The Packers and Bears truly have the greatest rivalry in sports.
Spare me your Yankees-Red Sox or Celtics-Lakers nonsense – those are non-contact games. The Packers and Bears play a sport where 22 guys are constantly hitting each other as hard as they can for an hour straight.
Football has the best rivalries – and the Packers are Bears are the best one.
Go all the way back to the beginning.
The Packers were founded in 1919, the Bears (starting as the Decatur Staleys) were founded in 1920, the year the NFL started (although it was then known as the American Professional Football Association).
When the league was just a group of teams, they played each other.
When the league divided into conferences, they were in the same conference.
When the league went to divisions, they were in the same division.
Even with multiple division realignments and expansions, the Packers and Bears have stayed in the same division, right next to each other, throughout the history of the league.
Since then, they have played each other hundreds of times. Through it all, they have remained the two most storied franchises:
- The Packers have the most championships of any franchise. The Bears have the second most.
- The Bears have the most Hall of Famers of any franchise. The Packers have the second most.
- The Bears have the most wins of any franchise. The Packers have the second most.
So here are two teams, that have been together from the very beginning, who are the two most successful franchises in the league by pretty much any definition.
How great is that? There is truly nothing like it in any other sport.
My favorite part is that they are the two northernmost teams in the NFL that play outdoors on grass.
That’s what football is really about.
Now, they get to play each other again.
Kickoff can’t come soon enough.
.
Want to learn more about the how NFL teams work?
Want more insight into how winning teams build their rosters (and how losing teams fail)? We’ve got you covered!
Start shallow, then get deep into understanding draft strategy with our draft book (rated a #1 New Release): A Fan’s Guide To Understanding The NFL Draft: Strategies, Tactics, And Case Studies For Building A Professional Football Team
Then jump into free agency with another #1 New Release: A Fan’s Guide To NFL Free Agency Hits and Misses to better understand this critical part of the NFL offseason and see where teams have found (or missed) success in this critical component of team-building.
Finally, get to the game behind the game with our new must-have book for 2021: A Fan’s Guide To Understanding The NFL Salary Cap – which lays out detailed, easy-to-follow scenarios to explain exactly how contract structures and salary cap rules impact teams.
All these great books are available in ebook and paperback – and free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers!
If you don’t have Kindle Unlimited, you can get a free trial of Kindle Unlimited here!
Don’t just watch the draft – understand it and learn why GMs make the moves they do.
With a free trial of Kindle Unlimited, there’s no reason to wait!
.