Particularly as relates to Bears players/coaches when discussion GB, it's actually hilarious if you know what's really going on.

Some years ago (originally published in 1997), there was a book by Cliff Christl (and others) titled "Mudbaths and Bloodbaths: The Inside Story of the Bears-Packers Rivarly". In that book, there was an anecdote from when Rick Mirer was signed by CHI as a high-priced, highly-touted FA QB. As the story went, literally the very first question he was asked at his introductory press conference was "How important is it to beat the Green Bay Packers?" Mirer's response was what you would call strictly PC - "plenty of incentive to beat GB - they are defending champions, great team, etc." Looking around the room, the author of this anecdote said that his impression was... "WRONG ANSWER!!" What those in the room really wanted to hear was "That's all that matters. If we go 2-14 and beat Green Bay twice, it's a great year."

So fast forward to 2004. The book I mentioned has now been around for quite a while. It's Lovie Smith's introductory press conference. And what's the first thing out of his mouth? "The number one goal - the NUMBER ONE goal - is to beat Green Bay."

You can't tell me that someone, somewhere hadn't relayed the story of Mirer's press conference and that didn't have something to do with Smith coming out like he did.

And ever since then, it's what we keep hearing. Everyone from the Bears - "Gotta beat Green Bay". All the way to the current coach and his snarky comments about 'beating Matt twice a year".

It's marketing 101 - know your target audience, and give them what they want. And the really hilarious thing is that some Packer fans will get their undies all in a twist every time something like this comes out. "HOW DARE THEY SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!?!?!"

Me? I'm ROFLMAO. They're just playing to their crowd.