Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson drew plenty of attention after the team’s wild-card win over the Green Bay Packers last week for his postgame behavior. The first-time head coach very briefly shook hands with Packers coach Matt LaFleur, delivered an expletive-laden locker room speech, and then doubled down a day later during a news conference with the media.
The public perception of these moments oscillated between respect and condemnation, and ESPN insider Peter Schrager said the league as a whole erred more toward displeasure with Johnson’s antics. Schrager went on to say that the “coaching tree” of Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay didn’t like the comments from Johnson, either. LaFleur is one of McVay’s closest coaching friends who worked with him in L.A., and Rams’ offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur is the younger brother of the Packers coach.
“That handshake and all that mother-f stuff from Ben Johnson did not go over well with the McVay tree,” Schrager told The Ringer’s Bill Simmons this year, “and around the league.”
Whether or not this trickled up to McVay for motivation for his team remains to be seen, but it will be a fascinating side plot for what should be an exciting divisional-round game with a spot in the NFC title game on the line. McVay already joked about getting game planning help from the elder LaFleur, so maybe McVay did really take offense to Johnson throwing shade toward one of his friends and the brother of his top assistant.
Sunday should reveal a lot about how Johnson’s comments actually affected what McVay plans to do.
