Ben Johnson stood in the center of the Bears’ locker room Saturday night, mere minutes after they beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFL playoffs. He crouched down and, as he always does in post-victory speeches, quickly stood up and screamed.

What came next was unique.

“F–k the Packers. F–k those guys. I hate them.”

Bears players cheered their head coach’s sentiment after a 31-27 comeback win that ended Green Bay’s season in the NFC wild-card round.

“It was definitely a turnt-up moment,” linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said. “You could just see the energy in the locker room. Everybody was like, OK, Ben got a little swag about himself.”

All that emotion followed a week in which Johnson and the Bears leaned into the NFL’s oldest and most bitter rivalry. It was, in essence, a rallying cry during the practice week.

Bears coaches and players heard perceived slights from Packers wide receiver Christian Watson and defensive back Keisean Nixon — saying they needed “get-back” after a Week 16 loss in Chicago — defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and running back Josh Jacobs.

[READ: How Bears’ defense turned on pressure, fueled NFL playoff comeback vs. Packers]

“Yeah, they wanted us. That’s what I heard,” quarterback Caleb Williams said. “They wanted it, and they got it.”

Johnson has fostered the rivalry from the moment he became the Bears’ head coach, saying he enjoyed beating Packers counterpart Matt LaFleur twice per year while the Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator. That started a terse relationship between the two, visible in three postgame handshakes.

Saturday’s was downright awkward, with Johnson not even stopping to speak to LaFleur after the largest comeback in Bears playoff history.

Johnson didn’t back off his actions or anti-Packers rhetoric in his postgame speech during a Monday press conference, after emotions had cooled. When asked if there was something personal between him and LaFleur, this was Johnson’s response.

“This is a rivalry,” he said. “And [for] the city of Chicago, Green Bay — it needs to be a rivalry.”

It recently had been tempered some because it was so one-sided, with Green Bay winning 28 of 33 games in the all-time series between the 2009 and 2024 seasons. Johnson and a rapidly improving Bears team stoked its flames this season, though, winning two of three games, all of which were decided on the final play.

[READ: How Bears QB Caleb Williams engineered comeback playoff win vs. Packers]

The Bears took pride in ended the Packers’ season in Chicago, and wouldn’t apologize for it.

“I mean, like I said before, there’s a rivalry that exists between these two teams, something that I fully recognize and I’m a part of,” Johnson said. “And, yeah, I just, I don’t like that team. So [Bears chairman George McCaskey] and I have talked, and we’re on the same page.”

McCaskey has no love for the Packers, as he has stated time and again. Such sentiment goes all the way to founder George Halas and extends throughout the Bears fanbase.

Johnson harnessed it last week and used it well. Expect that to be that way each time these teams play with him in charge.

“Certainly, the opponent, in of itself, it means a lot to the city, this organization,” Johnson said, “and that’s something that we certainly play into a little bit as coaches and players is we know how big it is when Chicago plays Green Bay.”

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