Best of the Bears: Ben Johnson is becoming an NFL villain
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We got another hour to go before we are up out of here. Big Ann Heron is sitting in for Speegs. Carmen Vitale will be hosting the show with me tomorrow as Speegs is participating in Hell Week.
Sounds strenuous. It does. Just based off the label, not when you actually get into the minutia of what it entails, but it does. Like Hell Week sounds like he's really going through something this week. Hell Week sounds like he's rushing a fraternity. That's what it sounds like. Hell Week sounds like he's enlisted in basic training.
Yeah. A fraternity he's already in, by the way.
Yes. Yes. Nothing will change. You're 100% right about that, Tanny. A fraternity that he is the president of. And yet, it is hell week for him. He will be back on Thursday.
Kappa Alpha Spiegel? Something like that?
Sure. We can figure something out. They got canes and everything. There you go. They do a stroll. They love Indiana for some strange reason.
For some weird reason.
All that good stuff. It's Alpha Chapter. I understand why the Kappas love Indiana. Anyway, let's talk about Ben Johnson. Because what has been a fun story for us to kind of cover here locally... has now taken a turn. And nationally, people are paying attention to what has been the beef between Ben Johnson and Matt LaFleur.
It's bad enough where friends of Matt LaFleur around the league who will remain nameless can't stand Ben Johnson because of the feelings and the treatment they know he has towards Matt LaFleur. So the point that I'm telling you this is me, I ain't giving you an opinion. I'm telling you what I was told. That's what Stephen A. Smith had to say about it.
Ben Johnson better be careful.
You don't want to make an enemy out of him. I guess not. I guess not. It's a whole thing. And, you know, it's kind of amazing that it's gotten to this point. I don't have an issue with it. Well, with which part? With the handshake, with the locker room, with the reaction to it. Zero. I've had no issue with any of this stuff. because I think that the Bears have needed someone to be an avatar for them against Green Bay. And it can't be George, because George is probably too nice, even though he's petty too. You know, he's got the Packers urinal cakes and everything else. And I love that he now has a coach that is willing to take it on. He is willing to go in there and do his thing. Ben is kind of George's anger interpreter.
Yes. He's Luther. He's Luther, the anger interpreter for George.
When George is lining up, shaking fans with hands, if he sees somebody with a Packers jersey on, he has Ben over his shoulder saying something vile to him because they're repping Green Bay. I really...
Rivalry is supposed to be fun. I will say, it does seem a little more personal. It doesn't seem as much about Green Bay as it does about Matt LaFleur. I don't know why. But if that's the way that he handles it... Okay, if that's how he can get his hands and his feelings on this rivalry.
How is Ben Johnson becoming an NFL villain?
Around the throat of an opposing – oh.
Metaphorically speaking. Metaphorically, yes. And I'll just say that I listened to Matt LaFleur on the Pivot podcast back in August, and I thought he was great. I was like, I like this guy. He seems like he's a really interesting guy with a great –
I haven't seen anything that I dislike about Matt LaFleur.
I haven't done a deep dive yet or anything. If you look at the careers of LaFleur and Shanahan and McVay and Johnson and McDaniel, they're all similar but not the same. They all had, at some point, they were the man. Ben was a state championship quarterback. And didn't McVay win player of the year once? Was it over Calvin Johnson in Georgia?
Oh, that sounds familiar.
I think he won Georgia State Player of the Year over him. So they all have got these stories. LeFleur was a quarterback in college, and McDaniel played in the Ivy League. These are high achievers. Yeah, these are really high achievers all the way around. And I keep wondering, was there some sort of slight – Like, was there a slight that no one at the Bears even knows about that Ben's been holding on to for a long time?
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Chapters
3 chaptersSpeakers
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