Smith plays it down the middle nicely

If it seemed as though the Texas twang in Lovie Smith’s voice was more pronounced Sunday as he wore his NFC champions cap and T-shirt, maybe it’s because it’s finally easy to just be himself.

Although Smith holds the title of head coach of the Chicago Bears, he’ll never be Da Coach. That’s a moniker reserved for Mike Ditka. Twenty-one years have done nothing to diminish the hold the Bears’ lone Super Bowl championship team has on this town, and no one was more beloved than the volcanic Ditka.

Smith has been more tolerated than celebrated. The fans wanted him to jettison Rex Grossman at quarterback, and show more emotion like you-know-who.

Now there isn’t much else to ask of Smith. He has his own niche in history, as the first African American coach to lead a team to the Super Bowl. (A few hours later, the Indianapolis Colts’ Tony Dungy joined him. But like the firstborn twin, Smith gets the nod on a technicality.) In his third year, Smith is winning at a pace matched only by Ditka and George Halas in the Bears’ annals, and he got to the Super Bowl one year faster than Ditka.

Smith is criticized for his lack of personality, which is as plain as his last name. Well, calmness is a personality trait too. Sometimes less is more desirable. Unlike Ditka, Smith never threw gum at a fan or challenged a radio show caller to a fight. No tirades, no meltdowns.

“He’s got a lot of people on his back and on his shoulders right now, and he’s done nothing but represent our people and represent the NFL, represent the Chicago Bears in a positive light,” Bears special teams ace Brendan Ayanbadejo said. “It couldn’t happen to a better person.”

“I’m ecstatic,” offensive tackle Frank Miller said. “I really am. He’s a great coach, great guy, great person. There is no one who deserves it more than him.”

Miller said Smith’s strength is his willingness to listen to players and incorporate their ideas. This season the veterans told him they could use some rest. So now, if they need a break during practice, it’s no problem.

These Bears didn’t capture hearts. They don’t prompt flowery prose -- or even a rap video. They just do whatever’s necessary to win ballgames.

“We haven’t been the flashiest of teams,” Miller conceded. “We don’t have the most talented guys around, except for [Brian] Urlacher.

“We’re not the Colts, that’s going to go out there and have this high-performance offense. We’re not New England, who has an established quarterback, a guy who has won three Super Bowls. We’re just a blue-collar team [that] puts on our boots, laces ‘em up and goes out there and works.”

It’s obvious that, just like their coach, the Bears are comfortable with who they are.

“We’ve taken on his attitude,” Urlacher said. “He never gets too high or too low, always in the middle.”

Smith was an assistant coach under Tony Dungy in Tampa Bay. Last week, Dungy said: “Lovie is a tremendous coach. He has a great knowledge of the game. He has a way of instilling confidence in his players. And that’s what I see in the Bears. We played them two years ago, and you could see the system coming in place. And now they’re doing the same thing, they’re just doing it with so much more confidence.”

This 39-14 victory over New Orleans was carpentry, not high-concept architecture.

The beauty was in the details. The Bears didn’t have a turnover. They were penalized only once: a false start midway through the fourth quarter, at a time Chicago was so comfortably ahead the bear mascot had donned cruise ship attire in anticipation of the team’s trip to Miami.

“It was a total team effort, but the coaches were the main reason we won this football game,” running back Thomas Jones said. “They had us very well-prepared.”

There you have it. The Saints could have used a little basic preparation. Next time you have second-and-10 at the fringe of field-goal range, Sean Payton, try running the ball to get better position instead of trying two passes that fall incomplete, leading to a kick that falls short. Or try running the ball when pinned on your four-yard line instead of setting up Drew Brees for a safety on an end zone intentional grounding call.

Actually, feel free to run any time you have Deuce McAllister and Reggie Bush on the field, instead of handing off to them a combined 10 times.

The Bears, meanwhile, got back to doing what they do. The defense held the NFL’s top-rated offense to 14 points. The Bears rushed for 196 yards and Grossman was good enough once again, completing 11 of 26 passes for 144 yards and a touchdown.

“This is the blueprint of the Chicago Bears tradition,” Grossman said. “Great defense, run the ball well.”

On a snowy day in Soldier Field, no less. It couldn’t get Bearier. And now Lovie Smith is a part of the Bears tableau ... and a part of civil rights history.

In 2007, there shouldn’t have to be a first African American anything, but we will pause for a moment to acknowledge this overdue bit of progress -- and to credit Smith’s work.

“I feel blessed to be in that position,” Smith said. “I’ll feel even better to be the first black coach to hold up the world championship trophy.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande, go to latimes.com/adandeblog.