Packer Central

Caleb Williams Rips Packers Fans, Stirs Pot in One-Sided Rivalry

Since the start of the 1992 season, the Packers are 50-16 against Chicago. The Bears have plenty to say, anyway, including a pointed message from Caleb Williams to Packers fans.

Bill Huber

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) during the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) during the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Chicago Bears’ combo of quarterback Caleb Williams and coach Ben Johnson have a lot to say about the Green Bay Packers.

At Fanatics Fest in New York, Williams was asked about his worst experience with fans. Williams talked about the Bears’ season-ending victory over the Packers.

“They suck,” Williams said of Packers fans. “After the game we won at Lambeau – 1-0 at Lambeau right now – so, obviously, tried to do the Lambeau Leap and we actually tried to jump in the crowd where our fans were, and they start throwing everything at you, they push you off. The Lambeau Leap, it’s a real leap. It’s not a little baby jump. You actually have to high jump, basically. And then they’re pushing you, pushing your face.”

Williams led the Bears to a come-from-behind victory at Lambeau in Week 18. After Green Bay rallied to take a 22-21 lead with 54 seconds remaining, Williams completed passes of 15 yards to Rome Odunze, 12 yards to D.J. Moore on third-and-16 and 18 yards to Moore on third-and-11 to set up Cairo Santos’ 51-yard field goal.

It was a momentous victory for the Bears, who had entered the game on a 10-game losing streak. Moreover, they had lost eight in a row at Lambeau. Overall in the series, Green Bay had won 11 in a row and 25 of 28.

For Green Bay, it was an embarrassing, painful and irrelevant outcome. Embarrassing to lose to the Bears, with Green Bay’s comeback doomed by coach Matt LaFleur’s bad clock management and Jeff Hafley’s bad defensive call that allowed the 18-yarder to Moore. Painful, because Christian Watson suffered a torn ACL and Jordan Love an injured elbow. And irrelevant, because the outcome was meaningless for Green Bay. While most of the starters got typical playing time, Josh Jacobs played only 20 snaps.

Maybe Williams and Johnson can turn a one-sided rivalry into a true rivalry.

During his introductory news conference, Johnson, the former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator, chose to take a shot at LaFleur.

“I wanted to stay in this division,” Johnson said during his opening statement. “I know this is the toughest division of football right now. There are three teams that made the playoffs this year.

“I've got a tremendous amount of respect for the coaches and the players in this division having competed against them for the last six years. (Lions coach) Dan Campbell, (Vikings coach) Kevin O'Connell, you're talking about two guys that are up for Coach of the Year awards as the season ends here. And, to be quite frank with you, I kind of enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year.”

The Packers lead the all-time series 108-96-6, with dominance by Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers turning the tables in a rivalry that had been controlled for decades by Chicago. Love is 3-1, though he played only 23 snaps and threw just 12 passes in the loss at Lambeau.

After that game, which he called “the first win of 2025,” Williams spoke in much nicer terms about Green Bay.

“To be honest with you, it is a wonderful stadium,” Williams said. “I know Bears fans probably won’t want to hear that, but I grew up an Aaron Rodgers fan, and then being able to actually be here and come out with a win, being able to be here and play on this field and being able to be here and see the history between the Bears and Green Bay and come out with a win the way that we did, it was great.

“It was awesome. A great moment and I can’t wait to keep going and keep having more of those moments.”

Rodgers, of course, dominated the Bears in historic fashion. In regular-season play, Rodgers went 24-5 against Chicago. That includes the 2013 loss at Lambeau in which he suffered a broken collarbone after throwing two passes. He had a 100-plus rating inf 15 of those games.

As Rodgers said last month:

“The best thing about Bears fans is, every year, ‘This is our year. This is our year. We added this guy and that guy, and we’ve got a new coach from Detroit. Oh, man. Look out.’ Packers fans, we know that. What does every coach that signs with the Bears say? ‘We got to beat the Packers,’ right? The Packers don’t give a sh**.”

Ranking the Packers

71 to 75 | 76 to 80 | 81 to 85 | 86 to 90.

More Green Bay Packers News

feed

Published
Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.