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Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson
The Chicago Bears bested the Green Bay Packers twice in three games last season/playoffs, and one of the top storylines among a slew of interesting ones was the relationship between head coaches Ben Johnson and Matt LaFleur. Johnson added another chapter to that drama during an interview at the NFL Combine on Tuesday.
Johnson, who captured the NFC North Division in his first year leading the Bears, has never been shy about his disdain for LaFleur and the Packers. He essentially tripled-down on that sentiment during an exclusive conversation with Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk on February 24.
“No, we don’t talk,” Johnson told Florio of his relationship with LaFleur. “I’m good with it.”
Chicago’s coach elaborated on that in the context of one of the sport’s oldest and fiercest rivalries.
“The Bears and the Packers, they should not like each other. I think it’s as simple as that,” Johnson said. “And I think that’s going to make this rivalry, this game, something that people are going to watch here going forward.”
Ben Johnson Has Helped Renew Actual Rivalry Between Bears, Packers
GettyHead coach Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers.
For a long time, the so-called rivalry between Green Bay and Chicago existed mostly in name only, as the team from Wisconsin bullied and beat down its neighbor in Illinois with consistency — particularly during the Aaron Rodgers era.
However, Johnson and the Bears struck back at the heart of the Packers with two piercing comeback victories in recent months, the first late in the regular season and the second in the opening round of the playoffs.
Chicago erased a 10-point lead late in the fourth quarter during a Week 16 matchup at Soldier Field, ultimately defeating the Green Bay in overtime. Then, on Wildcard Weekend, the Bears came back from 18 points down at halftime to beat the Packers by a score of 31-27 and advance to the Divisional Round of the NFC playoffs.
Following that victory and in the heat of the moment, Johnson made comments about the Packers that drew criticism from across the sports media landscape.
“[Bleep] the Packers!” Johnson said more than once during his postgame speech.
Ben Johnson Enjoyed Besting Matt LaFleur Long Before Joining Bears
GettyChicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson.
Johnson refused to apologize for his words in the aftermath, again citing the intensity and enormity of the rivalry between Chicago and Green Bay.
“Like I said before, there’s a rivalry that exists between these two teams, something that I fully recognize and I’m a part of,” Johnson explained. “I don’t like that team.”
The personal rivalry between Johnson and LaFleur existed long before the former ever accepted the head coaching job in Chicago. Johnson spent three years as the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions before joining the Bears and referenced his professional relationship with LaFleur at his introductory press conference in Chicago.
“To be quite frank with you, I kind of enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year,” Johnson said with a smile in January 2025.
All three contests between the Bears and Packers began with double-digit Green Bay leads, but ended in nail-biting fashion. Johnson heads into Year 2 as the Bears head coach with a 2-1 advantage over LaFleur in head-to-head matchups and is guaranteed to square off against his rival at least twice annually for the foreseeable future.
Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group’s family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible
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