Bears Notes 'Injuries' will tell who sees action

LAKE FOREST -- Only a few minutes after the Bears' 34-31 overtime win Sunday over Tampa Bay, quarterback Rex Grossman made clear in no uncertain terms how he feels about getting playing time in the final two meaningless regular-season games.

"I'd love to keep playing.," Grossman said.

Coach Lovie Smith indicated after the game that he'll play starters, but only with a caveat attached.

Smith said ". . . everybody who's healthy and ready to go will play."

The key word is healthy.

The Bears' injury list of late has been very long, so if Smith interprets injuries liberally -- and with the playoffs at stake there's every reason to believe he will -- half their starters could be on the sideline for the Christmas Eve game at Detroit.

The importance of the home-field advantage through the NFC playoffs wasn't lost on the Bears after they won it Sunday -- even if they've lost their last three home playoff games.

"Just our fans, man. They're behind us, for the most part they're behind us when we're playing well out there," linebacker Brian Urlacher said. "It's going to be cold; not many people like coming to the cold (to play).

It's huge. Traveling stinks, so we get to stay home and it's comfortable there."

The NFL Network has taken games to its pay-for-view setup, and now they'll take the Pro Bowl voting results announcement.

Rather than release results of voting in the middle of the next-to-last week of the season, results will be announced on a 3 p.m. show on NFL Network today.

It's possible the Bears could get six or seven players on the NFC team.