Very few. I do live in the Twin Cities, you know. Most Vikings fans hate the Packers far, FAR more than they hate the Bears.
I don’t doubt that, I grew up just outside the Twin Cities in Wisconsin. All those times in the 90s when the Metrodome had as many Packer fans as Vikings fans must ohave really riled.
Packer running back Ryan Grant is pretty convinced that Green bay will go to the Super Bowl. Oh yeah by the way, he’s been on IR all year. Thanks for participating, Ryan.
As a Packer fan, it’s hugely important to me also. But, to be honest, I’d take a Super Bowl ring over a win over the Bears any day of the week and twice on Sunday. When the Packers win on Sunday, I will be ecstatic, but I’ll also consider the Super Bowl to be a much bigger game than beating the Bears. Cause, once again, rings are all that really matters.
I grew up in Green Bay. I have Packer season tickets, and a share of stock in the team. And, I’ve lived in Chicago for 22 years now, and I married a Bear fan (yeah, yeah, mixed marriage. 
)
I agree with Hamlet – it’s a big, big game, but it’s not the Super Bowl. Frankly, given where the Packers were earlier this season (with injuries and inconsistent play), I would imagine that a lot of Packer fans are a little (pleasantly) surprised that they’ve made it this far.
It’s no bigger than if the Bears were playing the Falcons or the Saints. However watching the Bears receive the George Halas trophy on their home turf while the Packers walk off the field, heads hung in defeat, will make the victory a little sweeter.
Okay, great, but if the Superbowl were the most important thing, this game would be part of getting there, and thereby of equal importance. This whole conversation sounds to me like network-sportscaster filler-talk.
Still, I want the Packers to lose, and I have no idea why.
I know why I want the Packers to lose. In spite of Chicago’s #2 seed, they are much more inconsistent offensively. If Bad Cutler shows up the Steelers (assuming they win) will have a much easier time with the Bears.
An added plus: we have an annoying Packers contingent here where I live, and that “Ba-ba-badadada-GO PACK GO!” crap is nails-on-a-chalkboard grating to me. I’d like to see one single week of football, just one, without having to hear them shouting that in my ear.
But I digress. I am neither a Packers or Bears fan, just an interested observer. Good luck to both sides’ fans next week.
I disagree. Rings are huge but there are a few things that are more important. For Bears fans, beating the Packers in the playoffs is one of them. I suspect that there are a few Dolphins fans that felt upending the '85 Bears and protecting the perfect season was more valuable than a Super Bowl win for another example. There are some legendary moments that resonate more than a Super Bowl. I think this game counts as one, though 10 years from now I might change my mind.
Granted, as a Bears fan I “have” a Ring. We’ve won one in grand fashion and that it’s discussed so frequently 25 years later is annoying to most fans from elsewhere. Winning another ring will still fall second to that experience. I’m pretty sure that if I were a Vikings, Eagles, Chargers or Lions fan I’d probably feel much differently. They need to get off the schneid more than they need to vanquish their rivals. Also, as a Bears fan who recently lost a Super Bowl, for which I was in attendance, I can say with certainty that that pain was barely a scratch compared to what losing this game will be.
In contrast, the Cubs winning a World Series would be immeasurably better and bigger than trouncing the Cardinals in the 7th game of the NLCS. Coming at it from a completely different place. I’m a little surprised that the Packers fans, with a fairly recent Super Bowl win and loss and having lost the one and only post-season match-up to the Bears aren’t feeling more similarly.
On a completely separate topic, I heard on ESPN that people are calling a potential Steelers-Packers Super Bowl the Scalper’s Christmas. Certainly that ticket would be huge, but I think that every other permutation would be pretty epic too. Bears-Steelers would be titanic and have fans who travel in droves. Jets-Bears and Jets-Packers are both less national than the Steelers but they bring the New York money and population into play, a Chicago-New York battle would be especially easy to hype. There isn’t a turd in the bunch.
Get a grip. Hamlet was clearly talking about this game’s importance to Packers fans, not the league in general. You know, the entire purpose of this thread?
He’s saying this NFC Championship is a bigger deal in Wisconsin than in 07 when the Giants came to town, or any of the 90s Championships against the Cowboys, 49ers and Panthers, and the reason is because this one is against the Bears.
Much like how for Giants fans, that 07 Championship was great, but nothing will likely ever compare to the 1990 Championship against Montana’s 49ers and the stifling of their threepeat. (Remember how both the Giants and 49ers started that season 10-0.)
Funny how the great Giants games are on the road. For instance, 2000 was a joke, what with the hapless Vikings embarassing themselves at the Meadowlands in that conference championship. You can’t have a great game when one team lays down like dogs.
Gotta go with Da Bears!
Insufferable Packer fans are…insufferable.
Hell no! This Vikes fan is pulling for the Bears even in the SB!
Amen brother.
That’s bizarre to me. The “go 2-14, but beat the Packers twice” mentality strikes me as just silly. You want your team to be the Champions. If we get to beat the Bears on the way, fanfrickintastic, but I’d rather get the Super Bowl ring and get blown out by the Bears twice than not get the ring. And from the Bears fans I knew living in Chicago, they would have agreed with me.
With that team, you shoulda have 4 rings. I’m glad you guys were able to fuck it up.
Don’t underestimate Packer fans ability to hate Bears fans, but, in the end, it’s the Titles that count, not beating you guys. That’s why it’s called Titletown not HateBearsTown.
Most of Green Bay’s “titles” came when there were like 4 teams in the league.
Jealousy is such a sad emotion. 
Coming from a Vikings fan, this is so incredibly amusing. Let’s count those Vikings Championships shall we? Hell, I think even you can count to zero.
Bears fan here.
Of course I’d love to see them hoist the Lombardi trophy, but let me put it this way: If they get to the Super Bowl and lose, I won’t be terribly upset. If they lose to the f’ing Packers this weekend, I will be terribly upset. So in that way I’d say it* is *bigger than the Super Bowl.
I feel the same way. If the Packers lose to the Bears, I’ll feel a lot worse than if they lose in the Super Bowl. But winning the Super Bowl is tons better than just winning the NFC Championship, even if it is against the Bears. So while a loss will be harder to take, I would always want a Super Bowl victory rather than a victory over the Bears. And when the Packers win on Sunday, I’ll certainly take a moment to revel in the pain of Bears fans, but I’ll mostly be looking ahead to the Super Bowl.
I think what we are all saying is winning the Super Bowl and beating the other team makes the Super Bowl extremely satisfying Like the most satisfying Super Bowl ever. In contrast losing to the other team and watching them win the Super Bowl is the most excrutiating possibility. So I don’t see it as one or the other being more satisying, I see the NFC Championship and Super Bowl as delicious compliments to one another.