Tom Brady congratulates Aaron Rodgers for being a Bears ‘shareholder’

On Sunday, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers told the Bears he owned them.

Tom Brady heard him.

So did the one lifelong Bears fan who happens to play for the team. Bears tight end Cole Kmet, who grew up in Arlington Heights, understands the sentiment — even if he hated it.

“I mean, let’s face it, he’s not totally wrong,” Kmet said Wednesday. “He’s been pretty successful against the Bears in his career, so it’s on us to kind of change that narrative going forward.”

Rodgers’ celebration after his six-yard, game-sealing touchdown in the fourth quarter Sunday — He screamed, ’’All my [expletive] life, I own you!” to fans flipping him off — is the smack-talking sound bite that just won’t go away.

Rodgers has terrorized the Bears his whole career, going 22-5 in starts against them. In what might have been his last act at Soldier Field, he made the rival Bears a punch line around the NFL.

The sport’s most accomplished and famous player laughed along with Rodgers on Monday. Speaking on his SiriusXM show, Brady joked with host Jim Gray about Rodgers’ touchdown celebration.

“I was studying a little on the Bears and Packers,” said Brady, whose Buccaneers host the Bears on Sunday. “Before we get started, I wanted to say congrats to Aaron Rodgers, obviously. I know he’s a great quarterback, but I guess he’s now a shareholder of the Bears.

“I saw a clip of him really enthusiastically telling the crowd how happy he is to own Soldier Field. That’s really great stuff. He owns the Bucks now. Part-owner of Soldier Field. He’s got a great career beyond football.”

Rodgers has owned 1% of the Bucks since 2018. And, if you ask him, the Bears in perpetuity.

On Wednesday, Rodgers wouldn’t give Bears fans the satisfaction of getting under his skin. Asked about the fans flipping him off and prompting his celebration, he said Soldier Field was just one stadium “we’ve been to that has rowdy fans.” Philadelphia, he said, has the best trash-talkers.

He said he hadn’t been fined by the league for talking trash to Bears fans — but that he would certainly appeal if he was to get fined.

“I didn’t see it till after the game,” Bears wide receiver Darnell Mooney said. “It’s just his emotion, his flair or whatever. I’m pretty sure we had some things to say about them, as well. It’s just him going against the Bears. . . . It’s just him doing his thing emotion-wise.”

It rubbed Bears fans — and former players — the wrong way.

On the WSCR-AM postgame show Sunday, former Bears center Olin Kreutz said he wanted to “punch him in the face, to be honest,” though he acknowledged that Rodgers’ ownership of the Bears was deserved.

“Just because you’re right,” Kreutz said, “it doesn’t make you right for doing it.”

Rodgers’ first victory against the Bears came in 2008 — when Kmet was 9. He has had a front-row seat to the dominance. Kmet tried to be diplomatic when he was first asked about the celebration, joking that the Bears “didn’t see the TV copy” of the film that featured Rodgers’ audio.

“So that wasn’t really that big of a deal,” he said. “It is what it is. We’re focused on this week, and we’re just moving on from that.”

The rest of the football world isn’t.

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Expert analysis and reporting before and after every Bears game, from the journalists who cover the Monsters of the Midway best.

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