The Green Bay Packers requested that the Bears be the opponent for the Thanksgiving night game in Lambeau Field, during which Bears tormentor Brett Favre’s No. 4 jersey would be retired and placed in the Packers’ Ring of Honor.
After the Packers got by the Bears in Game 1 this season, quarterback Aaron Rodgers said from a podium, “It’s always fun beating the Bears,” something at which Rodgers had done consistently since taking over Bears-whacking from Favre.
And suddenly, a rivalry that had lain dormant for quite a few years because one participant — the Bears — rarely showed up in much more than a Washington Generals role to the Packers’ Harlem Globetrotters, was very much alive.