Bears-Packers: Get Your Hate On!

The first game of the Bears 2009 regular season opens Sunday night, against the Most Hated Green Bay Packers, marking the beginning of another chapter in professional football's oldest and most contentious rivalries. How has this matchup remained so intense for nearly a century? We're not in rivalling cities. Green Bay isn't really a city. Or even near one. If it weren't for the concrete and steel surrounding it, Lambeau Field would be indistinguishable from the 10,000 acres of pasture that surrounds it. Even Milwaukee, with its Packer faithful and all-consuming inferiority complex, is closer to Chicago than Green Bay. It's not football philosophies. One of the few grudging points that Bears and Packers fans agree on is style. Not clothing styles, as the Packer uniform appears to have been 'designed' largely by condiments spilled off a bratwurst. Green and Gold? Nah, that's mustard and relish. But we do share a passi...