On this day of love, let’s talk about the players we LOVE to hate
Happy Valentine’s Day, Bears fans! While you men are running to Walgreens today to grab the last of the candy scraps and buy a dilapidated bouquet from Jewel, let’s look back at some of the players that we Chicago Bears fans don’t think too fondly of.
Most are for their performances on the field, but some are for a variety of other reasons. Either way, on this day of love, let’s look at the players that all of us fans just love to hate.
10. Dan Marino, Miami Dolphins QB
Is this one universal, or just my family? I had just turned 8 when the Miami Dolphins beat the ‘85 Bears on Monday Night Football. My father held a grudge against that team, and specifically Dan Marino, for years. Marino is one of the 10 greatest quarterbacks of all time and had a hell of a career, but after you ruined the Bears’ perfect season, it serves you right that you never won a Super Bowl.
Plus, if it wasn’t for Marino, Ray Finkle would never have gone crazy and kidnapped Snowflake. The man is a menace.
9. Hugh Douglas, Philadelphia Eagles DE
The 2001 Chicago Bears were a lot of fun. Between the James Allen Hail Mary, the Mike Brown pick-sixes, and the 13-3 record, it was a season of joy for so many of us. The Bears had a home game in the Divisional Round against the Philadelphia Eagles, and had they won that game, they would have been one win away from a Super Bowl.
But Hugh Douglas changed all that. Douglas took a cheap shot on Bears QB Jim Miller that knocked him out of the game and forced the Bears to play Shane Matthews. I won’t pretend that Jim Miller is Patrick Mahomes, but the offense always ran better with Miller on the field. The Bears’ offense completely stalled in the second half, and Donovan McNabb and the Eagles took control and won the game.
A couple of years later, Douglas and the Eagles lost the Super Bowl to Tom Brady by three points. Maybe if Douglas had recorded just one statistic in the game, the Eagles could have won.
8. Bill Laimbeer, Detroit Pistons C
Wrong sport, don’t care. If you are a fan of the Chicago Bears and old enough to remember the late 80s/early 90s Chicago Bulls/Detroit Pistons rivalry, Laimbeer should be on any list. The Detroit fans would call him hard-nosed. The rest of the league would use the more apt adjective: dirty.
Laimbeer didn’t just throw a cheap elbow; he would physically assault opponents. He would knock Michael Jordan when he was in the air. Nothing Laimbeer did on the court was done with class.
I’ll always enjoy that the Beastie Boys immortalized his weak style of play with the song “Tough Guy.” Don’t know it? Here’s a sample of the lyrics, “Butcher me on the court, Too many elbows to report, Now you’re poking me in the eye, Bill Laimbeer motherf***er, it’s time for you to die.”
7. Chris Conte, Chicago Bears S
Maybe I could have been nice and saved this spot for Randall Cobb, but let’s be honest, it’s not Cobb we hate for that play, it’s Chris Conte. That play. I don’t even need to say what play it is. We all know the play. Conte blew the coverage and lost the Bears the game.
Maybe we could have forgiven Conte if he hadn’t gone to Tampa and acted like a clown. Years later, when he was on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and they beat the Bears, after the game, Conte famously said, “I hate to make it personal, but for me, it is personal. It feels great. I don’t want to say, ‘F*ck you, Chicago.’ But, I want to say, ‘F*ck you, Chicago.’”
Conte had to retire before he was 30 because nobody wanted him. Had he been good enough to stick around in Tampa a couple more years, he could have won a Super Bowl with Tom Brady. But he didn’t. Too bad.
6. Forrest Gregg, Green Bay Packers Head Coach
I can’t say I know much about Forrest Gregg, the player, other than that he was an all-time great tackle for the Packers, but I do know about Gregg, the head coach, and that he was an embarrassment to the Bears-Packers rivalry.
Gregg knew his team was talentless. Gregg knew he couldn’t outcoach Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan, so what did Gregg do? He told his players to play as dirty as possible. Late hits. Cheap shots. You name it, Gregg had them do it. It takes a big man to know when he’s bested and lose with class. That makes Gregg very, very small.
Gregg’s career record vs the Bears was 1-7. That hapless record led to his firing, where he would eventually coach the Shreveport Pirates of the CFL, which were so bad under his guidance that they folded in two years.
5. Harrison Smith, Minnesota Vikings S
Harrison Smith is an excellent defensive back, too bad he’s also a dirty football player. Every time the Bears play the Vikings, Smith seems to be involved in some sort of late hit or cheap shot on one of the Bears quarterbacks.
In 2018, Smith took a cheap shot on Mitch Trubisky, which injured his shoulder and knocked him out of multiple games. He also took at least two questionable shots on Justin Fields as well.
Smith got close to a Super Bowl once, facing the Eagles in the NFC Championship game. The Eagles slaughtered Minnesota 38 to 7, thanks in large part to how much Nick Foles (and Zach Ertz) absolutely torched Smith all day long. Smith also started a fight that day; it’s just a shame the Vikings got run off the field.
4. Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings RB
When Adrian Peterson played the Bears, things didn’t usually go well for Chicago. Peterson scored 16 touchdowns in 17 career games against the Bears and averaged over 100 rushing yards per game. Peterson’s first career game against the Bears was brutal. The Vikings won 34 to 31, and Peterson basically beat the team by himself, with over 360 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns.
Peterson loved beating the Bears, so we can love to hate him. And thanks to what he’s done off the field, it’s even easier. I could take a shot at AP like I have the previous players, but there’s no need. Just go to the ‘legal issues’ on his Wikipedia page. It’s longer than a Tolstoy novel.
3. Brett Favre, Green Bay Packers/Minnesota Vikings QB
The modern-day Anti-Robin Hood is the man who started skewing the Bears-Packers rivalry in a lopsided direction. Favre beat the Bears repeatedly over the years. It seemed like things couldn’t get worse for Chicago (until they did, thanks to someone else on this list) the way Favre routinely beat the Bears.
Favre is about as welcome in Chicago as his advances on text messages. It shouldn’t be surprising that Favre didn’t know when he was unwanted, he didn’t figure it out during his NFL career either. Plus, Mary picked Ted over him. Serves him right.
2. Charles Martin, Green Bay Packers DE
Charles Martin had the dirtiest hit in NFL history. We all know the story. The Chicago Bears were headed for their second consecutive Super Bowl title when Martin decided to slam McMahon to the turf 4 or 5 seconds after the play was over, wrecking his shoulder and ending his season. Mike Tomczak took over as the QB, and he completed less than 50% of his passes and threw 2 TDs to 10 INTs that season.
It’s no wonder that Mike Ditka tried to go to Doug Flutie to save the Bears playoff run, but that didn’t work either. The Bears were bounced out of the playoffs, and things could have been very different if Jim McMahon was still upright. Martin’s career is remembered only for being the cheap, dirty player he was.
Martin died in 2005. I’ll leave that one alone.
1. Aaron Rodgers, Out of Work QB that nobody wants
I don’t even want to write a blurb about Rodgers. He’s one of the five greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game. He dominated the Bears basically every time he was on the field. He told Chicago Bears fans he owns them. Despite all those on-the-field reasons to hate Rodgers, I probably hate him more for who he is off the field.
Rodgers is a raging narcissist who’s blown up several relationships (including ones with his family) and wants to shout from the rooftops about being a team player, but yet is being sent away from the New York Jets because he was told he would have to come to offseason workouts and stop going on Pat McAfee’s show to talk about himself every week. Rodgers not having a platform to talk about Rodgers? Clearly, that was a deal breaker.
Maybe some team will ask Rodgers to limp around in the backfield for one more season, but he’s most likely not going to be seen on an NFL field again, not because he still isn’t good enough to play, but because no team wants to deal with the headache that is Aaron Rodgers.
That’s a shame.