarterback do that any time to me, so we definitely remember that and the guys in the locker room remember that," Sharper said Wednesday as the teams got ready for a rematch Sunday at Soldier Field.
"Will that decide the game on Sunday? I don't think so, but it gives us a little extra motivation," Sharper added.
Earlier in the Sept. 24 game, Grossman was intercepted by Antoine Winfield, who went seven yards for a TD that put Minnesota ahead.
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But Grossman brought the Bears back, hitting a 24-yard pass to Rashied Davis with less than two minutes left for a 19-16 win.
Then he celebrated, spicing it with some salty comments to the Vikings.
"I probably said some things that I regret, but the whole game their DBs were talking to me, just really getting under my skin a little bit and probably more than I should have allowed it to," Grossman recalled Wednesday.
"But they were just yapping the whole game. I threw the interception for the touchdown and Dwight Smith came up and smacked me on my helmet and was in my face. ... When we finally got the touchdown pass I probably went overboard a little bit with some of my emotions, some of the things I said."
Admitting he was angry at the time, Grossman wouldn't be specific Wednesday about what he said but added that his comments were directed at Smith and not the three-time Pro Bowler Sharper.
"I probably just should have gone to the sidelines and started celebrating," he said. "It's a situation that if I'm ever in again, I'll just stay calm and just go off to the sidelines and never say a word. He (Sharper) is blowing it up a little bit. What can you say really?"
Sharper didn't reveal the exact wording of Grossman's comments, either, but said the Chicago quarterback crossed the line.
"He was kind of beating his chest, talking trash, this and that," Sharper said. "You guys are this!' Whatever, Whatever. Some curse words, stuff like that. He might've been caught up in the moment, but the thing about it is you always get another chance to see him and we get that this Sunday."
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Bring it on, said Bears center Olin Kreutz, suggesting that the Vikings are trying to get into Grossman's head.
"Rex can talk whenever he wants. Anybody on the field can talk when they want and that's where you handle it, on the field," Kreutz said.
"That's the problem with the NFL. Everybody always issues threats through the media. No one ever really does anything about it, so that's something I'm kind of tired of. I've been here nine years and everybody's always talking tough in the media, but there's never any fights. If you're going to talk tough, I mean, go fight somebody."
Grossman has enough problems already, coming off a three-interception, one-fumble performance in a 17-13 loss to the Patriots that has some questioning how far he can take the Bears in the playoffs. He's thrown 11 interceptions in the last six games, but despite his uneven performances, Chicago (9-2) can clinch the NFC North with a victory Sunday.
If the Bears are worried about Grossman, they're not saying. But coach Lovie Smith offered this much: the team is not concerned about trash talking -- real or imagined.
"A lot of things go on during the game," Smith said. "If you are describing Rex Grossman, 'trash talker' is probably not one of the ways I would describe him. Are things said during the course of a football game from both sides? Every game. This game will be won on the field. That has no bearing really on the game."
Notes:@ DB Ricky Manning has rejoined the Bears after sitting out a one-game suspension handed out by the NFL. Manning pleaded no contest in September to a felony assault charge stemming from an altercation with a man at a Los Angeles restaurant in April.
