Ben Johnson and Matt LaFleur don’t seem to like each other.
The Chicago Bears head coach and the Green Bay Packers head coach are rivals. And this doesn’t appear to be a fake, friendly rivalry that you might see in other divisions or other leagues. Johnson has made it clear that he doesn’t care for the Packers, and LaFleur appears to have reciprocated the genuine dislike on his end.
Johnson has made it clear to his players that he “really” wants to embarrass the Packers.
“He wants to beat them really bad like everyone else in the room, like every Chicago fan. Beat them real bad, and make them quit,” receiver Luther Burden III said, via Cassie Carlson of Fox32.
LaFleur, though, didn’t take the bait this week.
“Because this game is about players and so we’ll keep it about the players,” LaFleur said, via Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. “I’m not the one out there they’re playing. . . . Don’t get me wrong. I love the rivalry. It’s awesome. It’s great. It’s intense. You can feel it on gameday. You can feel it throughout the course of the week and also the significance, I mean, they’re the defending [NFC] North champions. So what a great opportunity, great challenge for us in our home stadium to play against the defending champs.”
On Sunday, the Packers got the best of the Bears.
Green Bay blew out Chicago, 31-7. The Packers improved to 3-2 on the season, while the Bears dropped to 3-2.
Following the game, the two head coaches met at midfield for a very brief, and apparently words-less, postgame handshake.
That was cordial, but it was extremely brief. You’ll often see head coaches saying a few words to each other – “good job today,” “good luck the rest of the way,” etc.
But we didn’t seem to have much of that on Sunday.
This has become a pattern for the two head coaches in matchups.
The second matchup of the Bears vs. Packers rivalry should be must-watch later this season, too.
