For nearly three decades, Chicago did more than just lose to Green Bay. The Bears helped build the mystique around Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, feeding a regular-season script that made both quarterbacks look untouchable. Then January arrived, and the act came apart.
The numbers against the Bears are eye-catching enough on their own. Favre went 22-10 against Chicago as a member of the Packers, while Rodgers went 24-5 and piled up 64 touchdown passes against just 10 interceptions.
Put together, that’s 46-15. Those weren’t exactly free wins, but they were close enough to keep Green Bay rolling through division races, playoff positioning and postseason berths.
Chicago kept handing Green Bay that runway with shaky quarterback play, unstable coaching and some brutal timing. And because the Bears were on the schedule twice a year, Favre and Rodgers got a perfect stage to build their reputations.
Favre could survive a bad throw and still be praised for his fearlessness. Rodgers, meanwhile, seemed to treat Bears defenses like a private project.
The trouble was that all that regular-season glow didn’t always travel.
Favre’s playoff résumé is a reminder that brilliance and wreckage often lived side by side. He threw 44 postseason touchdown passes, but he also tossed 30 interceptions in 24 playoff games. That second number gets buried under the mythology of his toughness, his consecutive starts and the endless clips of him celebrating in the snow.
The losses piled up in vivid fashion. In January 2002 against the Rams, Favre threw six interceptions, and three of them were returned for touchdowns.
Two years later, against Philadelphia in overtime, he floated a pass downfield into the hands of Brian Dawkins after the Eagles had already survived fourth-and-26. Philadelphia then kicked the winning field goal.
The next postseason brought four more interceptions in a home game against Minnesota, wiping out any chance of a third win over the Vikings after Green Bay had beaten them twice in the regular season. Then came his final throw as a Packer: the 2007 NFC Championship Game against the Giants, where Corey Webster jumped the route in overtime and New York won on a field goal three plays later.
Favre’s later run with Minnesota only added to the list. In 2009, he played some of the best football of his career and reached another NFC Championship Game.
With 19 seconds left and Minnesota tied with New Orleans and moving toward field-goal range, Favre rolled right and had open space in front of him. Instead of running, he threw back across his body and straight to Tracy Porter.
New Orleans won in overtime and then won the Super Bowl. Favre’s assessment of the choice was blunt: “I choked.”
Rodgers, by contrast, didn’t hand out interceptions with the same frequency. That usually meant somebody else took the blame when Green Bay fell short.
The defense let them down. Special teams cracked.
The coach got too cautious. Someone ran the wrong route.
Maybe Mercury was acting up.
Still, the playoff record tells the story. Rodgers went 11-10 in postseason starts for Green Bay.
The Packers lost four NFC Championship Games with him and reached one Super Bowl in his 15 seasons as the starter. That championship season ran through Chicago, with Green Bay beating the Bears in the 2010 NFC Championship Game before winning Super Bowl XLV.
They never got back.
Some of Rodgers’ postseason losses were especially hard to ignore. Against Seattle four years later, he threw two interceptions and Green Bay settled for field goals again and again, turning a 16-0 lead into an overtime defeat.
In the 2020 NFC Championship Game against Tampa Bay, Tom Brady threw three second-half interceptions, practically inviting Green Bay to take over, but the Packers turned those chances into only six points. Rodgers also threw an interception that helped Tampa Bay score before halftime.
A year later, as the NFC’s top seed against San Francisco, Green Bay managed a touchdown on its first drive and just three points after that. Rodgers had the ball tied late in the fourth quarter, and the drive went seven yards.
The 49ers won 13-10.
His final pass as a Packer came the following season against Detroit, with Green Bay needing a win to reach the playoffs. The pass was intercepted.
Even his 2025 postseason appearance with Pittsburgh followed the same pattern. Rodgers lost a fumble that Houston returned for a touchdown, then threw a pick-six in a 30-6 loss.
So yes, the Bears helped make both quarterbacks look bigger than life. Green Bay spent those years collecting MVPs, security and regular-season dominance while Chicago cycled through misery. But the final tally still says what it says: 2-0 in Super Bowls for the Packers during the Favre-Rodgers run.
That’s a strong return, but not quite the dynasty the regular-season numbers suggested. Favre kept throwing seasons away. Rodgers was steadier, cleaner and usually had better explanations around him, but he still kept leaving January earlier than Green Bay expected.
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