There was never any mistaking it. For the past 15 years, the Chicago Bears were at the mercy of the Green Bay Packers. It was painfully apparent that a massive gulf existed between the two franchises, in large part thanks to a disparity at the two most important positions: quarterback and head coach. Green Bay had Aaron Rodgers, Mike McCarthy, Jordan Love, and Matt LaFleur. Chicago had Jay Cutler, Marc Trestman, Mitch Trubisky, John Fox, Justin Fields, Matt Nagy, and Matt Eberflus. It was never a fair fight.
Then, ever so suddenly, the winds shifted. Caleb Williams arrived at quarterback in 2024, leading the Bears to their first victory over the Packers in five years at Lambeau Field. Then, a few weeks after that, Ben Johnson was hired as the team’s new head coach. To the shock of all, Chicago would topple Green Bay in two of their next three meetings in the 2025 season, capped by a wild comeback in the opening round of the playoffs. For those who’d witnessed this “rivalry” for so many years, it was difficult to fathom.
In fact, some in the Green Bay media refuse to accept there’s been any change in the status quo.
Packers supporters still think they’re in the Chicago Bears’ heads.
This point was hammered home on the ESPN Milwaukee program Kyle And Brust. They believe the Bears have a weird obsession with Green Bay, proving the Packers are still in their heads. It is ridiculous. Meanwhile, the Packers are more focused on bigger things, like winning a Super Bowl. One would think the rest of the Wisconsin media would be in lockstep on this point. That is not the case. In fact, a fellow ESPN outlet in Madison, Molly & Jim, vehemently disagrees with this idea that the Packers are in the Bears’ heads.
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That argument went straight out the window after Green Bay lost three of the past four games against them. All three by late-game collapses.
This is an inescapable point. The fact that Green Bay media reacted to that Colston Loveland video at all tells you everything. The Packers fans never used to take the rivalry seriously because they knew their team would always win on Sundays. Once that changed, their obsession took over. They couldn’t accept the possibility that Chicago had flipped the script. It isn’t supposed to be this way. Many are unwilling to see the reality.
The Bears’ secret isn’t hard to understand.
They finally got two guys at the top who took the rivalry seriously from the beginning. One of the core issues of the past 15 years was that none of the Chicago Bears’ quarterbacks or head coaches viewed the rivalry as anything special. Sure, there was tons of history to it, but you often found them uttering the same things when asked about it.
“It’s an important game, but no more important than the others on the schedule.”
That merely proved they didn’t understand. Green Bay and Chicago have always stood in each other’s way throughout NFL history. Neither has won a Super Bowl without beating the other twice in a season. George Halas himself recognized he’d have to beat them twice in 1963 to reach the championship game. With the arrivals of Williams and Johnson, you suddenly found two fierce competitors who understood how seriously everybody took the rivalry. They adopted the same mentality.
Every matchup must be treated like high noon on an old western street. Kill or be killed. Green Bay finally had their undivided attention. Now they’re mistaking that for weakness.
