Packers-Bears controversy heats up over ‘Dirty’ Jordan Love injury

The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears game on Saturday, December 20, took a nasty turn when Packers quarterback Jordan Love suffered a concussion in the second quarter of the game. The incident happened when Bears defensive end Austin Booker had a helmet-to-helmet hit during a sack, which resulted in a roughing-the-passer penalty. It also meant that Love was out for the rest of the game due to concussion protocol.

Not having Love in the game obviously cost the Packers a lot, and the Bears inched them out in a 22-16 final score. After the hit on Love, a major point of discussion was whether it was a “dirty” play or not.

During the Fox Halftime Show, Pro Football Hall of Famers Howie Long and Michael Strahan had a disagreement over whether that play was a clean one.

“I could turn into Clint Eastwood and say ‘get off my lawn,’ but in my day this was legal,” Long said on the show. “They were both purposeful and what you could call a dirty hit, particularly the second hit.”

By “both,” Long is referring to that before the hit that caused Love a concussion, he got another hit from a Bears defender that kept him on the ground in obvious pain.

But, Strahan disagreed with Long and called the hit clean. “You’re running in there full speed,” he said. “You can’t call that man dirty for that.”

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Long argued, “The second one was a little rough. He pile-drived him the first time, and he hit him with the helmet the second time.”

Either way you slice it, having Love out hurt the Packers, and it’s frankly a sign of Green Bay’s strength that they were able to almost beat the Bears without their starting quarterback on the field.

“Well, the word on Jordan Love is that he is out for the game with a concussion,” Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews said after halftime.

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Andrews added that she talked to Packers head coach Matt LaFleur coming out of halftime, “and I said, ‘with Malik Willis, what do you feel comfortable keeping in and what do you take out with this offense?’ And he said, ‘I like the majority of what we have. The guy has been here for almost two years. He’s got a good grasp on this playbook.'”

She added that LaFleur said, “‘You saw that drive right there, and he did a good job. The only thing for us, much like last week against Denver, is that we need to finish and we need to sore when we’re in the redzone.'”