Bears Packers Playoff Game Wager: Governors, Mayors Bet On Outcome

The rivalry between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers is one of the longest and most storied in professional sports. So it's no wonder that, when the two teams meet in a battle for the NFC Championship, folks can get pretty heated. (Click here for a history of the Bears-Pack rivalry.)

Everyone from the ordinary fan to the President of the United States has their predictions about how the game will turn out. And some politicians have decided to lay it on the line for their teams.

Chicago's powerful soon-to-be-ex-Mayor, Richard Daley, has set up a pretty standard wager with never-heard-of-him-Mayor Jim Schmitt of Green Bay. Local foodstuffs are on the line: Daley's wagering pizzas, pierogis and corned beef from Manny's Deli, while Schmitt is offering up a 12-pack of local beer, an autographed Packers football -- and a case of bear steaks. Seems like questionable taste to bet your opponent's mascot in steak form, but there you have it.

Schmitt also stepped it up by saying he'd send Daley a pound of cheese for every point the Pack wins by, according to WBEZ.

Meanwhile, the governors set aside their feuding over tax rates to get in on the action as well. But they took a slightly more service-oriented approach to the traditional bet.

Pat Quinn, Democrat from Illinois and newly-elected Republican Scott Walker in Wisconsin have decided that whoever's team loses will have to volunteer at a food pantry in the other's state. Wearing a T-shirt with the opponent's team on it, of course.

Quinn's already expressing his confidence in a Chicago win. "I am sure Governor Walker will look great in blue and orange," he said in a statement last week. "Bear down, Chicago Bears."

Of course, Walker was no less strident, even going so far as to predict the final score of 28-24, Green Bay, as the Chicago Tribune reports.