The Packers’ 31-7 win over the Bears had more than enough bad blood already, but one sideline moment late in the second quarter pushed the temperature up even higher. Matthew Golden became the center of the latest flashpoint, and Cairo Santos ended up on the wrong side of a clip that spread fast online.
It started after Golden’s 17-yard punt return into Bears territory, when he ran out near the Chicago sideline and then kept moving along it, bumping into a Bears staff member and knocking him over. As he headed back toward the field, Golden appeared to exchange words with Santos. Then came the part that had social media buzzing: the Bears kicker stuck his leg out toward Golden in what looked like an attempt to trip the Packers receiver.
The whole sequence was caught on camera, and Packers fans wasted no time calling it a dirty play. The moment was shared widely online and quickly became one of the game’s most discussed clips.
After the game, Golden was asked directly whether Santos had tried to trip him, and he didn’t dodge the question.
“Yeah, he did. He did.
But it’s all good. It’s all good.
I ain’t got nothing to say to it,” Golden said, according to ESPN.
Golden came out of it unharmed, and Santos missed him completely, so the confrontation never turned into anything more. Even so, Golden was clearly amped up during the exchange.
For Santos, the video was only part of a rough afternoon. Later, with Chicago down in the third quarter, he missed a 43-yard field goal that would have helped the Bears trim Green Bay’s lead.
What lingered from Sunday, though, was the sideline shot of Santos’ leg coming out toward Golden. In a rivalry that always seems ready to boil over, it was the kind of moment that gives Packers fans plenty to point at and Bears fans little to explain.
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