Bear Digest

What playing Packers Dec. 20 can mean is in store for the Bears

Analysis: Fox leaked the Bears host the Packers on Dec. 20 and it's a date that can carry special significance for Chicago regarding the NFL schedule, which is to be released Wednesday.

Gene Chamberlain

The Bears tackle Jordan Love short of the goal line at Soldier Field last year in a game they eventually lost 20-19 on a blocked field goal.
The Bears tackle Jordan Love short of the goal line at Soldier Field last year in a game they eventually lost 20-19 on a blocked field goal. / Mark Hoffman/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images
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The leak by Fox Monday revealing the Bears play on Dec. 20 at Soldier Field against the Green Bay Packers is one carrying a possible huge scheduling ramification.

The Week 16 game is the second of two slated for that day, and follows the Eagles-Commanders rematch of the NFC Championship Game. That's not what's unusual about it.

The Bears-Packers game is being played on a Saturday, five days before Christmas.

This should raise everyone’s suspicions.

Teams that play on Saturday can easily turn around and play on Christmas. It looks a great deal like the NFL is setting up the Bears to be one of the six teams to play on Christmas this year.

The full schedule is slated to come out on Wednesday but it's possible they'll leak some more of the holiday games in advance, maybe on Tuesday.

The league already announced it would have three games on Christmas and games on the holiday in the future.

With Sunday Dec. 21 off, the Bears would be more able to play a game on the following Thursday than any of the teams playing on Sunday, Dec. 22.

In fact, it almost seems like a waste for the NFL to slate a team to play Dec. 20 if they’re not playing on Dec. 25. Only a team playing on Thursday, Dec. 18 would be better situated for a Dec. 25 game.

Christmas games will be put on Amazon and Netflix. However, the league still would have to put those games on a local television station just as with Thursday night and Monday night regular-season games.

The same is true for the Week 17 game the league announced it plans to put on the Peacock streaming network.

Bears and Packers in Week 16 does mean the Packers are still available in Green Bay for a Bears season opener.

At this point, that would have to be considered quite the yawner for an opener because it would be the 36th time the teams meet to start a season. Enough is enough already.

An ideal Christmas Bears game? How about a rematch of Jayden Daniels against Caleb Williams, the greatest gift in NFL history—the Hail Mary victory handed over to the Commanders last year.

Both the Bears and Commanders would have the same five days before playing again on Christmas because they both play Dec. 20.

If the Bears are playing on Christmas, it won't be at night. The league announced the Broncos and Chiefs will have the Christmas night game at 7:15 p.m.

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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.