Hello sports fans, ready for some  football? The 2023 Pro football season starts next week, and we have one  of the most iconic match-ups in all of sports first on the agenda.

For the 207th time, those  goons from Chicago, the Bears, will play the beloved and rugged men in  green and gold, the Green Bay Packers at home in Chicago.

The Pack will be putting their current eight game win streak over the Bears on the line with a new quarterback  at the helm. Gone is the great, but pouty Aaron Rodgers, who has “owned”  the Bears. In his place steps Jordan Love, with three years of sitting  on the sidelines watching one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play  the game.

 The contest kicks off at 3:30 CST. The  Packers are 10-point underdogs in this game.  I’m not saying the Packers  will win this game, but I think they will get bear by just a few points  on a late-4th-quarter missed field goal by a rookie kicker. I  also believe the Packers will win the second game at the end of the  year in Green Bay.

In the series between the two teams, the  Packers hold an edge of 105 victories, 95 losses, and 6 ties. The Bears  are the NFL franchise with the most wins at 803, and Packers are second  with 790, although the Pack would be first if playoff wins were added.

The Packers are the first team to win  100 games against another team, the Bears, in NFL history. Quarterbacks  Bart Starr, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers have 62 of those wins.

Green Bay has 13 NFL championships,  including four super-bowl wins, the most championships in NFL history.  The Bears have won 9 championships and one super-bowl, second most in  history. The Bears have had 30 players inducted into the Pro Football  Hall of Fame; the Packers have had 26. The Bears have had two unbeaten  seasons and the Packers one.

They are also among the league’s oldest  franchises, having played in their respective cities the longest. The  Packers were founded in Green Bay by Curly Lambeau in 1919. The Bears,  originally called the Decatur Staley’s were founded by George Halas,  also in 1919 although it was 1921 before they moved to Chicago and  turned pro. Surprisingly, the Arizona Cardinals are the oldest team in  the NFL, having been founded in 1898 in Chicago.

Historically, the Bears have had strong  defenses and running games. Arguably, they had the greatest running back  in history in Walter Payton, and the best defense in history in 1985,  coached by Mike Ditka. I was fortunate enough to see Payton play, and in  mind, there is no comparison. The immortal Red Grange and Gayle Sayers  were also Bears.

The Packers have always had great  quarterbacks, with hall-of- farmer’s Arnie Heber, Starr, Favre, and the  soon to be inducted Rodgers. They also employed perhaps one of the  greatest receivers in the history of the game with hall of famer Don  Hutson.

When Lambeau decided to found a pro  football team in Green Bay, he sought sponsorship from his employer, the  Indian Packing Co. (Think of the hullabaloo had he named them the  Indians instead!) Later Acme Packing bought Indian, and the club sported  the name Acme Packers on their jerseys. The Bears got their name from  playing in Wrigley Field, home of the baseball Cubs, a common practice  at the time. There was actually a pro football franchise named the New  York Yankees.

They first played each other on November 27th,  1921. The Bears won 20-0. For barroom betting purposes, Pete Stinchcomb  scored the first touchdown in their series history with a 45-yard run.  Halas also played in that game and caught a touchdown. On September 28,  1930, the Packers shut out the Bears for the fifth consecutive time, a  league record. And in a game on September 25, 1932, they played to a  scoreless tie, the lowest scoring game in history. That same year,  Chicago couldn’t make its payroll and received a $1,500 from the Packers  to stay afloat.

The Packers used to play four home games  at Milwaukee Stadium every year, but only once against the Bears, in  1974. I attended a couple of games there and it was horrible, especially  if your seat was behind the players, as both teams inexplicably lined  up on the same side of the field.

For those believing the Packers are  rebuilding, you might be mistaken. They should have an improved top-10  defense, one of the best offensive lines in the league, a tandem of  running backs on par with any team, and speed. The wild card is the  first-year quarterback, Jordan Love, although he is not considered a  rookie.

Sorry Bear fans, not this year either.