Packers-Bears Rivalry Heats Up As Matt LaFleur Jabs Ben Johnson

It’s been a long time since the Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears rivalry has had teeth like this.

Since the start of the 1992 season, the Packers are 51-16 against the Bears (.762). Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur has an 11-1 record against the Bears.

Typically, it’s tough to maintain a “rivalry” when one team does almost all of the winning.

But things have certainly gotten spicy this offseason between the Packers and Bears — a rivalry that first began in 1921 when the Packers joined the American Professional Football Association.

First, Chicago hired former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as its new head coach.

Johnson was Detroit’s offensive coordinator the last three years and spent the past six years with the organization. LaFleur became Green Bay’s head coach in 2019, the same year Johnson started in Detroit.

LaFleur and the Packers went 5-1 against Detroit from 2019-2021. In the last three seasons, though, the Lions went 5-1 against Green Bay, including season sweeps in both 2022 and 2024.

So at his introductory press conference, Johnson took this dig at his rival to the north: “I’m gonna be quite frank with you. I kind of enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year.”

LaFleur stayed out of the fray — until Friday that is.

Appearing on an ESPN talk show, LaFleur was asked about the difficulty of the NFC North. When it came to the Bears, La Fleur said: “Chicago has done a nice job of adding to their roster and you get a good football coach — as he said himself — in Ben Johnson.”

Well played.

On top of that, former Green Bay great Clay Matthews kicked off the NFL Draft Thursday with a story that left Packer Nation as fired up as playoff wins do.

“I just got off the phone with the President, Donald Trump,” Matthews said. “He asked me to pass a message along to all 32 NFL franchises. My fellow Americans … the Bears still suck!”

It was one of the finest troll jobs in recent memory.

And LaFleur piled on today.

When the Packers and Bears meet in 2025, things should be more entertaining than they’ve been in several years.