Bears HC Ben Johnson not sorry for rant about Packers
The longstanding rivalry between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers isn’t lost on first-year head coach Ben Johnson.
Beyond leading the franchise to its first playoff win in over a decade, Johnson took particular pride in beating the Packers to accomplish that feat.
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In a viral video of the locker room after the game, in which he repeatedly voiced “F*** the Packers,” it only further underlined his understanding and desire to sink his teeth into the rivalry component further.
“There’s a rivalry that exists between these two teams, something that I fully recognize and I’m a part of,” Johnson said via ESPN. “And, yeah, I just, I don’t like that team. So George and I have talked, and we’re on the same page.”
Johnson’s approach to the rivalry has rubbed off on his players, who reveled in the moment of upending Green Bay in the playoffs.
“It was definitely a turned-up moment,” linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. “You could just see the energy in the locker room. Everybody was like, ‘OK, Ben got a little swag about himself.’ Know what I mean? We all put a lot into this. To be able to act off your true emotions and your true personality, I think that’s what it was for him.
“I don’t know if he’s had regrets about it, but I know the fans loved, I know every[thing] about this rivalry that we been talking about, it goes so far back. You know there’s a lot of emotion built up into it and any time that you can win in that fashion, you’ve got to show a little bit of emotion for sure.”
It goes much further than the rivalry, as Johnson has brought a culture change to the Bears that it has been lacking for quite some time. Chicago is now in a position to build something special that may have just started with beating the Packers in the playoffs.
