The Chicago Bears fought a mighty fight but came just short against one of the NFC’s most consistent top performers in the Los Angeles Rams during the Divisional Round of the playoffs this past Sunday night.
With the game on the line, and needing only a field goal, quarterback Caleb Williams threw an interception to safety Kamren Curl, and Matthew Stafford did enough on his end to get the offense into field goal range before Harrison Mevis converted a 42 yard field goal to send LA to the NFC Conference Championship.
And whilst shaking hands at the end of the game, Bears head coach, Ben Johnson shared a message of intent to his opposite number, Sean McVay – win it all.
“Hell of a job, man. Go win one.â Johnson said to McVay after the game, per the video shared by Ari Meirov, to which McVay replied, “Yup, appreciate it.”
The feeling of mutual respect and words between the pair certainly contrasts with Johnson’s very brief, silent post-game handshake with Green Bay Packers head coach, Matt LaFleur the week prior, having helped orchestrate an 18-point second half comeback.
And, equally, in terms of pride it would figure that Johnson would prefer to be knocked out by the eventual champions, especially considering how close the game was between the pair.
Is There Bad Blood Between Sean McVay and Ben Johnson?
On the face of it, there have not been any public exchanges between the pair that would signify any direct animosity from one side to the other.
However, McVay is a very close friend of LaFleur, who obviously suffered what many viewed as disrespect from Johnson last weekend.
And some observing the video believed that the Rams head coach’s short, curt response was indicative of underlying tensions between the pair – particularly in the direction of McVay to Johnson.
“Sean McVay has MAJOR beef with Ben Johnson.” The Polymarket Football X account commented in response to the video show. “Wow.”
Furthermore, there was a report that surfaced from NFL Network’s Peter Schrager detailing that Johnson’s anti Packers/LaFleur antics in the wake of their Wild Card victory did not sit well with McVay and other close friends of LaFleur.
“That handshake and all that mother f-, mother f- stuff from Ben Johnson did not go over well with the McVay tree, if you will, around the league.” Schrager said in the leadup to Sunday’s game last week. “Mike LaFleur is Matt LaFleur’s little brother, he’s the offensive coordinator for the Rams. And Sean’s best friend in coaching is Matt LaFleur.”
“So when you do the other disrespect and the brazen locker room video where you’re saying, ‘F- the Packers, F- that coaching staff” and the social media team really clicks “go” and sends it out into the world. And then the next day, when you’ve had 24 hours to think about it to say, ‘No, I’m fine with what I’ve said and my owner’s got my back on that too.’…I think McVay wants to kick the snot out of Ben Johnson.”
It makes sense, thus, that McVay was not super warm towards Johnson. But at this point, Bears fans will hardly lose too much sleep over it.
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