Ben Johnson has never kept his feelings about the Green Bay Packers to himself. The trash talk and his well-known animosity toward the Packers make the rivalry game exciting. But according to former offensive lineman Mark Schlereth, Johnson has got to draw a line.
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“You don’t have to go out there and tackle anybody,” he said on The OG Football Show. You don’t have to do anything all week. Understand, you know, you’re a coach. We’re simple creatures as players. And that motivation is something that resonates with us. And so you are doing stuff that’s putting your team in a tougher position to win. So, hey, as a broadcaster, I love it. As a player? Dude, stop it. Just stop it.”
The criticism comes after Johnson’s recent loss to the Green Bay Packers. The Bears fell 31–7 in Week 5, leaving Johnson to answer for a difficult. There was not much room for him to brag. Johnson had to begrudgingly shake hands with Packers HC Matt LaFleur. The Packers now lead the iconic rivalry 110-98-6.
After Chicago defeated the Packers 31-27 in the NFC wild-card round in January, Johnson celebrated with an expletive-filled declaration of his dislike for the team. The moment quickly spread online, giving the rivalry another memorable talking point.
“F*** the Packers,” Johnson said in the video. “F*** them. F******* hate those guys.”
“This one meant something to us,” Johnson said after the clip went viral. “This is a rivalry. And the city of Chicago, Green Bay— it needs to be a rivalry.”
That attitude seems to be present within the Bears, too.
This year in August, tight end Colston Loveland backed Johnson’s attitude towards the Packers on The Pivot Podcast, saying, “We should hate each other. This is what rivalry is about.”
During the recent game, on one play, Packers WR Matthew Golden ran out of bounds with the ball and collided with a Bears assistant coach. On his way back to the field, he appeared to share some words with kicker Cairo Santos, who allegedly tried to trip Golden over.
But all of that heat doesn’t have a place to go after the Chicago Bears’ humiliating loss to the Packers this year in Week 5.
“As a broadcaster and a guy who does podcasts, don’t ever change. I love it, but just understand the player in me would smack you upside the head because you’re writing checks that I have to cash.” Schlereth said.
“Let me tell you something right now, Ben Johnson. If you had a lineup, if you had to put a helmet and shoulder pads on, we’d need a smoke bomb to get you out of the locker room; you’d be standing in a puddle of p—.”
The rivalry has also produced a contrast in coaching styles. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has emphasized keeping the focus on the players rather than making the matchup about the coaches.
“Because this game is about players and so we’ll keep it about the players,” LaFleur said. “I’m not the one out there playing, so I think that’s always been my mentality and we’re going to keep it about those guys. And don’t get me wrong, I love the rivalry. It’s awesome. It’s great. It’s intense. You can feel it on game day. You can feel it throughout the course of the week and also the significance. I mean, they’re the defending NFC North champions, so what a great opportunity, great challenge for us in our home stadium to play against the defending champs.”
Johnson is unlikely to stop being himself just because Schlereth has objected. But the Bears coach will be reminded of this loss the next time he plays the Packers.