TODAY’S NFL PLAYOFF GAMES : AFC: N.Y. JETS vs. CLEVELAND; NFC: WASHINGTON vs. CHICAGO : Bears, on the Growl as Usual, Send Flutie Against Redskins

The National Football League’s incumbent champion Chicago Bears will begin their campaign for Pasadena’s Super Bowl XXI with an NFC division playoff engagement against the Washington Redskins today at Soldier Field.

The Bears are favored. They are rested. They are rough. They are ready.

They are also cruising for a bruising.

If not now, maybe later.

Because if and when Chicago’s bid for another Super Bowl championship fails, this team once again has set itself up to be accused of being too distracted by controversies, of concentrating too much on outside interests instead of on football, and of, well, just plain asking for it.

Then again, maybe the Bears really do thrive on this stuff. Maybe they will keep right on putting their bodies where their mouths are.

Let’s see, what’s been happening lately?

Gabby Gary Fencik knocking Iron Mike Ditka’s offense? Ditka knocking Fencik? Fencik stiff-arming the press for getting him in Dutch with the coach? Nah, that’s old stuff already.

Willie Gault’s wife calling Jim McMahon a fool? Dan Hampton being pulled over for drunk driving? Otis Wilson hitting Pittsburgh’s Louis Lipps upside the head? NBC’s Charlie Jones insulting Wilson? Ditka insulting Jones? Nah, that’s old stuff already.

What about McMahon watching Doug Flutie take his place at quarterback and then saying Flutie “doesn’t look comfortable” back there?

What about William Perry eating his way beyond 350 pounds and running his weight-clause fine tab up to $41,000 and beginning to resemble two refrigerators? Or Ditka not only pulling Perry from the offense but also threatening to bulldoze him right off the team?

What about Ditka, before his team plays even one playoff game, releasing his own music video, a sequel to the smash-hit “Super Bowl Shuffle,” in which the coach cavorts with musicians and dancing girls and even does a bump-and-grind?

It’s called “Iron Mike” and it hit the stores this week, with Ditka even previewing it for his team on New Year’s Eve.

Maybe this is what Bears were meant to do. Growl, eat and dance.

They do play a bit of football on the side, don’t forget, and play it so well that they have won 34 of their last 38 games. At home, the Bears have been exceptionally tough, to the point that Washington Coach Joe Gibbs this week called Soldier Field “the last place you want to go,” and the Bears “probably the last team you’d want to play.”

On the other hand, Gibbs is poor-mouthing like mad. He might be trying to talk the Bears into a nap. Gibbs is going on and on about the Redskins’ injuries, about the Bears deserving to be “a lopsided favorite,” about their defense being “maybe the best that’s ever played,” about all sorts of reasons why Washington should not take this game.

He neglects to mention that the Redskins have won 13 of 17 games this season, that they stymied the Rams last week and stripped the ball away five times, that quarterback Jay Schroeder is 11-0 in games in which Washington led entering the fourth quarter and that the Redskins have won 31 in a row when one of their running backs gains 100 or more yards.

Since 1982, Washington has the best winning percentage in the NFL, .756. The Bears, at .697, are second best.

Granted, it will not be easy for the Redskins today, what with grizzled offensive linemen Joe Jacoby and Russ Grimm trying to overcome a broken hand bone and bruised ribs, respectively. Tight end Don Warren’s Achilles’ heel is bothering him, Terry Orr’s shoulder is out of whack, and wide receiver Gary Clark’s ankle is so tender that he has “a little hitch in his get-along,” as Gibbs put it.

Warned Chicago defensive end Richard Dent: “The last animal you want to see is a wounded animal.”

It was only two seasons ago that the Redskins thought the Bears were in no shape to beat them, since Steve Fuller was filling in at quarterback for the injured McMahon. The Bears won, 23-19, at RFK Stadium, advancing to the NFC title game against San Francisco.

Last season, they did not meet in the postseason, but the Bears did beat up Washington on the fourth weekend of the regular schedule, 45-10.

This season, the Bears have barely gotten by offensively, rarely showing the sort of offense that last season topped 35 points six times, including in the Super Bowl. The sawed-off shotgun, Flutie, looked good in their easy season-ending win at Dallas, but he has started NFL games only twice.

McMahon, out for this season and possibly next, did not mean to be cruel when he said Flutie looked uncomfortable running the offense, and Flutie said he did not take it personally. Nor did Flutie seem to mind when McMahon said he expected no challenge for the starting job when he returned. “He may be right. He may be wrong,” Flutie said, sweetly.

Flutie says everything sweetly. Together with Walter (Sweetness) Payton, the Bears have a backfield that could affect a body’s sugar content. Even Ditka said he has to ease up on Flutie sometimes, because, “It’s like hollering at Bambi.”

Not so the Fridge. Ditka was fed up, pardon the expression, when the defensive tackle recently ballooned to 350 pounds, although Perry insisted that he weighed less. “If he doesn’t take it off, he’ll be in jeopardy of not being here, period, and I think I speak for the whole organization when I say that,” Ditka said. “I’m saying it’ll be a different color jersey next year.” Size XXXXXL.

By New Year’s Day, Perry, who must have marked midnight with low-cal champagne, was tipping (and we do mean tipping) the scales at 342 at the Bears’ warm-weather training camp in Suwanee, Ga.

Perry’s retort: “Coach Ditka’s gonna speak. He’s the head coach and he runs the show. So you just sit back and listen.”

Coach Ditka’s gonna sing and dance, too. The players sat back and listened, some of them in amazement, on New Year’s Eve as Ditka shut off the game films and switched on “Iron Mike,” a music video that hit the shelves that day with a pre-sale of 10,000 copies. By Friday morning, it was already selling like crazy.

According to Ditka, there are “a lot of long-faced ballplayers here now” because they discovered he can outdance them.

This is the same Ditka who, a few days earlier, mentioned at a Suwanee press conference how much the Bears had cut back on last season’s nonsense. “A lot of the fun’s gone out of it. There (haven’t been) all the antics we did a year ago. I think it’s more serious now--and that’s good.”

Yeah, sure. And if the Bears win the Super Bowl again, he probably will introduce Mike Ditka and the Ditkettes.