In the beginning, there were the Decatur Staleys. Two years and two winning seasons later, they came to be known as the Chicago Bears. Since then, they’ve laid claim to one fact: they have won more games than any other NFL franchise. This has persisted to this day, but the prominence of a particular division rival threatens to unseat them. In 2022, the Green Bay Packers could very well become the winningest franchise in the NFL.
As noted by Jack Andrade, a senior researcher for NFL.com, the Bears enter the 2022 season with 783 wins. The Packers are only a single win behind them, at 782. This means that if the Bears lose in the first week of the season and the Packers win, they will tie for the overall win record. Who do these teams face in Week 2? Each other. Sometimes the stars align in just the right way to make things like this possible. (Or the NFL schedule makers foresaw this and planned accordingly.)
Also noted by Andrade in the same article, in 1992, the Bears held a staggering 85 more wins (561) than the Packers and Giants (tied for second with 476). But with the arrival of stars like Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, they’ve since closed the gap in the last thirty years.
This will certainly stoke the flames of two franchises bitterly entangled by a long history of hostility. At least in this current generation’s lifetime, the Packers have seen a near-complete dominance of their old foes, but the title of winningest franchise was always something the Bears could hold onto. Should Green Bay continue their winning formula, that may no longer be the case. 2022 could see a new face at the top of what many consider the most important statistic of all: wins.
So get your popcorn ready for Week 2.