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Jared Goff Had Strong Message for Lions Fans After NSFW Chant at Ben Johnson

Lions fans chanted "F— Ben Johnson" toward the end of their win over the Bears.

Eva Geitheim

Lions quarterback Jared Goff did not like the negative chants from fans to Bears head coach Ben Johnson.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff did not like the negative chants from fans to Bears head coach Ben Johnson. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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The Lions had the upper hand as they faced former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson for the first time since he left to become the head coach of the Bears. After much chatter that quarterback Jared Goff and the Lions offense weren't the same without Johnson in their Week 1 loss to the Packers, the Lions wrecked that narrative by putting up 52 points in a dominant win over Johnson and the Bears.

Goff threw five touchdown passes—Amon-Ra St. Brown caught three of them—and the Lions offense rolled to 511 yards while averaging a franchise record 8.8 yards per play.

In celebration of the dominant performance in a revenge game against Johnson, Lions fans chanted "F— Ben Johnson" in the final quarter of the game.

Goff expressed strong disapproval of those chants after the game, telling reporters, "I didn't like that. I thought he did a lot here. He didn't deserve it."

Several Lions players did seem to poke fun at Johnson by replicating his famous "stumblebum" play earlier in the game as they celebrated picking off Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, but for Goff, the fans' chants at Johnson felt like they went too far.

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Eva Geitheim
EVA GEITHEIM

Eva Geitheim is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in December 2024, she wrote for Newsweek, Gymnastics Now and Dodgers Nation. A Bay Area native, she has a bachelor's in communications from UCLA. When not writing, she can be found baking or re-watching Gilmore Girls.

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