Bear Down

Bears vs. Packers for the NFC Championship. It cannot possibly get any bigger than that for the NFL's oldest and most heated rivalry. The Packers are a bunch of cocky, cheese-eating dickheads. The Bears are underdogs at home, and no one is giving them a chance. I want the Packers not only to lose, but to suffer.

I just read a great article on ESPN.com with stories from fans and former players about the rivalry, with several stories from people who played or worked for both teams. Matt Bowen's story was particularly entertaining. Bowen grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago (and I actually played against him in high school), but ended up playing for the Packers. Rather than piss all over his story about the night before his first game against the Bears, I'll let you read it yourself.

Pardon the Interruption's Michael Wilbon (a Chicagoan) also wrote a pretty good article, reminding me of two games I have tried my damnedest to block out of my memory:

1. The 1986 game when Packers defensive lineman Charles Martin picked Jim McMahon up and slammed him to the ground several seconds after McMahon threw the ball, injuring McMahon for the rest of the season. This was probably the dirtiest play I have ever seen. Every time I see this play, I want to find Charles Martin at a mall or a crowded restaurant, depants him, and then tabletop him. Charles Martin: what an asshole.

2. The 1989 game when Packers QB Don Majkowski was over the line of scrimmage when he threw the game-winning touchdown pass on 4th and Goal with less than a minute left, a flag was thrown, yet the reply officials reversed the call. I can still remember being very pissed off. Don Majkowski: what a d-bag.

(On an unrelated matter, while searching for YouTube clips of the above two games, I came across a clip of when Wilbur Marshall knocked Lions QB Joe Ferguson out in 1985. Jesus.)

A couple years ago, I met Steve "Mongo" McMichael, a member of the '85 Bears who also played for the Packers later in his career. Gregerson (a Packers fan) was with me and asked Mongo about playing for the Packers after playing for the Bears for so long. Mongo said that he hated it and, in so many words, that he didn't play as hard for the Packers because he still felt he was a Bear. In his words on his autograph for Gregerson, "Fuck the Pack. I did." Damn right.

Needless to say, I hate the Packers, and I would like nothing more than for the Bears -- a mere three days shy of the 25th anniversary of their Super Bowl XX victory -- to pound the Packers into the cold, hard, muddy Soldier Field turf until they bleed or are concussed to death. Go Bears!