Near the end of the Green Bay Packers' Week 6 win in Chicago, quarterback Aaron Rodgers caused a kerfuffle after shouting "I own you" at Bears fans following a game-sealing touchdown.
Ahead of Sunday night's rematch at Lambeau Field between the hated division rivals, Bears tight end Jimmy Graham conceded that he's been known to say something similar to opponents after scoring.
"I've said that to almost every organization that I've scored on," Graham said Tuesday, . "I've said it to everybody."
In Graham's 12-year career, which included two seasons in Green Bay, he's scored on every team but the Cincinnati Bengals.
The 35-year-old noted it's the Bears' job to shut Rodgers up: "We've just got to stop them."
Rodgers is 22-5 (including playoffs) as a starter versus the Bears and has won each of his last five starts. On Sunday, he can tie Brett Favre (23) for most wins by any quarterback against Chicago (since at least 1950), per ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷ÍøResearch.
Rodgers' 22 wins against the Bears (including playoffs) are tied for eighth-most by a QB against a single franchise since 1950. The only quarterbacks with more: Tom Brady (Bills, Jets, Dolphins), Brett Favre (Lions, Bears) and Ben Roethlisberger (Bengals, Browns).
Graham didn't seem to think Rodgers' Week 6 comments added any extra incentive for Chicago this weekend. None is needed. The tight end did add he's heard worse on the field than the QB's "I own you" and probably said worse himself.
"I've never been mic'd up as a player, and that's for good reason," Graham said. "I don't want anybody to hear the stuff I say out there, for sure. This isn't golf. ... It's a game of whupping the man across from you, simple as that, so there's not a lot of niceties.
"It's a part of the game that I love. I've got to figure out a way to talk to people once I get out of here because you can't be talking to people like that in real life. So I'm going to enjoy each and every snap I get here for the rest of my career."
Rodgers has swept the Bears in seven of 12 seasons in which he started both games against them (including each of the last two seasons under Matt LaFleur). The Packers have made the playoffs in every season that Rodgers went 2-0 against the Bears (2020, 2019, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2011 and 2009).
In each of the last four seasons that Rodgers won both games against the Bears, the Packers won the NFC North and then lost the NFC Championship Game.
Appropriately, the Packers could clinch the NFC North title in Week 14 with a win over the Bears if the Vikings fall to Pittsburgh on Thursday night.
