Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - George McCaskey talks Ben Johnson's viral 'F--- the Packers' moment

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote reacted to Bears chairman George McCaskey’s recent comments about head coach Ben Johnson directing profanity at the rival Packers.

This hour is sponsored by Riverfront Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 104-3 to score. We spent a lot of time talking about the stadium, so thanks to everybody who called in. Because right now, if you're in Cook County, that's your money. We're still on the hook for. So that's something that matters to me. And in the meantime, Walter Payton's son, Jared,

told us when he was giving out the Walter Payton Man of the Year award, the day after at the NFL Honors, that he was going to be. going to be interviewing George McCasky as part of his trip to the Super Bowl to do the annual NFL honors show. He was going to be interviewing George McCaskey and it was going to air on WGN TV sports. So he warned us about it. He let us know and he also said it was going to be posted that day, that night on GN sports and then additionally on YouTube. So the WGN YouTube page has it as well. And it's important because we had not seen George McCasky speak.

And how long, Mark Grady? How long, Bears reporter Mark Brody? Yeah, when was the last time? I think we went the entire regular season without hearing George. We talked to him at the end of last season. That might be, unless I'm forgetting something, I don't think he spoke during training camp. I could be mistaken, but I think, yeah, this has got to be the first time in a year plus that we've heard from George. McCaskey. I totally agree with that, Grotie, because just in the general media sense to the beat,

for sure, George McCasky does do his annual kind of like final preseason game of the year with Fox, where it's a little bit like in between the game action. Right. It's very cleaned up, though. It's very cleaned up and I don't know how many people are sticking, because it's usually late in the final preseason game. I don't know how many eyes are on that, actually. Yeah. So that probably, But yeah, and that's not for reporters. Like, we have not, we still haven't talked to George as, like, as the beat. But luckily, we have somebody who did. Right.

And that, that I also think should happen. George, who has made himself public, I mean, for goodness sake, he'll be in a tailgated soldier field. He'll sit in the stands. He should probably, as chairman of the bears, talk to the beat reporters as well. Which he usually does. And it's ironic that in a good year, he didn't. And it might be because. He didn't want to take attention away from the guys that were really responsible for it.

And Layla, it could be because he didn't want to take questions on the stadium. Yeah, he did not get asked about the stadium by Jarrett. But he did get asked about something else, which is important because, as we all know, under Virginia's watch, swearing was not allowed on the Bears. I feel like Jalen Johnson was the only one who would occasionally take it for the team. Every now and then you get a post-game interview where somebody would throw out a swear word or two. But even on hard knocks, on H-Mach. HBO. Not to be found.

My guy, Tavin Jenkins, I was like, hey, you're, are you going to be on hard knocks? He's like, you kidding me? I swear too much. So it was very well known. Do you know how HBO works? It's, it's awesome that we have passed that era. We're in a new era of following the bears and understanding. Cursing is allowed. If not encouraged, be authentic. Be yourself.

Okay, if that's the biggest knock on Virginia McCasky, that she didn't let her team. where I get it or why it was such an issue for the chairman, for example, in George to want to execute that order. I get it. And she took away the honey bears because people will text that. So I just wanted to get that out there. I know what you're thinking.

I know what you guys are thinking. Bears too would never. Should they bring back honey bears? Bears too would not only have hunting bears. They have those people who catapult themselves and shoot buckets and stuff. It's like 3.1.2. 4-67-66. Should the bears bring back

the honey bears? I don't see why. I'd love it. I mean, they were classic, you know. Every other team's got them. Maybe we don't call them the honey bears. Okay. All right. What would you call them?

Just bears. Or the bears, like the spirit squad or something? I don't know. Spirit squad. The bear spirit squad. You see how quick that came to me? That's disturbing. But cussing was something we all joked about.

It was just like one of those commonly held inside jokes, for example, was you just knew. You just knew that that wasn't something that made bears management happen. Well, your coach Ben Johnson publicly proclaimed blank the Packers pretty loudly, and Jared Payton did ask George about it. We talked before the season, and a couple of things that I shared with them are, if you look at 100 years of history, whether the Bears have a successful season, has a lot to do with how we do against Team Voldemort, not 2 and 15 or anything like that.

But if you sweep, you get a pretty darn good chance of having a successful season. If you split, you still have a good chance. But how that series goes has a big impact on how the season goes. And the other thing I told them was, when you're with your players, you've got to be authentic. They can spot a phony. You've got to do what comes naturally. So yeah, we talked and we're on the same page. Just so everybody's aware, team Voldemort is the Packers.

And George referred to the Packers as Team Voldemort several times in the interview. Today, who shall not be named. George answered that even better than I thought he would. You knew he was going to somehow some way support his head coach that just got them into the playoffs and beat the Packers in the playoffs. him saying that you have to be authentic with your players is perfect because I thought for sure he was going to say something to the effect of we understood the heat of the moment we prefer that he didn't use those particular words but we do understand and we do support his dislike

for the green bay packers that would not have been my choice but he didn't do that no the best part about it is that he actually used the same phrasing that ben Johnson used when he was asked the question both men saying we're on the same page. Oh, I thought you meant the Packers. Well, no. Are we going to get into the fact that you, you slightly got into a little bit of a George McCasky impression? It's just the cadence. Actually, my Dan, weed man. That's a really good, George. Yes. Okay, we've got a lot of names for the possible Bears Spirit Squad team. Oh, okay. The Chippin Bears. Chippin Bears.

We got the Bearettes. Chippin Bears. Chippin' bears. Chippin is a football term. I kind of like that. This Daily Spirit Squad. Appropriately, we've also got the honey bears. You've got to at least acknowledge it if you're going to change it or consider it. And then 708 says they would like to have the bears have a marching band like the Ravens. A marching band would be awesome. That would be sick.

Hey, I was in marching band. I support marching bands. 630 says just have some nuns instead of cheerleaders. The bear nuns. I get it. I get the joke. I love it. I love it when people name places that they want to blow up for stadiums.

And I love it when they have ideas. about what to name a bear's cheerleading slash Spirit Squad group. Did you guys know there's only one NFL team that's never had cheerleaders? Is it Texas A&M? Oh, no. That's not a football team in the NFL. Oh, wait. So there's an NFL team that has never had cheerleaders.

There's eight current teams that don't have cheerleaders, but there's only one that's never had. Oh, man. And it's an expansion team I'm imagining? No. No, not an expansion team. This team's been around and has had Super Bowl success. this century.

This century, like in the 2000s? Wait, don't tell me with the Patriots? No, they have cheerleaders. Cash money to take a number for the 9-9 in the 2000s? Did you just say Robert? Yes, I sure did. I said yes. Oh my God, I have solved the problem between Jordan, what's her name, and Robert Kraft,

Bill Belichick's girlfriend. Do you know she does the adult cheerleading thing? She does the adult. Just get on the Patriots cheerleaders. Where are your big boat? Is it? Problem solved. Is the team Philadelphia?

No. Oh, no. Philadelphia, they got cheerleaders. What do you know about that? I may have dated a Philadelphia Eagles show. Well, well, well. Hey, man. Good for you.

So the team that's never had cheerleaders is the New York Giants. What? I was going to guess that, but then I was like, no, there's no way. And then the other seven teams that don't have cheerleaders. Obviously, we know the Bears. The Chargers, the Jets. In L.A. with the team that doesn't need.

even have fans. You probably need cheerleaders. The Steelers. You also have a plethora of professional dancers in L.A. Yeah. The Bills and the Browns and the Packers. So those are all the teams that don't have cheerleaders. There's eight of them. All right, we got bare necessities.

Slightly inappropriate, so I'm intrigued. Oh, Bear necessities is a great call. The baronets, B-E-A-R. That's it. Naked cheerleaders. It's older. No, but... The Bears have... Yeah, the drumline is great. Yeah, we love a drumline. They can play a little balloon when they come Oh, yeah, drumline is very prevalent.

How do we feel about Team Voldemort for the Packers? Team Voldemort. You're saying, how do we feel about him calling them that? I kept thinking it was Baltimore. I was like, what? Have you never seen Harry Potter? Team Baltimore. I had to look at, no, I have not seen Harry Potter.

I'm not surprised. Have you read the books? I have not. I am also not surprised about that either. Also, way to radicalize, George. Use the language that the kids know, you know, like your younger players and such. I had to look it up. How do you think he knows about Voldemort?

Now that I'm thinking about this. He has great kids. Oh, okay. That actually. He has kids and great kids. Yeah, he's watched the movies. I do enjoy his pettiness. His and JP. J.P. won't say Packers either.

They just can't. It's just, you know. If the Bears really wanted to be serious about the stadium leverage thing, if they really wanted to get people emotionally fired up to pay. Bring back the cheerleaders? No. To pay money, to keep them in Chicago and Illinois, they'd threaten Kenosha.

There's plenty of land up there But that is a bluff, right? If you really want to do this? If you really say you're going out of town? So people are like, I got a secret savings account. I could use like, I could handle those taxes. Not Kenosha. Not Kenosha.

They'd have to roll out George himself for the press conference and say, I didn't really want to do this, but I'm going to have to do this. Not going to happen. Yeah, you know me. I've said, okay, if you're serious about the leverage to sell Arlington Heights. And then I'm like, if you really, if you really, want to threaten if you really want to if you really

want to party with me is that really where you're going yes I was and I was afraid I was going to mess up the lyrics so I let Layla take it in the middle and she took it thank you Layla wait let's get back to some of what George McCasky to say to Jericho not WGN sports I really appreciated his first of all one of the things he kept repeating was how much he loved

talking to fans about the bears how much he loved seeing all the viral videos that everybody has created the tribute and seeing how much those meant to everyone. So that is something that I want to reiterate because he was very, very adamant about that. And you can see that in their interview on YouTube. He also continued to share which one of his favorites

was the Caleb Williams throw that he liked the best. The two-fourth down throws in the playoffs, the pass against the Packers, the crazy one against the Rams that I don't know how that got to Colcomet. Which one of those made you yell the loud? probably the one in the playoffs to beat team Voldemort because my first thing was okay no flags and then they left too much time on the clock so then we had to have you know this play at the goal line where he's got all day back there to

throw and it's just a great result and I just collapsed in my son's arms and let the Celebration begin. Team Voldemort. You're just going to add Team Voldemort to everything, like Go Cats. He just likes saying Voldemort. He really does like saying it. He said it at least four times by my count. He does feel good about it. You could tell he's like, I came up with a clever idea.

Yeah. He's like, yeah. Good for you, George. No, that's... It's cheesy, but that's George. Yeah, George is kind of cheesy. It works. It works.

Like Jared talked to him about how, you know, George famously, this has become viral, Push Day, Photo Bomber who was wearing a Packer's hat. out of the way of the picture with the Bears fans at the tailgate. And George says he wishes he shouldn't have done it. No, George. You should have done it. You're good. You should have. I think that might be people's favorite

George McCasky moment is seeing him do that. He's not just talking to talk. He's actually walking the walk about how he feels about Team Voldemort, if you will. No doubt. I'm pretty sure the Bears view me. Like, I view most of our listeners who text us with crazy stuff.

So, like, for example, the ones who are like, oh, you don't know anything. I'm like, cool, you know, I get that. So in this case, you know, I think they probably think of me as a carnival barker. But if they hear anything, is that George McCasky, 100% should have pushed that person out of the way. They invaded your personal space first. No doubt. No doubt. Can I give you, what I listened to that whole interview, I noticed that Mr. McCasky, George, was really used, he was hitting the nail on the head with the adjective that he used for two separate answers.

You don't even need the questions, because if there's a word that George is about to use here in this montage that I had Tyler put together that is not befitting of the bear season, you guys just tell me. I don't know how any objective observer can look at that, magical, improbable, unbelievable, miraculous season and not conclude that there was some divine intervention.

There was more, though. There was also maddening, exhilarating, exhausting, and satisfying. He also cited the profession of cardiologists? Yes, yes. He cited that as well. So divine intervention, miraculous, magical, improbable, unbelievable, maddening, exhilarating, exhausting, and satisfying. We're all words that George used throughout that interview. He verbally ran the gambit.

He did, but he's... Are any of those words wrong? No, no. Which is your favorite? Yeah, which is your favorite? What is your... That's a good question. I think the exhilaration for me.

That's a good word. You're right. Exilerating is good because exhilarating implies that there was effort that was spent on it with a satisfying result. I would hope it's not improbable because you hired a guy who was good at what he was doing. Yeah, you don't want to think that that wasn't real. I thought about that too. Exhausting is interesting too because there is an exhaust. There was an exhaust factor, a stress factor, if you will, watching.

the Bears this year. People aged watching the fourth quarter of Bears games. Yes, I did. And we all came out okay when the game was over. Maddening is like the 10 game losing streak. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess maybe the maddening could qualify because they did not, because George talked about that too in the interview, that the goal is that we fell short. Our goal is to win the Super Bowl. That's maddening to George. The great thing about the maddening. Where we are this season is we've gone from asking one question to asking another question. The question we were asking at the end of last season is, can the bears lose normal? Now we're asking, can the bears win normal? Can the bears win normal? Does it

have to be a last minute drive to win the game? They've been asking that too. In press conferences after games, they don't want to win like this either. Well, see, then that's why we know that there's the obvious areas where the bears, we know exactly, like can they get better? We don't know, but we know exactly how they need to get better. Faster starts, better defense. I don't think the bears are going to name their mythical new cheerleading squad. We've created Bear Naked, 574. I just don't, I don't think that's going to happen.

It's been several years. Lela, you're supposed to fill in the lyrics. I'm sorry, one week. Thank you. Oh, it's been one week. It's been. Oh, 847 has a whole plan. Honey Bears Field, sponsored by Haribone, Kenosha,

and it will be called Blank the Packers Stadium, and I can't say that word. Okay, you've got a pitch there. I'm interested. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harrison Grotian, 104, 3, the score. We talked a lot about, and the NFL has, too, the discourse around this Hall of Fame class, notably the lack of Bill Belichick, notably how it's only five individuals.

So to get more understanding about it and to also reassess what happens to a lot of bears you know who have been on some of those lists already, Jack Silverstein is joining us to talk about all of that next.