The Bears vs Packers rivalry won't wait long to get going in 2019. The NFL saw fit to change their usual routine to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the league by putting the oldest rivalry in football center stage for the first game of the year. Considering the two teams played a pair of thrilling contests last season, it made perfect sense.
Green Bay has owned the rivalry for the better part of almost 30 years. This thanks in large part to their outstanding cultivation of not one but two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. However, the Bears got a small measure of revenge last season by knocking the Packers out of the playoff race while also clinching the NFC North at Soldier Field.
Chicago knows their fortunes have always been tied to how they play Green Bay. Good things tend to happen when they beat them and bad things happen when they don't. That's how rivalries usually work. What a lot of fans may not know is how incredibly tied the Bears' championship success is to Green Bay.
Bears vs Packers has often determined titles for Chicago
Here's a stat that nobody knows. The Bears have won eight championships dating back to 1932. In seven of those seasons, they played the Packers in their first game of the year. In those games, they are 5-0-2 in those games. They also won their first matchup with Green Bay in the 1985 season as well. In other words, every Chicago football championship has followed beating the Packers in their first meeting of the year.
Even in seasons where the Bears didn't complete the job they still had deep runs. They beat Green Bay in 2010 at Soldier Field. They shut them out in the opener at Lambeau Field in 2006. They beat them handily in the first game in 1988 and slipped by in a defensive slugfest in 1984. Each of those seasons ended with a berth in at least the NFC championship game.
This should give you an idea of how potentially big that opener in September will be for this team. If they truly believe they are ready to make a run at the Super Bowl, then they have to prove it by not letting old habits die hard.
