IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!
It’s that time of year and I’m giddy. No, I’m not talking about Thanksgiving or Christmas, it’s something more appealing to this old Chebanse boy. It’s time for football game between my beloved boys in green and gold against those goons from Chicago.
Yes! it’s time for the Chicago Bear vs Green Bay Packers game at noon this Sunday, November 17th at Soldier Field. It will be the 209th time they have met in history, 87 games longer than the next longest rivalry between the Cowboys and Eagles. The Packer/Bear rivalry has been going since on 1921. The Pack leads the series with 107 wins and 6 ties to the Bears 95 wins.
Both teams were founded in 1919, by the legendary George Halas as the Staley’s/Bears in Decatur Illinois and the Packers by the equally legendary Curly Lambeau. The Packers were sponsored by the Indian Packing Company, which is where they got their name.
When they played in 1921 almost exactly 103 years ago to the day, the Bears were known as the Staley’s. The Staley’s won 20 to 0 at Wrigley Field. The Packers would skunk the Bears in 1962 by a score of 49-0, the third and last time they held the Bears scoreless. Jim Taylor had 3 rushing touchdowns in that game.
The Packers have the most wins in NFL history with 805 and the Bears are second with 797. The two teams have sent 70 players on to the Hall of Fame, 37 Bears and 33 Packers. Together they have won a combined 22 NFL Championships, 13 for the Pack and 9 for the Goons, er Bears (sorry). The Packers currently have won ten game games in a row and 25 of the last 30 contests. I bet the Bears will be looking to snap that streak. Packers are favored to win by 6.5.
How old were you when you found out there have been 18 players that played for both teams? Jeter, McMichael, Tomcazk, McMahon, Bennett, Flannigan, Thierry, R. Davis, Benson, Peppers, M. Bennett, Sitton, Dix, Amos, J. Graham, St. Brown, Tonyan, M. Lewis, and Owens all donned both the blue/orange and the green/gold.
I will never forget the stress and nerves of the game they played in 2020. It was their last game of the season and the Packers needed the game to secure the #1 seed. The Bears needed the game to secure a playoff spot. It felt like a Super Bowl, of which neither would win that year, but it had to be one of the most important game in their combined histories. Thankfully, the Packers won, thank God.
Even though I’m a Packerbacker, and Brett Favre is my favorite player, I believe the late Bear’s running back, Walter Payton was the greatest to ever play in the NFL. (I was too young to see Gayle Sayers or Jim Brown and the Lion’s Barry Sanders wasn’t, in my opinion, near as good.) Due to a lack of satellite TV at the time, I rarely got to watch the Packers and made do watching the Bears, so I watched a lot of Walter Payton. In football today when some overpaid schmuck scores a touchdown, even when losing by 20 points, they go through ridiculous series of gyrations and pathetic hotdogging. You know what Walter did when he scored any one of his many touchdowns – he ran over and handed the ball to the referee. He was such a class act. Mike Ditka made a colossal mistake by giving that football to Refrigerator Perry, instead of Walter, to score a touchdown in the Bears ONLY Super Bowl victory…39 years ago.
The Packers are coming off a bye week. The Bears are coming off a 3-game losing streak, in which they didn’t look so good in their last loss to the Patriots in Chicago. Included was that ridiculous Hail-Mary loss to the Redskins. Why jug-head Bear defender Tyrek Stevenson is still on the Bears team is a mystery to me.
There has been some grumbling amongst Bear players about the Bears #1 draft pick, quarterback Caleb Williams this past week. The Packer’s quarterback, Jordan Love, has been gimpy this year, but is said to be healthy coming into this game.
The Bears and Packers usually play close games, regardless of their talent, so it’s never a sure thing. The Packers, at 6-3 are chasing both the Lions and the Vikings and will need this game badly.
My prediction – Packers 23, Bears 10.
