Bear Digest

Packers rivalry not far from Bears' minds even in a playoff hunt

The NFL's primordial feud took on new importance thanks to Ben Johnson's comments about Matt LaFleur, and now there's a lot more at stake.
Gene Chamberlain|
Cole Kmet is well-versed in Bears-Packers lore, and should be as a Chicago area native and one of the longest tenured Bears.
Cole Kmet is well-versed in Bears-Packers lore, and should be as a Chicago area native and one of the longest tenured Bears. | Tork Mason-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears-Packers rivalry is often talked about like a Hatfield-McCoys type of feud.

Those families were pikers compared to these teams.

From the sucker punch John "Tarzan" Taylor was alleged to have thrown that broke the nose of Packers tackle Howard Buck in the first game in 1921, to the first NFL ejections ever with Frank Hanny of the Bears and Green Bay’s Tillie Voss tossed for fighting in 1924, to a frustrated Packers fan running onto the field in 1936 and knocking out Bears lineman Ted Rosequist, to Charles Martin's towel hit list in 1986, to now into the 2020s, this is and always has been a true blood feud.

The bragging and giggling was loud in 1980 at Green Bay when kicker Chester Marcol won the season-opener by picking up a blocked overtime field goal and running in for a touchdown. The Packers were a little quieter in the return matchup at Soldier Field when Walter Payton, Roland Harper and Willie McClendon ran all over them in a revenge game, 61-7.

It's Aaron Rodgers saying "I still own you," and former Bears defensive tackle Justin Jones using the crudest vulgarities to describe Packers fans during a press conference.

For once, it's more than bragging rights, as both teams have nine wins and are pursuing the NFC North title.

It hasn't been this way since 2013, when Chris Conte let Randall Cobb sneak wide open downfield and Aaron Rodgers hit him for a 48-yard touchdown to win the NFC North in the closing seconds of the season finale.

“Growing up here in Chicago, it's a game that obviously I watched year-in and year-out," Bears tight end Cole Kmet said. "Being in the area, you do get a lot of Chicago fans, but also a lot of people who ventured down from Wisconsin and are Green Bay fans here in the Chicagoland area.

"It sparks a lot of family debate and a lot of spirited debate between those people."

For Kmet, it literally is a family type of feud.

"My best friend, who was in my wedding, he's a big Packers fan and he still won't wear my jersey," Kmet said. "Unless we're out of the country, he will wear it out of the country. That's it.

"It's fun. At the end of day it's a lot of fun for me and a lot of fun for my family. My sister's boyfriend plays for them, (DE) Lukas Van Ness, so there's a lot to it and I have a lot of fun with it. It's spirited and it obviously has a lot of history. It's a great game to be part of."

The Bears have enlisted help from George Halas' grandson to let the rookies know what it's all about, owner George McCaskey.

"I do know that George is going to talk with our rookies today," Ben Johnson said. "We do a rookie programming every week with those guys, and it just so happened to be on the docket today where he's going to touch on the rivalry a little bit."

Way back before he was taking his shirt off to impress, Johnson did it upon arriving for his hiring at Halas Hall. To the delight of Bears fans, he tweaked Packers coach Matt LaFleur when asked why he wanted to keep coaching in the NFC North. LaFleur seemed bewildered by it all when first told of it.

"And to be quite frank with you, I kind of enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year," Johnson said.

Doing it the first time on Sunday would satisfy a lot of Bears fans. If it happened again on Dec. 20, too, the city would be up for grabs.

Somewhere, Tarzan Taylor would be smiling.

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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.