Return with me now to those glory days of yore when the Packers didn’t have a good quarterback.
You know, way back in the latter part of September.
And all of October.
And that one Sunday in November.
Remember the spring in your step, Bears fans? Aaron Rodgers was gone, and there was no one standing between your team and eventual dominance in the NFC North. Finally, the 30-year-plus nightmare of Rodgers and Brett Favre before him was over.
After a strong start to the season against the Bears and the Falcons, Jordan Love spent the next seven games living up to the dream Chicago had laid out for him. He threw 10 interceptions as the Packers went 2-5.
Oh, the joy! The Bears weren’t any good but – and this couldn’t be overstated – the Packers did not have a good quarterback, did not have a future that included a slinging superhero.
Um.
How do I put this without setting off a run on antidepressants in the greater Chicago metropolitan area?
The Packers have a good quarterback.
His name is Love, and there’s potential trouble ahead for the Bears and a fan base that has known only envy when looking north to Wisconsin. He has been spectacular the past three weeks, including standout performances in victories over the first-place Lions and the Chiefs, last season’s Super Bowl champs. In those three games, he had a combined eight touchdown passes and no interceptions.
That’s not a small sample size. That’s a dark turn of events that should come with its own foreboding music.
I’m not sure why some people allowed themselves to believe that the Packers, who know quarterbacks like most of us know breathing, made a big mistake when they made Love a first-round pick in 2020. Just because he sat behind Rodgers for three years didn’t mean he was mediocre or bad. Just because he was stashed on the sideline didn’t mean he wasn’t learning his craft. It meant he was backing up a multiple league MVP.
Some of us tried to warn you. Tried to tell you not to offend the quarterback gods, who, for unclear reasons, like to winter in Green Bay. Tried to tell you that the smart bet was on Love turning into a superstar because that’s how the cookie always crumbles for the Bears.
Why in the world would any Bears fan of the past four decades think the coast was clear now that Rodgers was gone? Why would anyone in Chicago consider the Packers vulnerable?
In a column before the season, I called such thinking “reckless.’’ I wrote it because I know first-hand what reckless looks like. In August 2008, about seven months after the Packers had lost in the NFC Championship Game, I asked then-head coach Mike McCarthy at a press conference why the Packers were moving on from Favre. If I could have found a way to respectfully say, “You fools!’’ I would have.
McCarthy said that this Rodgers kid was pretty good. He was kind enough not to ask what someone from Chicago would know about quarterbacks.
Fifteen years later, I had learned enough to not question whether the next Green Bay quarterback would be any good. That quarterback could have been an alpaca, and I would have said, “It’ll take quite a tailor to make his Pro Football Hall of Fame jacket someday.’’
So I was never going to question Love’s worthiness and, 12 games into his career as a full-time starter, I’ve seen enough of him to believe he has staying power. I’ve seen enough of the Bears’ luck to figure he’ll eventually be excellent.
If you saw him take apart the Chiefs on Sunday, you know this is not a blip or an overreaction or a fever dream. Yes, he certainly did have some wild completions that he might not be able to duplicate if asked to, but isn’t that what everyone celebrated Favre for during his Hall of Fame career?
What stood out more than the splashy plays was Love’s demeanor. There was no indication he cared that the Chiefs had one of the best defenses in the league. That’s how the great ones approach challenges: with disregard.
He’s not there yet. It’s possible he’ll never get there. But something has clicked for him, and if it sounds to Bears fans like a pistol being cocked by a Wild West gunslinger, it’s probably because it is. These are the Packers. This is their quarterback. And that’s how these things go.
