Trading down could net Bears quarterback of future.

Byline: Mike Downey

Downey's Eleven:

1. Leave it to the Bears to gummy up the works. I hate to see them lose Refrigerator Jr., Dewayne Robertson, who now goes to New York to be a jumbo Jet. A couple of months ago, a Super Bowl was won by a killer defense over a killer offense, yet the Bears seem to believe they need two new quarterbacks more than they do a top defensive lineman. I don't get it.

2. OK, what now? Here's what: First you take the Unknown Lineman at No. 13. (It's a bunch of nobodies with large bodies_take your pick.) Then you take a quarterback at No. 22. If Kyle Boller is there, grab him. (No way Byron Leftwich lasts to 13, much less to 22.) If somebody beats you to Boller, then you go for Rex Grossman, just so Green Bay can't.

3. And now an observation made recently by the Minnesota Vikings coach, Mike Tice: "This is about a 12-man draft," he said before Friday's trade. "A lot of good football players after that, but there's only about 12 difference-makers." Look who picks 13th.

4. How is the Chicago Fire Department fixed for future backdraft choices? Boller's great-grandfather, grandfather, father and two uncles all were firemen. If the NFL doesn't pan out, Boller says he would follow gladly in their vulcanized boot steps. (A big civic improvement on a past Bears first-round pick, who at UCLA used a phony handicapped parking pass.)

5. Got to tell you, in high school Boller was just unreal. Senior year he passed for 4,838 yards and 59 touchdowns. I see that at least one NFL mock draft (CBS SportsLine) has Boller going as high as 10th. But others (Tribune, Sun-Times) have him as low as 29th. USA Today even dropped Boller right out of the first round. (No way.) I hope the Bears do get him. This guy is every bit as good as Carson Palmer.

A much more sensible move would have been hanging onto the No. 4 pick and sticking with Robertson, a can't-miss guy on every NFL team's list. Mini-Fridge Robertson could have helped the Bears sooner, not later. Now you can't be sure that the Bears will even get a player in this draft who can crack their 2003 starting lineup. I really do like Boller, though. So much so, I promise not to squawk if they take him at No. 13 rather than wait for No. 22. They've gambled this much, might as well let it ride.

6. To follow up on No. 2 (above), if anybody needs him in a hurry, Grossman supposedly is planning to watch the NFL draft in Chicago on TV at his sister's house. He is a native Midwesterner (from Indiana) who says he would be equally happy as a Bear or a Packer. You could help Chicago either way, Rex. If you end up playing up there with Brett Favre, hurry him into retirement, would you?

7. Willis McGahee of Miami isn't the only running back who is fighting back from a serious injury. Justin Fargas from USC is almost 100 percent again. I know the Bears need defense, but Fargas' father was an actor on TV's "Starsky and Hutch" who played a character named Huggy Bear. If we can't have a back called "Sweetness," couldn't we at least have Son of Huggy Bear?

8. The hockey game between the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and the Dallas Stars went five overtimes. Can't they use penalty kicks or something? I have heard of sudden-death OT, but this was prolonged-death OT. It was the first game I've ever heard of where a doctor had to treat a Zamboni driver for exhaustion.

9. In horse-racing news, Dick Vitale and Rick Pitino are co-owners of a 2-year-old colt called Awesome Baby. I hear the horse can't keep his mouth shut and can't stay in one place for very long.

10. Well, the bad news for Jee-kuk Ryu is that after throwing a baseball at a rare and protected species of bird in Florida, the Cubs have demoted the pitcher has to a lower-level minor-league team. The good news for Jee-kuk is at least he didn't hit the bird with a cell phone.

11. By the way, Bears' scouts have clocked that fan who ran onto the field at the White Sox game at 4.9 seconds for 40 yards and have measured that phone throw at the Cubs game with an eye on a possible third-round pick at quarterback. Who ever thought Chicago's new "monsters of the Midway" would turn out to be our fans?

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