The Rivalry Defrosted

By: Dustin Beutin

For almost a decade now, if you were to approach a Packer fan about football and comment on the ages-long rivalry with the Bears, many of them - especially the younger generation - would retort that the Vikings were a much more hated villain these days than the cuddly Bears, whom half-god/half-man Brett Favre would smite with ease. This made sense, for while the Bears and Packers still hated each other, many years had passed from when the Bears and the Packers had anything meaningful to take from one another. The Bears were either too good to be worried about losing a game here and there to the Packers, or the Packers were too focused to be distracted by a meaningless loss to the Bears.Like all things in winter, the rivalry wasn’t dead; it was just in hibernation. Rivalries never die - they are fueled by hidden reservoirs of tradition and hate and blood, and can never be erased from the veins of old men and bitter women. They are taught to children in subtle ways, like threatening to deprive them of Christmas presents if they dare to even smile after a Packer touchdown.

On Sunday, the Bears broke the scab on an ancient rivalry that for several years had lain dormant. This off-season, when Chicagoans and other Bear fans head north into the land of cheese and chalets, they will be greeted by sore Packer fans who will try to cover the ache of seeing their team’s dreams of home field advantage crushed in the wintry mix of Soldier Field by saying, “Hey, we made the playoffs this year. What did the Bears do?”

To which Bear fans will be able to smile and, between long sips of Leinenkugel, say, “We kicked your ass this year.

“Twice.”

PHOTO BY Warren Wimmer
Brian Urlacher smiles as he returns a Brett Favre pick for a TD late in Sunday’s win.

The Bears ate the Packers cheese like Uncle Fred at the Christmas dinner buffet. And with it, they did something that will live on in the hearts of Chicagoans for years to come: they added a notch of tradition and hatred to the axe-handle of the Bears-versus-Packers rivalry. Better yet, though, they beat the Packers at their own game and reminded them that the men in green and yellow aren’t the only ones who pride themselves on playing in weather best suited for reindeer.

Years from now, those who attended the game will likely pull their children or nephews or nieces or grandchildren onto their knee and regale them with the tale of the epic near-Christmas day, when the weather tried to squeeze the life out of everyone in Soldier Field. They will tell of snow that didn’t just blow in from the lake, but rather blew sideways, front-ways, all-ways and in-ways. Of how snow blew up, as if Soldier Field was some sort of boiling cauldron of frozen air and water. Of temperatures that froze freshly-poured beer into adult slushies, and caused spilled mustard to freeze the nozzles of the condiment stand shut. And the wind - oh, the wind - how it gusted and blusted and whipped in five directions at once, causing the goal posts to shake as if there were an earthquake, and garbage to swirl endlessly through the stadium as if it were the apocalypse.

But mostly, the story will end with a smile and a glimmer of the eye, as they describe how the Bears ripped the heart out of the Packers, despite the elements.

Whether the Bears or the weather beat the Packers is hard to tell. One thing is sure: the weather beat up on everyone. On the Bears’ first drive, it was hard for people with ADHD to keep focus. The darn thing was 19 plays and 11:00 minutes, almost the entire first quarter. It seemed frustratingly insane that the Bears kept running the ball and going for short passes, as if they had sent football back to the stone ages. When they settled for a field goal, a groan rippled through the stadium as the fans waited for the umpteen-thousand Packer fans in Soldier Field to celebrate multiple Favre touchdowns against these woeful Bears.

Then something magical happened. Green Bay - the team that is supposed to be the ultimate group of cold weather warriors, rivaled only by snow-bound Buffalo - froze up. The Packer offense came out and just couldn’t move downfield against an inspired Bear defense and a demoralizing storm of -18 degree wind chills and 30 mph gusts. As the afternoon wore on, the Packers wore out - degraded by the pluck and plum of a Bear team that had taken the rivalry to heart.

In the freezer that was Chicago, another punter learned why the Bears’ special teams are known by punters throughout the NFL as “The Widow Makers.” Christian members of Green Bay’s punting unit will most likely spend Christmas Eve praying for forgiveness - and to keep their jobs - after the Bears’ special teams turned in a performance for the ages. You should pray for them as well, if you are so inclined: the Green Bay special teams will most likely suffer nightmares of Charles Tillman, Devin Hester and the flurry of linemen crashing through their heads like bulls through a china shop.

With all of the excitement and fun of watching the Bears pummel the Packers like an old block of molded cheese, it was easy to forget just how bad this season has been. For a moment, at least, the joy of sweeping the Packers and depriving them of something important - in this case, homefield advantage - smacks of the tradition and the rivalry that has made this city smile many a year when there was nothing else to smile about. More importantly, it gave the Bears something to look forward to for next week: a little fun. How much fun you can have in weather comparable only to Siberia, the arctic, or Alaska in spring is debatable. But there it is.

This cold-weather victory didn’t happen by some miracle. This Bear regime has been playing with excellence in cold weather and windy games for several seasons now. The wind-swept 49er’s game in 2006 where nothing could be held down; the frigid Bears-versus-Atlanta game in 2005 when Michael Vick froze up just like his career would two years later; the brutal NFC championship game when snow fell from the heavens to kiss the Bears bon voyage on their way to Miami.

That all of these elements came together in one game and the Bears were prepared to fight them is a testament to the one thing Lovie Smith has done best in his tenure as coach: prepare the Bears in spite of any distraction. His failure this season to find the special trick to preparing a team to survive the inevitable stumble associated with losing the Super Bowl lies on his shoulders, but this one game proves that Lovie still is the coach we thought he was: a motivator of men and a master of finding ways to imbue meaning into a game with little intrinsic value.

With Christmas so close, is it wise to look a gift horse in the mouth? Perhaps the spirit of the season is to forget about the troubles of the world - or in this case, the troubles of the Bears - and instead focus on the greatness of the moment. Is Kyle Orton the future savior? He looked good in weather that he was accustomed to from his days at Purdue, better than his Mississippi counterpart on the other side of the field. But will Kyle Orton ever challenge Brett’s immense resume? It’s hard to tell with the weather if Kyle was unable to pass accurately beyond 10 yards because of the wind or because of his own shortcomings. Harder yet to unravel the mystery of how far this kid can go, and whether it is lack of ability or opportunity that has held him back.

But those questions and all of the others will now officially be answered in the off-season; that is, if they are to be answered at all. At some point, you’ve just got to enjoy what you’ve got - whether it’s good health or a good old-fashioned beat-down of the green and gold.

The best gifts are sometimes the most unexpected ones. The Bears wrapped up the season series with the Packers with a blue and orange bow that will irk Green Bay until ‘08, regardless of their playoff success. Better yet, any Packer fan that tries to say the rivalry with the Bears is second place to the Vikings will be fibbing through their cheese-stained teeth. You know and they know just what this game meant.

Next year, the games will be fiercer, angrier and meaner. The rivalry is raging once more, and for the twelve months, the Bears and all of their fans get bragging rights. Merry Christmas, Chicago.

Though other sportswriters in Chicago might still be unpacking their carpetbags, Dustin Beutin is a born and bred Chi-town sportswriter. Heading into the heart of the Big Ten (Purdue) broadened his sports views, and it was during the Jauron era that he lost the innocence of blind love for Chicago sports and began looking for an outlet to vent his frustration. A trip out west to USC for a Master’s in writing was only tolerable with high doses of ESPN and Dodgers games, though it gave him a respect for the national perspective. Now in the early stages of a sports-writing career, Dustin hopes to give back to the city of Chicago everything it gave him: opinions and heartburn.

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