Packers 2025 Concludes in All Too Familiar Fashion
The Green Bay Packers bid for Super Bowl LVI ended abruptly, after losing to division rival Chicago Bears, on Saturday, January 10th, 2026. After building a commanding lead in the first half, and holding the Bears to only 3 points, it appeared a trip to the west coast and a showdown with number 1 seed Seattle was all but a foregone conclusion.
Then something happened. Something that had happened several times in the 2025 season. The offense couldn’t move the ball. The defense began giving up big passes, runners broke free, yards turned into points. After leading (comfortably) for 3 quarters, the ship began taking on water and sunk within sight of the shore.
All season long the Packers, a “good” team kept losing games they should have won and the Bears, a “bad” team, kept pulling out wins they had no business winning in the final minutes of games. History won’t remember should haves and shouldn’t haves, as the saying goes, you’re as good as your record says you are.
So what happened? Why does a team deemed good keep losing and keep the perception of being good or the better team when they continue to sink in quicksand and die a pathetic and shameful death, while a bad team that by most accounts is overachieving, but somehow keeps punching above their weight and against all logic and reason they keep pulling off improbably and (almost universally considered) undeserved wins? Is it injuries? Youth? Officiating? Coaching? Witchcraft? Divine destiny? While any or all of these could be contributing factors to any season, here the answer is simple: the power of belief.
The Bears believed they could come back and win because they had done it before, several times all season and began playing like the game was already won. The Packers believed they could collapse and lose because they had done it before, several times all season and began playing like the game had already been lost. The manifestation of outcomes in life and sports are fueled by intention and belief behind the intention.
Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption famously said, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.” When considering the 2025-2026 NFL season, the Bears chose the former while the Packers chose the latter.
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, there is part where Harry and his godfather Sirius Black are in mortal peril being attacked by dementors and just before Harry blacks out, he sees who he believes is his father risen from the dead, casting the patronus charm to fight off the dementors and saving their lives. Later on, while Harry and Hermione have gone back in time a few hours, they lie in wait bearing witness to the scene and Harry is convinced his father will arrive to save them. He then realized his father is not coming and performs the charm himself, thus saving both Sirius and himself. The reason he was able to do this was because he had already seen it happen and believed he could do it.
The Packers season was on the line and began to unravel. After halftime, up 21-3, a quick 3 and out opened a crack in the door with a tiny bit of light for Chicago to see. The Packers saw it too. The sidelines dripped with self-fulfilling prophecy. It could be seen and felt by all; on the field, on the benches, in the stadium, in every home tuned in, and on the message boards across the internet. It was happening again! The Bears’ fan heart began to swell. It was happening again! The Packers’ fans hearts and hopes began to wither.
There’s a lot of talk about about team identities, what’s in team’s DNA. For this season at least, the DNA of the Bears is to win. Win games they don’t deserve, win games they had no business hanging around, win games and still be called a bad team. For the Packers, it been collapse. Falling apart in big ways, falling apart one 12 yard run at a time, one stalled out red zone trip at a time, one stupid 15 yard penalty added to the end of the play at at, one pebble causing a cataclysmic ripple game by game.
So what next? One of the season’s milestones after your team has been eliminated should be to check off the elimination of division rivals and the team that eliminated you from contention. For the Packers this year, it’s the same team. I choose believe this brand of the Bears is unsustainable, that they will lose, that they will revert to who they have been for the past 40 years. I believe this brand of the Packers will end, a new identity will emerge and the Pack will be back, maybe with new coaches, definitely new players, Kraft, Parsons, and others will return.
For now, Go! Pack! Go!
Oh, and the Bears still suck.
