The Chicago Bears were hooting and hollering in the locker room after rallying late to knock the Green Bay Packers out of the playoffs on Saturday night.
Coach Ben Johnson made his feelings clear. He repeatedly yelled a profanity directed at the Packers to start his postgame pep talk.
[Related: Bears Coach Ben Johnson NSFW Postgame Speech]
While the Bears’ focus shifts toward a home game against Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round on Sunday, Johnson’s comments about the Packers are still getting plenty of attention. On Monday, he wasn’t offering any apologies.
“There’s a rivalry that exists between these two teams, something that I fully recognize and I’m a part of. And, yeah, I just, I don’t like that team,” Johnson said.
Chicago and Green Bay have played each other more times than any other two NFL franchises have in a rivalry that dates to 1921.
Johnson embraced it from the moment the Bears hired him from Detroit’s staff last January. He needled Green Bay’s coach in his introductory news conference when he said, “I kind of enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year.”
The Bears beat the Packers twice this year, rallying for a 31-27 wild-card victory after the teams split two tight regular-season games. They’ve won three of the past five meetings, counting the postseason, after being dominated for years by Green Bay.
The two coaches, meanwhile, seem to have an icy relationship. Their postgame handshake on Saturday went viral, with LaFleur extending his right hand and Johnson briefly touching it before running off.
“This is a rivalry and, city of Chicago, Green Bay, it needs to be a rivalry,” Johnson said.
Packers safety Xavier McKinney praised Johnson as a “hell of a coach” and called him a “troll.”
“He’s a troll,” he said. “So it’s cool. I’m just not a troll. So I don’t know, that’s just him. But he’s a hell of a coach, though.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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