Bad blood has always been a part of the rivalry between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. The long-standing grudge, which first began over 100 years ago on November 27, 1921, with a Chicago Staleys 20-0 victory, in front of around 7,000 fans at Cubs Park, has had its fair share of heated moments.
Today, we revisit one of the most satisfying wins for the Bears in their discord with their antagonists from the north. Likewise, this game, played in 1980, infuriated Green Bay players and fans and set in the Packers’ craw like no other game had before.
With the next installment of the feud set to kick off on Sunday, November 17, at Soldier Field, please take another stroll down Memory Lane for the second (chronologically) of five most influential and memorable Packers/Bears games (with a Bears slant) and revisit the most lopsided score in the 208-game series played between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers.
The Chicago Bears Were Out For Revenge on December 7, 1980
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Files
The final results of the game between the Packers and the Bears played on December 7, 1980, had everything to do with what transpired three months earlier at Lambeau Field.
In that game, the Packers eked out a 12-6 overtime victory in one of the most wild finishes in NFL history. (Full disclosure: readers will have to stay tuned for a detailed account of that game as it just may come up next week as a Packers-friendly event in the rivalry…).
Needless to say, Chicago was ready to “welcome” Green Bay to Soldier Field in December. Although the teams had relatively similar records heading into the contest–the Packers were 5-7-1, the Bears stood at 5-8–oddsmakers made Chicago a 6-point favorite.
On an unusually warm December day–the temperature at game time registered 56 degrees–the elements were not likely to become a factor. The only factor worth noting is that the Packers made the fateful decision to actually get off the team bus and enter the stadium.
Unbelievably, the first quarter was scoreless. However, Bears’ Hall of Famer Walter Payton scored on one of his patented one-yard leaps into the end zone three plays into the second quarter, and the rout was on.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Files
The Bears tallied three more touchdowns in the second quarter alone, and despite a Lynn Dickey to James Lofton scoring strike, Chicago held a comfortable 28-7 lead at halftime.
However, as the rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive once professed, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Green Bay Packers Accused Chicago Bears of Running Up Score
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Files
After the halftime break, the game got well out of hand for the Packers, but the Bears showed no signs of mercy on their division foe.
When Payton scored his third touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter to make the score 48-7, head coach Neill Armstrong took Payton out in favor of backup Willie McClendon. But, after the Bears scored again to make it 55-7, Payton reentered the game and incurred the wrath of the Packers’ players and coaches.
See Also: Full Game Broadcast from CBS
Afterwards, players from both sides had very different views on whether or not Chicago was purposefully trying to rub salt in the Packers’ wounds.
“When you see guys like [Payton] come back in with the score that lopsided, it kind of sticks in your mind,” Packers cornerback Estus Hood said after the game. “Yeah, we’ll remember it next time we play the Bears. What goes around comes around.”
Payton himself downplayed his fourth quarter appearance. He said, “I’m a competitor. That’s why I wanted to keep playing. I never like to come out.”
With under two minutes left in the game, backup quarterback Mike Phipps wanted to put his stamp on the historic feud. When starter Vince Evans was replaced by Phipps, the Bears didn’t stop throwing the ball. Phipps passed just before the two-minute warning and again with 1:33 remaining, completing both for 20 yards.
Phipps’ teammates were all for it. Offensive lineman Dan Jiggetts was an eyewitness to what was happening. “We’re in the huddle and the play comes in from the sideline to run the ball,” Jiggetts said. “We’re up by 50 points, but Phipps hadn’t had a lot of opportunity to play. They’re telling him to run the ball and he goes, ‘I don’t think so.’ So he starts putting it back up in the air. It was a beautiful thing. Were we trying to rub it in? Absolutely. We wanted 70 points.”
The Packers were also upset that Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan continued to call blitzes after Green Bay had inserted untested backup quarterback David Whitehurst with the score 48-7.
Angry about the excessive blitzing, Packers head coach Bart Starr confronted Bears counterpart Neill Armstrong after the game, refusing to shake his hand. For the mild-mannered gentleman Starr was, that was an extremely noteworthy gesture, one that was spurred by the voracity of the rivalry between the Bears and Packers.
What Did The 1980 Game Mean?
After their dismantling of the Green Bay Packers in December of 1980, the Chicago Bears won 10 of the next 16 games in the border battle. However, even more jubilation for the Bears and humiliation for the Packers loomed just five years later on national television, and with it gave birth to a cultural phenomenon.
