Packers Fan in Oak Forest Refrains from Bragging

Heading into the Jan. 23 Packers-Bears matchup, Patch found a couple with conflicting points of view; . She swore that no matter the outcome of the game, their home would be bright with orange and blue for the Super Bowl. Instead, bitter Bears fans filed in, forced to decide whether to support their team's rival. Fletcher claims he held back from bragging — Patch wonders what his wife and friends have to say about that. Fletcher's opinion was not the popular one, before the game or after, but here's what he has to say after the Packers brought home the Lombardi Trophy.

At the outset of the 2010 NFL season, many of the talking heads picked the Green Bay Packers to win the Super Bowl. The predictions for the Chicago Bears’ season fell somewhere between 5 to 7 wins and “meh.” As a Packers fan in the Oak Forest area, I was more than happy to recount this to any Bears fan who’d listen.

However, as the season progressed the Bears seemed to find good fortune around every turn, running out to a 9-3 start, and puffing out the chests of every Bears fan in Illinois. Meanwhile the injuries began to pile up for the green and gold, losing Ryan Grant, Jermichael Finley, and Nick Barnett among a dozen others to injured reserve.

The Cubs fan in me knew this feeling of unfulfilled expectations all too well, but rooting for the Cubs also involves being an eternal optimist.

So all the while, I kept insisting to the over-confident Bears fans that their team was a “pretender” and Jay Cutler was not a leader; and that if the Packers could just find a way into the playoffs, Aaron Rodgers would bring the Lombardi Trophy back to its rightful place. 

Impressive road wins against the Eagles and the Falcons put the red-hot Packers and Aaron Rodgers in the NFC Championship against none other than Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears. I never doubted for a moment that my beloved Packers would win, and as evidenced by my previous interview at , I was not popular for my opinion —. When the big day came, I was proven correct with a 21-14 victory.

On Super Bowl Sunday, my house was packed with disenchanted Bears fans torn between rooting for their hated rivals with an all-too-lovable leader in Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers with a not-so-loveable leader in Ben Roethlisberger.

Some stayed true to the orange and blue and pulled for Pittsburgh, others subtly cheered for the Packers for various reasons; some just cheered for commercials and food. In midst of it all I stayed confident in Rodgers’ abilities and the team’s resiliency, just feeling it was the Packers’ day. The game unfolded into an uncanny microcosm of their entire season — the QB shined, the defense came up big, and despite losing Donald Driver and Charles Woodson to injury during the big game, they still found a way to win.

As our guests filtered out, I didn’t even bother rubbing it in. Most of the Bears’ fans around me offered their congratulations, and I was happy to humbly accept. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking deep down that the victory tasted even sweeter because they stepped over the Bears to get there. 

To the Bears fans out there: how are you feeling about Cutler and your team going into next season? Your team overachieved and came up short and the Packers, with no running game and without two of their biggest offensive weapons in Finley and Grant, underachieved and yet still won the Super Bowl. … Nervous?

Sincerely,

Joe Fletcher

A Packers fan, in Oak Forest