MIAMI – Poor Peyton Manning. He finally gets to a Super Bowl after so many disappointments, only to have the opposing quarterback steal the show.

Manning won the game, as well as the MVP award. He did his whole act, waving his arms and pointing his finger and scurrying back and forth behind his linemen shouting instructions. That’s all true. But no one will remember much about Manning’s performance in Sunday night’s rainy NFL championship game.

They will never forget Rex Grossman’s, however. He wrote his name into Super Bowl history in indelible stink.

INT Rex.

The Chicago Bears’ wildly erratic young quarterback was wild and erratic. He chased fumbled snaps backward for 11-yard losses. Just as the Bears had an opportunity to get back into the game, Grossman threw interceptions on consecutive fourth-quarter possessions.

For good measure, the first was returned 56 yards for a touchdown.

It wasn’t easy for Grossman to capture the spotlight. He spent less time on the field than Prince. In the first half, Manning and the Colts’ offense held onto the ball for 20 of the 30 minutes.

Keeping Rex on the sideline was good for the game of football, but not for the entertainment value of the CBS telecast. As things turned out, it wasn’t really all that good for the Colts, either.

Coach Tony Dungy and Manning made a key adjustment at halftime: Get Rex the ball. It worked to perfection. Manning was having trouble getting the Colts into the end zone. Not Grossman. After Manning led them to a series of field goals, Grossman threw a touchdown to nickel corner Kelvin Hayden.

“I was trying to throw it so (Muhsin Muhammad) could make a play on it on a hitch-and-go,” Grossman said. “The corner got his eye on it and he made a good play on it.”

Next possession, still within striking distance, Grossman threw a deep ball, intended for Bernard Berrian. In the NFC championship game, Berrian caught a pass like that while falling backward and rolled into the end zone. This time, Colts safety Bob Sanders broke on the ball and picked it off.

That was the eighth turnover in this messy, fun little game. It was the third involving Grossman.

It was fascinating to see how INT Rex would handle himself after this game. All week, he’d chafed at media questions about his regular-season mood swings. Some weeks, his passer rating was over 100. Other weeks, it was under 10. Once, it was 0.0.

Late in the week, Grossman suggested doubts about his ability to win a Super Bowl were a result of media “ignorance.” His head coach, Lovie Smith, was equally tired of the line of questioning. The genial Smith’s only display of temper all week was prompted by the umpteenth Grossman question, when he snapped that he wasn’t thinking about benching Brian Urlacher, either.

If Grossman had delivered one of his better games, the Bears very likely would have won. At least, he might have forced Manning to step out of his comfort zone and make some riskier throws.

“He threw a lot of check-downs with the weather like this,” Grossman said. “I don’t know how many balls (running back) Joseph Addai caught.”

Translation: Manning won the MVP award without having to strain himself. Grossman was sort of sneering at that, but he’s the one who made it possible.

In a sense, Grossman was standing where Manning has been in past postseasons. As great as his regular-season numbers were, Manning came up small in playoff games before this year. Given a chance to gloat, he did what he does best. He passed.

“I don’t play that card,” Manning said. “I don’t play that game. I always wanted to be on a team that won the Super Bowl. That’s what this is all about. We truly won this game as a team tonight and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Win and you’re part of the team. Lose and you’re the quarterback who came up small. It isn’t necessarily always fair. Sunday night, though, it probably was.

Manning, his career capped once and for all, looked more relieved than excited. Grossman, his career in Chicago now less than certain, looked like he wanted to smack someone – say, the reporter who asked if he felt he’d blown the game.

“That’s a weird question the way you asked it and I’m not going to answer it,” Grossman said.

The questions will only get harder to hear and to answer for Grossman until he’s standing where Manning stood Sunday night. The thing is, you kind of thought Manning would get here eventually. He’s that good. This could well be it for Grossman.

His career could be defined by one messy, sloppy, dreary night in Miami.

Oh, and the weather was pretty bad, too.