The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears are set to reignite their long, bitter rivalry in Week 14. But this time, one storyline is stealing the spotlight. Ben Johnson will get his first shot as the Bears’ coach at beating Packers head coach Matt LaFleur. And before fans on either side start firing off social media jabs, Rob Gronkowski has already stepped in with his take on who the better coach is.

“I really like both of the coaches. There’s no doubt about it,” ‘Gronk’ said on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams when asked about which coach he would have liked to play for. “But I’m going to go with Ben Johnson just because he is a true offensive guru.

“We’ve seen what he did with the Detroit Lions last year. We’re seeing what he’s doing with the Bears. The Green Bay Packers’ offense, they’re just a vanilla type of offense. The Bears, they’re letting it all go. That’s the type of football that I like to play. Just letting it all go. And Ben Johnson’s doing that. He’s been doing that his entire career.”

His remarks come as Chicago and Green Bay prepare to go head-to-head in another chapter of their historic rivalry. These two teams have faced each other 210 times in the past 100 years. The Bears have emerged victorious 96 times to the Packers’ 108.

It’s a different story for the head coaches, though. This will mark the first matchup between Ben Johnson and Matt LaFleur as head coaches. Plus, they don’t have much history. They aren’t longtime friends nor old colleagues; just two brilliant offensive minds taking over the leadership roles for the teams involved in the NFL’s oldest feud.

They’ve never overlapped at past coaching stops. No shared coaching trees, no shared locker rooms. Just two rising coaches whose paths are finally crossing as leaders. But they do have a bit of football history, when Ben Johnson was the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions.

During his introductory press conference earlier this year, Johnson had joked about defeating LaFleur twice a year while he was the offensive coordinator of the Lions for three seasons. To be fair, he wasn’t wrong; the Lions went 5–1 against Green Bay while Johnson was their offensive coordinator.

That success against the Packers has carried over in the rivalry storyline now that he is in Chicago. However, Johnson’s comments didn’t go unnoticed. LaFleur downplayed it in May.

“I don’t know Ben Johnson,” LaFleur said on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast in April. “Do I have beef? I don’t know Ben Johnson. I respect him as a football coach, he did a nice job with the Lions. I thought it was interesting. The press conference was interesting, but I don’t have beef with him.”

But when the same topic was brought up on Monday, and LaFleur was asked if Johnson’s comments bothered him, he simply responded: “No, not really.”

Asked again on Monday if the comments by Johnson bothered him, he simply said: “No, not really.”

Straight face, short answer, no drama.

The Packers’ head coach is fueled to win over the Bears

While LaFleur downplayed the moment, he knows he has something to prove to Chicago’s new coach. Bussin’ With the Boys podcast in April gave a good hint. When asked whether the Packers might use Johnson’s old remarks for motivation, LaFleur replied: “potentially.”

That’s all he needed to say, and everyone knew exactly what it meant. Plus, ‘Gronk’ choosing Johnson over LaFleur only added more fuel to the competitive fire.

Though LaFleur keeps quiet, that outside noise is just growing. And fans are just as involved.

After the Bears defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 13 and the Panthers beat the Rams, Chicago was pushed into the NFC’s top seed. To celebrate the moment, a famous stand on the city’s North Side decided to give out free hot dogs. Now, imagine the freebies if Chicago defeats Green Bay.

For a rivalry founded upon tradition, this new coaching duel could make fresh memories that the fanbases won’t forget anytime soon.