For more than a century, the Bears have been the winningest franchise in NFL history. That could change on Sunday.
The Packers and Bears are currently tied with 786 wins in franchise history, so the winner of their game on Sunday will have the title as the winningest team in league history. If that’s the Packers, it will mean a team other than the Bears owns the title of winningest franchise in NFL history for the first time since before they were called the Bears and before the league was called the NFL.
In 1920 and 1921, when what is now the NFL was called the American Professional Football Association, the franchise that is now the Bears and was then called the Staleys won the most games, and that team has remained the NFL’s all-time winningest franchise for more than a century since then.
The Packers entered the league just a year after the Bears did and had plenty of success in their early years, but the Bears had plenty of success too, and the Packers weren’t able to gain significant ground on the Bears in the franchise win total until the arrival of Brett Favre, and then Aaron Rodgers: Since Favre arrived in Green Bay in 1992, the Packers have won 85 more games than the Bears. Three decades of first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks are good for a franchise’s win total.
This has been a disappointing season for Rodgers, but he likes to say that he owns the Bears, and owning the franchise win total record that has long belonged to the Bears would be an achievement for Rodgers and the Packers to celebrate.