Bear Digest

No backtracking by Ben Johnson on postgame rant about Packers

The Bears coach went viral for his foul language about the Packers, but on Monday he not only stood by it, he indicated he had George McCaskey's backing.
Gene Chamberlain|
Ben Johnson isn't backing down from his postgame rant.
Ben Johnson isn't backing down from his postgame rant. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears-Packers rivalry should have been put into the closet and stored away until next season at this point.

Apparently it lives beyond the borders of schedules.

A video of Ben Johnson's postgame rant in the locker room dropping F-bombs about the Packers went viral but the Bears coach is not backing down now from feelings expressed postgame with his talk to the team, or with a quick, short handshake afterward he had with Packers coach Matt LaFleur.

"It's a big game," Johnson sai. "First playoff game at home in a  while and we hadn't won a playoff game in 15 years or so. But certainly the opponent in and of itself, it means a lot to the city, to this organization and that's something that we lay into a little bit as coaches and players is we know how big it is when Chicago plays Green Bay."

It was pointed out to Johnson that the handshake seemed a bit brusk. Some might call it insincere.

"This is a rivalry and the city of Chicago and Green Bay, it needs to be a rivalry,"  Johnson said.

The ownership McCaskey family often frowned in the past on players or coaches even  using foul language in discussing anything and Johnson's language in that locker room moment didn't seem G-rated. Asked if he and George McCaskey were on the same wave length about what was said, Johnson made it clear this is different than normal circumtances.

It was the Packers.

"I mean, like I said before, there's a rivalry that exists between these two teams, something that I fully recognize and I'm a part of," Johnson said. "And yeah, I just, I don't like that team.

"George and I have talked and we're on the same page."

Look for Packers-Bears 2026 to supersede the traditional start to the NFL season featuring the defending Super Bowl champion. It would be the game everyone talks about all offseason.

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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.