Bart Starr Was a Legend, an Icon, and Hated Passing Against the Chicago Bears

The NFL lost one of its all-time greats today. Bart Starr, former Green Bay Packers quarterback who led the franchise to five NFL championships and two Super Bowl titles passed away at 85-years-old. His health had been dealt a serious blow back in 2014 when he suffered a massive stroke. It appears he caught an illness recently and it ended up taking what he had left.

There is nobody who can deny Starr was a legend. Not only a tremendous player and leader, but one of the nicest human beings on the planet. Someone who carried himself with grace, humility, and respect. However, when it came to the rivalry with the Chicago Bears? Starr has certain memories he’d probably prefer to leave buried.

Like many Packer quarterbacks, Starr had his good days against the Bears. However, there weren’t many of them. Chicago tortured him quite often. In fact, two of the worst games of his career took place against his arch rival. Games that people never would’ve thought the game-managing Hall of Famer was capable of.

Bart Starr had the better teams but it rarely on his stat sheet

Starr only threw four or more interceptions in a game five times in his career. For somebody who played in the 1950s and 1960s, that’s pretty impressive. Two of those games though came against the Bears. The first was in 1960. It was opening day at Lambeau Field. Expectations were high for the Packers. Then Starr got things off to a rocky start. He completed just 8-of-22 passes for 36 yards, two interceptions, and a 7.4 passer rating.

Starr was also knocked out of the game with injury and didn’t return for a month.

Three years later, the Packers opened at home against the Bears again. They were defending NFL champions and had beaten Chicago a combined 87-7 the previous year. Starr ended up paying the price for that humiliation. Not only was he hit and sacked frequently, he threw a then-career high four interceptions. The Bears held Green Bay to just three points, their lowest mark of the Vince Lombardi era.