If you expected trash talk and bad blood between the Packers and Bears, you got it.
The game wasn’t exactly exhilarating; the Packers easily handled the Bears, 31-7. But the contest wasn’t short on theatrics, as Packers wide receiver Matthew Golden and Bears kicker Cairo Santos would prove.
Golden returned a punt into Chicago territory and was forced out onto the Bears sideline, where he kept running at a good clip until he smashed into a Bears coach and knocked him to the ground. Santos saw this and tried to trip Golden.
Santos didn’t put his all into the trip. Golden didn’t fall, and as he backpedaled away, he glared at Santos, and the kicker glared back.
After the game, reporters asked Golden whether Santos had indeed tried to trip him.
“Yeah, he did. He did. But it’s all good. I ain’t got nothing to say to him,” Golden explained.
The attempted trip was Santos’ only real impact on the game, other than his extra point. He missed his only field goal attempt during the game.
Santos and Golden weren’t the only flashpoint for trash talk.
Bears wide receiver Luther Burden III had said he wanted to “beat” the Packers really bad and “make them quit.”
Packers linebacker Zaire Franklin didn’t let those comments go unnoticed.
“You got guys that never really made a real play in this league talkin’ bout making somebody quit,” Franklin shot back. “That’s weird. We don’t do that. He quit today, by the way. He ain’t wanna play anymore.”