The Best Night Ever

The generations of Bears fans to come after 1985 now have their forever moment.

Most of you who have read me for a while know that I've had moments of despair and surrender on the nights or weeks my team finally turned over the forever rival. The rival under whose thumb we had spent most of our lives.

When Niklas Hjalmarsson's goal was ruled out by a bullshit call in Game 7 against Detroit, Brandon Saad getting two minutes for getting tackled instead of just letting the play continue before a Wings-only penalty, I knew it was over. Someone in the NHL offices had hit the "Make Detroit Win" button again, as they always did. We would never truly overcome them, even with our first Cup in hand. They still had four (in recent memory), and that taunt of, "You never went through us!" was ringing around our heads. Worse yet, they were fucking off to the Eastern Conference the following season. This was the last chance, and they were going to get away with it for what could be forever. We'd never get another shot to stand on top. Luckily, Dave Bolland crushed Nyquist along the boards, and Seabrook took things from there. The Wings have been irrelevant ever since.

When the Cubs lost Game 1 to the Cardinals in 2015, they just looked out of their depth. John Lester got hit around a bit, and maybe he was already aging. The Cubs couldn't do anything with the repeated fastballs John Lackey was pumping past them. Winning the wildcard game was cute and all, but this was a new level and one the Cardinals lived in, and the Cubs were just visiting. Salvation would have to wait until they were comfortable here. Of course, the Cardinals ran out of pitchers after that game, Jorge Soler and Kyle Schwarber went supernova, and the Cardinals haven't really been heard from since.

Maybe it was when it was announced the Bears were going all navy, uniform-wise, because I can't remember a game where they've worn those and not gotten their ass kicked. But I know for sure it was when the Bears couldn't recover Darian Kinnard's fumble in the 3rd quarter. Here was the Packers getting way too cute in a game they were still bossing, a pass play deep in their own territory to an offensive lineman where there were three bad outcomes for any good outcome. This was the Packers finally getting too high on their own supply, and opening the door. This was them rubbing our noses in it, saying they could do whatever they wanted and it wouldn't matter, and having it blow up. And the Bears bungled the gift out of bounds.

It was over then. It was a return to the last 30 years of Bears football we've all watched, with only brief oases of competence sprinkled in there. It was our tormentors dangling the bait right in front of us only as a taunt, to just yank it away and laugh at our naive, ham-handed attempts to grab it before they toddled off to contest for the real prizes we'll never know.

Luckily, like Seabrook and Schwarber and Soler before him, Caleb Williams wasn't here for any of that shit. He's not here for that shit.

Suddenly, it was the Packers who couldn't find the mere handful of plays it would have taken to salt the game away, just as I'd watched more Bears teams than I wish to recall never could. It would have only taken three or four. Green Bay pawed wildly for them in the ether, never locating them. It was the Packers on the final, drive, to save their season, that got a delay of game coming out of their own timeout. That was a Bears specialty. It was the Packers mangling their own timeouts, missing field goals, leaving just enough room for the more assured, more confident, more swaggy team to squeeze through.

We won't know if the dichotomy is now changed between the two for a while yet. But it feels like it, doesn't it? Either the Packers extend Matt LaFleur, who has coached every playoff game he's ever been in with both hands around his own neck, and their entire 2026 season is on edge and only defined by January. They become the Eagles, without the championship gloss. Maybe it causes them to respond in unity, but what have the past three years taught us about this outfit when the heat is on?

Or they can't come to terms with LaFleur, and he fucks off, and they have to find a coach in this pool that's better. And there isn't one. Harbaugh The Other? The Ravens have certainly been known for their smoothness and crisp play in January, no? He had a more talented QB than Jordan Love for years and gotten the same results. Go ahead, try it.

Is this Bears season just fairy dust? Yeah, sure, it could be. I don't know. It's the NFL, not much makes sense. But one team had a plan and confidence in the 4th quarter and the assurance it was going to win, and it was the one in blue and orange who never led until the last 90 seconds.

If you're my age or younger, this is now the greatest Bears moment and night you've ever known. The NFC Championship over the Saints was great, but it felt like it had been coming all season. Also, it was the Saints. Come on. This was the Packers, in the playoffs.

Is it little brother-ish to glorify a wildcard round win over just a division rival? MOTHERFUCKER, WE'VE BEEN THE LITTLE BROTHER. Maybe not anymore, but we're going to enjoy it now. Act like you've been here before? Bitch, we haven't!

The Packers, much like the Wings and Cardinals before them, thought they were getting the version of their plaything they had gotten for the previous 10, 20 years. They got something new. Something they weren't prepared for. Neither have been the same. We can only hope it's the same story for Green Bay. It feels like it might be out there, though, doesn't it? That's enough for now.