Ben Johnson says he really enjoyed, ‘beating Matt LaFleur twice a year,’ during his introductory press conference with the Bears.

The audience at Halas Hall reacting to what Ben Johnson thought was going to get a nuclear bomb of laughs:

Womp, womp. Our guy thought he was 1970’s Richard Pryor with that line. He was probably grinning ear to ear when it popped into his head this week, practiced it in the mirror for a few days leading up to his intro presser, only to have it land like wet fart. He even gave it an extra beat to make sure no one wanted to laugh out loud! Sad, sad, sad. This is the press conference equivalent to getting a ‘haha’ text back to something you sent to someone and thought was hilarious.

Also, I have a question: Are you even a Bears employee if you don’t reference the Packers in your introductory press conference?? I feel like every single coach and GM presser I’ve seen in the last 20 years has involved that person chirping the Packers in some way, shape or form. Lovie Smith did it back in the day, Ryan Poles did it when he was hired as the GM a few years ago. That’s how much of a little brother complex the Bears have when it comes to the Packers. Too cute.

And not to be this guy:

But I went and looked at the Packer/Lions matchups and results over the years. Ben Johnson has been an assistant coach in Detroit since 2019. The Packers and Lions have split those 12 games, 6 a piece. Ben Johnson made it sound like he stuffed Matt LaFleur in a locker during his time in Detroit. Rent. Free.

PS: I ended up watching most of this presser to gather some audio for sportscasts this morning, if I’m a Bears fan I don’t know how I feel about that introduction yesterday. No doubt he was the hottest candidate on the head coaching market, so they got their guy, but he appeared to be very nervous and awkward for that whole thing. Not unlike Marc Trestman. This is what I would want to hear if I were a Bears fan:

I don’t need awkward rehearsed jokes, just tell me you’re going to beat the crap out of everybody like you’re the second coming of Mike Ditka.