Bears coach Ben Johnson won't apologize for hating the Packers — and his boss likes it

Two days after his "[Screw] the Packers" locker room rant went viral, Bears coach Ben Johnson didn’t apologize for his smack-talking Monday.

"This is a rivalry," Johnson said Monday at Halas Hall. "The city of Chicago, Green Bay. It needs to be a rivalry."

His boss is fine with it. Chairman George McCaskey — who last year insisted that HBO air an entire season of "Hard Knocks" without cursing — is also known for openly disliking the Packers.

"There's a rivalry that exists between these two teams, something that I fully recognize and I'm a part of," Johnson said. "I don't like that team. George and I have talked, and we're on the same page."

"I don’t like that team," Johnson said. "George and I have talked and we’re on the same page."

Johnson did regret players from both teams trash-talking at midfield before the Bears’ 31-27 win in the first round of the playoffs.

"No one wants to see that," he said.

Johnson needled his counterpart on his first day on the job, saying in his introductory press conference a year ago that he loved beating Packers head coach Matt LaFleur twice a year while a Lions assistant. After he beat LaFleur for the second time this season Saturday night, he and the coach shared only a cursory handshake.

Afterward, the Bears posted a video of Johnson handing out game balls, complete with him disparaging the Packers — albeit with a word bleeped out.

"It's a big game — first playoff game at home in a while, and we hadn't won a playoff game in 15 years or so," Johnson said. "But certainly, the opponent, in of itself, it means a lot to the city, this organization. And that's something that we certainly play into a little bit as coaches and players, is, we know how big it is when Chicago plays Green Bay.”