If the Bears-Packers rivalry had adopted in its early days a trophy that would belong to the team that leads the all-time series, the trophy would have remained in Chicago. For more than eight decades.
After the Bears built a 7-1-1 lead to start the series and the Packers embarked on a 7-0-1 streak, the two sides went back and forth until 1933, when the Bears knotted it at 11-11-3 in the first game of the season, took the lead in the second game, and stretched it to two games in the third meeting of the year between the two teams.
The worm began to turn in a major way as of 1992, the year the Brett Favre era began. Favre’s Chicago experience began in less-than-stellar fashion, with the Bears beating the Packers 30-10 in their own building. Since then, however, the Packers have beaten the Bears 35 of 45 times. Under Aaron Rodgers, the Packers have won 16 of 20.
After Thursday night’s win, the Packers now lead the series 95-94-6 -- a full 84 years after Green Bay last had the edge. They’ll get a chance to lose it on November 12, when perhaps the first game involving Mitchell Trubisky keeps the two teams fairly even, at least until Rodgers retires.
Coincidentally, a Constitutional amendment repealed prohibition in 1933. The current status of the biggest rivalry in the NFL could give Bears fans the best reason to drink since drinking was re-legalized.