Lets not forget that Papa Bear saved the Packers Franchise.

I’m so excited! Sunday January 23rd, 2011 The Chicago Bears will be facing The Green Bay Packers in what is only their second playoff meeting EVER! I SAID EVER PEOPLE!! Keep in mind, this is the oldest rivalry in the National Football League! And probably the best rivalry in all of professional sports. And they have only met one other time in the playoffs. Amazing. And for the record, the Bears won that 1941 meeting 33 to 14 as they went on to win the NFL Championship!

Anyway, all this excitement got me thinking about the 5 greatest Bears vs Packers games in history. Share your greatest games in the comments if you think I don’t know what I’m talking about; here are mine… 

1. December 7, 1980 Defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, beginning to form what would later be called the 46 Defense, relentlessly blitzed a hapless Packers Offense in route to a shearing victory. Bart Starr, the Packers Quarterback, was so upset after the game he went after Buddy. I’m guessing it took all the forces of nature to keep Buddy from killing Bart Starr then and there. Bears 33 – Packers 7
2. October 21, 1985 Da Coach (aka Mike Ditka) unleashed William “The Refrigerator” Perry on the Packers in a Monday Night Football game. No. 72 lined up as a 350 pound Fullback, blowing holes wide open for Sweetness (aka Walter Payton), who ended the night with 112 yards rushing and 2 TDs. But Da Coach wasn’t done with The Fridge and called his number and he ended the game with 1 yard rushing and 1 TD. The Packers were in shock and awe. Bears 23 – Packers 7
3. November 23, 1986 After Da Bears Superbowl season the Packers knew they had to do something in order to slow down the greatest team in NFL history. But no one would have guessed they would go to such lows. The Packers ended Jim McMahon’s season with a flagrant, long-after-the-whistle, body slam by Charles Martin (defensive lineman). Of course, the Bears still won. Bears 12 – Packers 10
4. September 10, 2006 In 16 seasons Packer’s QB Brett Farve had never been shutout. Da Bears could not abide and figured it was about time to change that silly statistic. So Brian Urlacher and the Chicago Defense shut Farve out on their way to the Superbowl. Oh yea, and Devin Hester had 112 return yards and a TD. Bears 26 – Packers 0
5. January 23, 2011 Da Bears hosted the Packers at Soldier Field for the NFC Championship title and a shot at the Superbowl. The pundits, Packer lovers each one, all predicted a Green Bay win. Even the ods makers in Vegas gave the edge to Green Bay. But in the end Jay Cutler led Chicago to a rousing victory over Green Bay. Bears 52 – Packers 7

I over reacted. But you watched the pre-season too, didn’t you? We looked HORRIBLE. Completely hapless. I think I had every right to freak out. And after all the expectations of last year burning up like a super nova before our eyes I wasn’t going to make the same mistake going into the season. Sure, I may have swung a little to far into the Deeply Depressed Camp; but I’m here to announce that I believe we have a really good football team on our hands.

Not everyone thinks so yet. But after tonight they will. The Green Bay Packers were picked by many to win the NFC. And for good reason. They are a tough football team. The focus is usually on Aaron Rogers, and for good reason – he’s good. But they also have a tough defense and pretty competitive Special Teams units. But they aren’t without their flaws. Like the Bears, their Offensive Line could be much better. The O-line is so critical to the success of any team, but especially for teams like the Bears and Packers who want to throw the ball. But the biggest problem the Packers have is the lack of any sort of run game. Right. Its 2010 and nobody in the NFL runs the ball anymore. Well, I’m here to tell you its still important, especially in close games.

So, tonight is Bears vs Packers. The Bears are going to win this game easily if they can convert 40% or better on 3rd down and win the turnover battle. They will still be in the game even if they can’t. Its going to be a good one.

Bears 24 – Packers 17

Apparently the Bears are going to make some moves today. I can’t even believe it. But I’m not going to get all excited like I did last off season. My friends and family deserve better. Stay tuned…

UPDATE 7:50am: OK, so I’m a little behind this morning. We’ve already made our first signing! I know nothing about Brandon Manumaleuna or why we think we need him. Although it does seem like this guy is a Mike Martz guy. Martz doesn’t really know what to do with catching TEs which is unfortunate since we have 2 pretty good ones in Greg Olsen and Desmond Clark. Hopefully they remain apart of the Bears future.

UPDATE 12.33pm: Awesome. We just made our second signing. Chester Taylor is a stud and we definitely need a second back. Having both Forte and Taylor as options in the back field couldn’t get any better for a Martz style offense. Both can catch the ball as well as they can run it. Now if only we had an offensive line!

UPDATE 1.08pm: Alex Brown just tweeted “Great day for the bears! Watch out offenses the bears defense will be tough!” which leads me to believe we actually did sign Julius Peppers. Unbelievable. That guy is a monster on the field and with Rod Marinelli as defensive coordinator it could spell big things. Look out, da bears are back!

UPDATE 2.55pm: ESPN is saying Julius Peppers is a Chicago Bear. Crazy.

Mind you, the Superbowl Shuffle was done before they won the Superbowl! Hellz ya. I was a Bears fan for life.

Little did I know at the time I was devoting myself to over 2 decades of debacle and misery. But, like any good fan, I stayed true to my team hoping for returned glory year after miserable year. The 2000s have been particuarly hard since the Bears have actually had talent on the team (as opposed to much of the 90s). Yet, we’ve only made it to the playoffs 3 times this past decade and only won any playoff games in 2006 when we made a Superbowl run.

That 2006 Superbowl lost convinced me that Rex Grossman could never be a winner in this league. You can’t play like a pro-bowler one game and like a JVer in the next and expect good things week end and week out. Lovie Smith though, stood by his quarterback, something I both respect and hate about Lovie. Long story short, we haven’t been back to the playoffs and we haven’t had a quarterback. Until 2009 that was.

The trade for Jay Cutler this off-season shook all Bears fans to their very core. This was the #$%^ing Chicago Bears. We don’t make blockbuster trades. That’s left to the Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys or Oakland Raiders… But, in March we did the unthinkable and traded for a very young probowl QB who was going to walk around on Lake Michigan when he wasn’t winning us every game we played.

I drank the cool aid. Lovie and Jerry showed me something that I didn’t think they had in them. And our 2009 season was the most disappointing season in memory. I don’t really have a point or moral here other than to say I hope the 2010s are better for the Chicago Bears than the 2000s were.

Bear Down, Chicago Bears. Bear Down.