Bear Digest

George McCaskey Backs Ben Johnson's Rant with New Packers Nickname

The Chicago Bears' owner has a hilarious new way to refer to his team's rival during an interview he did at the Super Bowl with WGN.
Gene Chamberlain|
The Packers are the Bears' rivals and George McCaskey's comments certify it.
The Packers are the Bears' rivals and George McCaskey's comments certify it. | Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Ben Johnson had the NFL, probably the extended Matt LaFleur family and their friends all mortified this past season when he dropped expletives in a postgame locker room rant about Green Bay following the big divisional playoff win by the Bears over the Packers.

So on Monday afterward, while the league reacted like basically a collection of prudes, Johnson was asked at a press conference what Bears owner George McCaskey might think of all that language and taunting of their rivals.

First Johnson spelled it out clearly.

"This is a rivalry. The city of Chicago, Green Bay. It needs to be a rivalry,” he said.

If this wasn't clear enough, he added what McCaskey thought.

"Like I said before, there's a rivalry that exists between these two teams," Johnson said. "Something that I fully recognize and I'm a part of. I don't like that team. So, (Chairman) George (H. McCaskey) and I have talked and we're on the same page.”

The Bears' owner never talked about it but didn't address media after the season ended as he did so often in the past following losing seasons. It was difficult to really judge what he thought.

WGN's Jarrett Payton caught up with McCaskey at the Super Bowl and did get a reaction to the vulgarities. In this, McCaskey had a brief description for the ages of the Packers.

"We talked before the season and a couple of things that I shared with him are if you look at a hundred years of history, whether the Bears have a successful season has a lot to do with how we do against Team Voldemort," McCaskey told Payton, the son of Bears legend Walter Payton.

McCaskey noted how the series impacts greatly upon whether they have a  successful season, although there have been times like 2001 when the Bears got swept and still won the division.

The real thought Payton wanted confirmed was whether this type of attitude  toward Team Voldemort in the postgame locker room had been give the OK.

"And the other thing I told him was when you're with your players you've got to be authentic," McCaskey said. "They can spot a phony. You got to do what comes naturally.

"So yeah, we talked and were on the same page."

Payton's full interview included McCaskey talking about giving the old Payton stiff-arm to a fan.

The rivalry continues, and in the future there could be a chance for Johnson to get  more than two wins over LaFleurs. With Mike LaFleur as head coach in Arizona, the Bears could see a LaFleur-coached team three times in the regular season, although not next year unless the Cardinals and Bears faced each other in the playoffs.

At this point, though, you have to wonder how Johnson's rant might have played with the people around the league who voted for Coach of the Year. Maybe it explains why he could finish fourth after so many miracle wins with a quarterback many last year were already foolishly referring to as a bust.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.