Acme Packing Company
The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears have the most storied rivalry in the sport, even if it has been extremely lopsided since 2009, when the Packers began a run of 29 wins over the Bears in 35 games. It’s the most-played game in NFL history, with Green Bay being up 109-97-6 all-time in the series, and features the teams with the most championships and most Hall of Famers in professional football.
So, would it surprise you if you learned that this is only the third time that the two squads have faced off in the postseason? I came across that stat this week, was surprised that it was accurate. In fact, the Packers and Bears have only even been in the playoffs together at the same time (not even as opponents) five times before 2025. A lot of that has to do with the fact that Green Bay has dominated the rivalry since the merger, which is the era when multiple teams from the same division have gotten the most opportunities to participate in the playoffs in the same season.
So with all that being laid out, I want to take a look back at the previous two Bears-Packers games in postseason history. There was a 70-year gap between the first and second games, but it’s only taken 16 years between the second and third games with win-or-go-home circumstances in this rivalry.
The year was 1941, and things were very different than how you imagine the NFL right now. The Bears had just come off a 73-0 victory in the NFL Championship Game the year before, when they rode a new offensive innovation, the T formation, to success. Despite having a title-winning year, Chicago held the first overall pick of that season’s draft.
If you want an example of how odd these seasons were for the league, the Bears spent that first overall pick on Tom Harmon, who turned down the opportunity to play in the NFL to pursue a career in acting. Later in 1941, he signed a deal with the New York Americans of the American Football League, the third of four leagues that would hold that name — the final being what eventually turned into the AFC after the AFL-NFL merger.
Shortly after his professional football career started, though, Harmon was drafted to fight in World War II. When his stint in the military was over, he eventually played for the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, six years after he was drafted by the Bears. After breaking his nose 13 times in three seasons of pro football, Harmon retired from the sport entirely.
Alright, with that picture painted, here are the circumstances that led to the first Packers-Bears playoff matchup. The NFL used to just play the regular season and then an NFL Championship Game, a matchup between the best team from the Western Division (Bears, Packers, Detroit Lions, Chicago Cardinals and Cleveland Rams) against the best team from the Eastern Division.
When both the...
