Windy City Gridiron
The Chicago Bears lost to the Green Bay Packers… again.
The feelings coming off the loss on Sunday were tough, no doubt about it. When Caleb Williams’ pass floated into the hands of Keisean Nixon and ended the Bears’ final drive, there’s no other way to slice it, it was deflating.
The Bears kept finding ways to win in the fourth quarter, and despite all their previous failures against the Packers, it felt different – it felt like they were going to do it. And then, in one instant, they didn’t.
The Bears lost. There are no moral victories. They lost to the Packers again. It stung in the moment, but that sting, if I’m being honest, didn’t last long. It wasn’t a moral victory that did that; it was perspective.
I found it really annoying that Packers fans were jumping on Bears fans, saying there are know moral victories and that we should be angrier. It’s funny, the perspective of Bears fans truly agitated Packers fans.
There are no moral victories. This isn’t some 16 seed going up against 1-seeded Duke and being a 40-point underdog and being tied with them with two minutes to go but losing by 6. THAT is a moral victory.
The Bears are a professional football team. They are paid to play football. So are the Packers. There are no moral victories in professional sports.
But there is perspective.
The Bears have been on the wrong side of just about every Bears-Packers game over the last 35 years. And yes, they were there again on Sunday. But there were so many takeaways from that game, and so many of them were positive.
Let’s be honest, the city of Chicago is a world-class city that makes Green Bay look like a lame suburb, but on the football field, the Bears have been the Packers’ little brother for many years.
For those of you who have younger siblings (or maybe you were that younger sibling), and you played sports when you were kids.
The older sibling won, time and time again. Early on, they were almost always blowouts. Time and time again, easy win, easy win, easy win. Then the younger sibling hits puberty. They get a little stronger. They get a little more coordinated, and suddenly, big brother holds on for the slimmest of wins.
The big brother may have talked all the smack in the world after that win, but as they walked off the court or the field, they were thinking to themselves, “Uh-oh.”
That was the game on Sunday. Is that a moral victory? No. No, it’s not. It’s a loss, just like it was for the little brother. But anybody who watched that game, who has even an ounce of perspective, understands that the rivalry has changed.
It may not swing back to the Bears, the pendulum may sit in the middle, and it may be an even battle, but it’s no longer going to be Packers dominance year in and...
