If you tune into the NBA playoffs, you might think you’ve been sent back to the 1990’s. The Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks, once bitter rivals in the days of Patrick Ewing and Reggie Miller, are fighting for a spot in the NBA Finals, one year after meeting in the Eastern Conference semifinals; the Pacers took that series in seven games.
Professional sports are undeniably better when historic rivalries heat up. That’s why football fans, including even some Packers fans, are hoping that the Chicago Bears’ dramatic comeback victory over the Green Bay Packers in the 2024 regular season finale fuels a similar resurgence in one of the greatest rivalries in any sport.
While a rivalry as historic as the one between the Bears and Packers will never truly die, it’s felt irrelevant for many years now. Ever since the Packers acquired Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre in 1992, they’ve led a largely one-sided beatdown.
Many Packers fans have even taken to declaring the Minnesota Vikings their true archrivals since the Vikings have proven capable of actually beating them more than once every few years or so.
Those fans aren’t wrong. Since building up an incredible 24-game lead in the rivalry in 1992, the Bears have beaten Green Bay just 15 times. You read that right. Despite facing the Packers in 64 games across 32 years (65 games if you count their playoff meeting in 2010), the Bears have won just 15 of those matchups. It’s hard to call that a rivalry in the truest sense of the word.
That could all be set to change starting in 2025. The Bears finally snapped an eleven-game losing streak to Green Bay thanks to Caleb Williams leading a game-winning drive in Week 18 last year, handing Matt LaFleur his first loss to Chicago since becoming Green Bay’s head coach in 2019. And in 2025, the Bears face the Packers twice in the span of three weeks. By that point in the season, Weeks 14 and 16, the Bears will have hopefully hit their stride and proven to be more than a match for anyone.
In an ideal season for Chicago, they could end the year with a three-game win streak over their bitter rivals and the division crown. That hasn’t been done since the 2006 season, when the Bears made it to Super Bowl XLI. In that scenario, the greatest rivaly in the NFL would be back in full swing and football would be much better for it.
The NFL is better when the Bears are good, and it’s especially good when they’re taking it to the Packers.
