An Actual Feud

Bears fans are supposed to hate the Packers; Packers fans are supposed to hate the Bears. Somewhere in posterity this rivalry is steeped; Halas and Lambeau are most likely the origins.

But they are the past. How could a Packer fan not shed a tear the day Bryan Robinson blocked Ryan Longwell's FG attempt to preserve the win the week after Walter Payton tragically passed away too soon?

Bears fans of late have acknowledged the greatness of Brett Favre and esteemed him a worthy adversary. Never before have such glowing words exited the mouth of such hell-bent enemies. Somewhere George Halas is rolling in his grave.

For whatever reason, the grudge match, the rivalry involving the Packers and Bears has shedded the evilness it once possessed. Gone are the days of Charles Martin body slamming a helpless Jim McMahon. Also gone are the cold shower locker rooms of seasons past.

The Bears/ Packers rivalry in today's NFL is more a fan creation than it is an actual rivalry.

But the Minnesota Vikings, now they're a nasty bunch of cusses.

For some reason, the true NFC North rivalry nowadays involves the marauding, mouth-running Minnesotans and our beloved, albeit bad-mouthing, Bears. Buried somewhat by the east coast soap opera that is the New York Giants and commentator-in-waiting Michael Strahan's girly bitch-fest was the burgeoning feud between one Viking safety Darren Sharper and Bears QB Rex Grossman. Seems Sharper had to come to the rescue of his teammate and fellow DB Dwight Smith after Grossman punked Smith and the entire Vikings defense by doing nothing more than throwing the winning touchdown in their previous meeting and giving the Vikings a little of their own trash-talking medicine.

According to Sharper, Rex is the most awful trash talking player ever -- like stuttering gun slingers ever really speak. They let their game do all the talking. Brett Favre was the master at smiling at an opponent and then tearing his heart out. But Rex's malfeasance was supposedly directed at a fellow shit-talker, one who was giving Rex a headache all day.

And maybe Rex deserved a little of the slander. Until that late point in the game, Rex had given the Vikings much to be thankful for including an interception returned for a touchdown. He was playing like your grandpa's soiled Depends -- shitty.

But after the 24 yard strike to Rashied Davis in the endzone for the winning touchdown, a torrent of NSFC (not safe for children) language melted the ears of many a Metrodome fan and burned in the hearts of all the Vikings defenders.

Rex was staking his ground. Rex was telling the main antagonist Dwight Smith right where he could shove that mouth-piece of his.

And now Sharper is sticking up for his tormented teammate, the one whose pride and win column both took a massive hit. I wonder what good ole Olin Kreutz thinks about Sharper's words. Kreutz, who once broke a teammates' jaw for talking too much while attending a gun range together, must delight in the incendiary. I wonder who the first Viking will be to have a Albert Haynesworth-like head stomp performed on him by the Bears' All-Pro center? My guess, it's Vikings DT/ NT Pat Williams, Olin's personal attack ad. The two just don't get along. Williams even accused Olin of lobbying for Williams to be kept out of the Pro-Bowl, not exactly the lovefest the Bears bestow upon Favre and the Packers these days.

The Bears defense has its own swagger these days. And flashpoint Viking Offensive Guard Steve Hutchinson and center Matt Birk just aren't afraid of the big, bad Bear. Jim Kleinsasser once bulled over all-world LB Brian Urlacher and left track marks in his wake. The Viking offense scoffed at the notion that this Bears defense is a fearsome as the media would some believe. What else would you expect from a team once coached by Denny "Then Crown Their Ass" Green?

When you break it all down, the Vikings and Bears just don't like each other. And they save the flowery platitudes for talking to their mothers.

And the NFL needs rivalries like this; it needs fresh blood, something to take the sting out of parity. The league has been looked at as not very exciting this season, with the slop that is the NFC and the I've-seen-this-story-before Indianapolis Colts. That the Bears are good again, and for two years in a row is a good start. And while the Bears/ Packers rivalry sustained fandom during the lean years, add the bad guy Vikings and the healthy new rivalry, and well, you've got some must see t.v. on your hands. And the NFL, and Bears fans, are better for it.