This is a different NFL than the NFL of the 1960s or even the 1980s, for that matter.
In those days, the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears generally disliked each other. Today, members of the two teams in the NFL’s most storied rivalry like to slobber all over each other.
Case in point: the Aaron Rodgers/Jay Cutler mutual admiration society.
Here’s Rodgers on what a swell guy Cutler is.
“My little brother, if you don’t know, goes to Vanderbilt and Jay obviously went there. And Jay was great with transition, helping my little brother get to know Nashville and actually helped kind of talk him into going there,” Rodgers said Thursday. “I talked to Jay, asked him what he thought about Vanderbilt and relayed that to my little brother. As a big brother, I’ve much appreciated the way that he’s treated my little brother and helped him feel comfortable at Vanderbilt. That goes a long way as far as the respect level between the two of us.”
Here’s Cutler on what a great player Rodgers is.
“Good player, really good player. Playing at a high caliber. Did it last year. He looks like he’s going to be back on track this year,” Cutler said. “A lot of weapons over there, from tight ends to receivers to running backs. They spread it out a lot and do some similar stuff that we do, create match-ups. He’s able to find them. He can move around well. So he’s definitely one of the top quarterbacks in the league.”
I’ll be honest. This makes me sick.
These are the Chicago Fucking Bears we’re talking about. They may not be the scum of the NFL — that would be the Minnesota Vikings — but they are damn close.
I understand it isn’t politically correct to trash the opponent, even when they are a hated rival. I get it that it will probably hurt your potential endorsement value if you say anything negative. I am fully aware you will probably be fined by the league if you really start talking some shit.
That doesn’t mean I have to like it.
No, it’s clear that everyone is a pussy in today’s NFL because that’s the way the league wants it. Family-friendly is what today’s NFL is. Gotta have the widest possible audience. Don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Unfortunately, the cost of that direction are the true characters of the game. The NFL doesn’t have and never will have any true characters ever again. Sure, Chad Ochocinco may be outspoken, but is he really controversial?
Maybe I’m becoming a relic of another era, but I miss the bad boy Oakland and later Los Angeles Raiders, with degenerates like Ken Stabler, Dr. Death and Lyle Alzado. Those guys wouldn’t even be allowed to play in today’s NFL.
Likewise, I miss the Packers/Bears rivalry that seethed hatred from both sides.
I like Ditka giving the ball to William “The Refrigerator” Perry to run in from the one-yard line. I like Charles Martin throwing Jim McMahon to the ground like a rag doll and ending his season. I also like McMahon calling Wisconsin women fat and ugly, and I like Ken Stills blowing up Matt Suhey three seconds after the whistle just because Suhey was wearing a blue helmet.
Now that’s a fucking rivalry!
I will still want to rip the throat out of every Bears fan I see on Monday night, but it would be a hell of a lot more fun if the players were into it like they used to be.
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The players are “1” now. The guys who want to go psycho can’t. So they shoot themselves accidently or make it “rain” Money makes a very dull edge.
When ever I am around Bears fans they either do not say anything to me about Football or they are wasted and start giving the Packers praise (as everyone should drunk or sober) but it just doesn’t seem right. It’s like someone killed they’re gold fish in 1986 and they have been sad and accepting that the Bears just suck but they are still a solid fan and ready to defend they’re team if they are once again good. Maybe this is the year…or maybe not.
I disagree, what’s aaron supposed to say? “Oh yeah he was nice to my brother has said absoloutly nothing bad about me…. But fuck that dick he’s a bears player!” Because that makes sense.. Its a new league with new players the old rivalry is still there maybe not as intense but its one of those things were random useless slander would put a nasty mark on our franchise. Let the other nfl teams talk all I want from the packers is they stay humble and play ball and talk on the field its barely the first two games once they’ve one a superbowl THEN I say they can talk all the shit they want.
You think the Rodgers-Cutler Mutual Admiration Society was bad? You should have heard the comments by Cutler and Martz about each other during the preseason and during Week 1 (Lions). Jeeeeez, why don’t those two blokes just get a room (and don’t forget to play safe and use condoms)! Disgusting. I’m sure Halas and Lombardi were BOTH spinning in their graves.
But the sad sack Forrest Gregg Packer teams of the 1980s had nothing to do with the the long, slow demise of the Bears after their 1985 team won the Super Bowl. Mama’s boy Michael McCaskey took care of that. The McCaskeys so feared the growing power of the football people who built that team in the early 80s that they ran the Bears football brain trust (Jim Finks, Vainisi, the Tobins,et al.) out of town as soon as they could after winning their court case against the Mugs Halas branch of the family over the George Halas estate. It was Mugs Halas who talked George into letting go of control, bringing in Finks, and letting Finks and his people build the team. Finks himself actually resigned from the team that he built just after the court case was over (and just before the Bears Super Bowl year) because he must have seen the handwriting on the wall. Why else would he toil for almost 10 years to build something, only to leave just before the fun part? He knew he would be out because he was Mugs Halas’ guy. Vainisi was next after the Super Bowl. Then eventually both of the Tobins. It took a few years for such a great team to fade away, but fade they did. I’m sure the McCaskey amily were relieved when Ditka did his meltdown in 1992, so they could finally have all over their control back, with little McCaskeys running all around the front office. Michael McCaskey taught at Harvard and wrote a book about management. But seeing the hash he made of the once proud Bears organization, culminating with the laughable fiasco over the botched hiring of Dave McGinnis as coach after Wannstedt, I am more convinced than ever that those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach (and those who can’t teach, teach gym). I myself knew that the rules had just changed when I saw Michael McCaskey hoist a Super Bowl trophy that he had made absolutely no contribution to winning.
Packer fans should most of all consider themselves lucky to have the ownership structure that the have. After 50 years here in Chicago watching the know-nothing nepotistic offspring of franchise founders like George Halas ruin once great organizations because of their fear of losing control (see also Bill Wirtz and what he did to the Blackhawks), I hope you appreciate what you have.
O, and by the way, I miss Jim Irwin and Max McGee like crazy. Oh my….
Agreed. I absolutely hate to bash a Packers great, but Larry McCarren is not a very good color commentator.
Looks like this article got ripped off…love the GB Press Gazette, but you been plagiarized, son!
http://packersnews.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20100926/PKR07/100926040/Mike-Vandermause-column-What-rivalry-Packers-Bears-acting-downright-friendly
This website… And just about everything is whiney bullshit. Haha… Such trash.