Windy City Gridiron
It’s not like we haven’t been here before.
The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers have played a lot of big games in the 104 years of their rivalry. They’ve played 18 primetime games in the last 20 years. They’ve faced each other with the playoffs on the line. They’ve even battled for the right to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
So why does tonight feel like it means that much more? Like the outcome of this game could alter at least one of these franchises for the foreseeable future—maybe even both?
Most people expected the Packers to make the playoffs before the season, whereas most models couldn’t cosign the Bears’ playoff chances until they knocked Green Bay off in Week 16.
The Packers kept the DNA of a winning organization for decades, long after the Bears squandered theirs after winning it all in 1985. They’ve always had the star quarterback, while the only franchise with a more depressing list of starting quarterbacks than the Bears’ in the last three decades might be the Cleveland Browns. Green Bay has always had the smart offensive-minded coaches, too, who not only molded their quarterbacks into Bear killers but also armed their whole team with the knowledge that, well, they owned the Bears. Meanwhile, not even Lovie Smith could fully keep his promise to put Green Bay in their place or even make this a dead heat.
But these Bears…they’re different.
Sure, they’re still plenty flawed, like basically every Bears team that has taken the field since 1985, outside of the 2006 season. Their defense is spottier than it’s been in a while, and the offense is still finding its consistency.
But after years of “building winning culture,” they finally became one this year, despite all those imperfections.
The Bears now have the hot new offensive-minded head coach turning the former No. 1 overall quarterback, Caleb Williams, into a killer—one no NFL team wants to see on the field with the game on the line. (Insane, I know.)
And, as Week 16 showed, they’re not the same old Bears. They’re tough. They’re not afraid of anything—especially not the Packers. And they refuse to roll over and die for anyone. Especially the Packers.
We have no idea what we’re going to see tonight when the Bears host the Packers at Soldier Field for this wildcard game, aside from two teams desperate not just to move onto the next round but to assert their dominance in one of the NFL’s longest-recurring beefs.
But one thing seems certain, regardless of the outcome:
Everything will change after tonight.
If the Bears win, they will have proven to the entire league—for seemingly the fifth time this season—that they’re for real. That they deserve respect. That they really, truly can win it all, especially if the NFC has to come through Chicago and its bitter “Bear Weather.” Ben Johnson will have fulfilled his promise of beating Matt LaFleur twice this season, and perhaps cause the Packers to...
