Leave it to a Bears legend to rain on the Lions parade. Just hours before the Lions take part in the NFL's season-opening game against the Chiefs, Dick Butkus, perhaps the greatest Bear of them all, threw some shade at Chicago's longtime division rival.
"I got excited that the NFL starts today," Butkus wrote via Twitter, "but then I realized it's the Detroit Lions."
I got excited that the NFL starts today... but then I realized it's the Detroit Lions...
— Dick Butkus (@thedickbutkus) September 7, 2023
Before Lions fans get too up in arms, Butkus added in another post that there is one Detroit player he's excited to watch on Thursday night.
I am excited to see one player today - Jack Campbell - from the @Lions. He was the 2022 College Butkus Award Winner from @HawkeyeFootball playing his first NFL game at KC tonight! Make it count!
— Dick Butkus (@thedickbutkus) September 7, 2023
A first-round pick in April's draft, Campbell's first regular season game in the NFL will come against the league's best team in Kansas City and the best quarterback in Patrick Mahomes. And while the Chiefs are rightfully favored, the Lions aren't coming into Arrowhead as a sacrificial lamb. Fresh off a 9-8 season, Dan Campbell's squad has its sights on being a playoff team in 2023.
The Lions have talented players on both sides of the ball, which includes Pro Bowlers Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown, second-year pass-rusher Aidan Hutchinson and rookie first-round picks Campbell and Jahmyr Gibbs.
Along with watching Thursday night's game, Butkus might actually be back on the gridiron Sunday. The former Bears' Hall of Fame linebacker said on social media that the team has invited him to be on the field for its season-opener against one of Chicago's other longtime rivals, the Green Bay Packers.
