CHICAGO — The phone rang in the days after Ben Johnson left the Detroit Lions to take the Chicago Bears head coaching job.

Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown documented it with his brother Equanimeous on their podcast. The episode aired days after the Lions’ shocking loss to the Washington Commanders in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs.

In the aftermath, the Lions lost their star offensive coordinator to the Bears. The podcast episode from seven months ago felt more like a therapy session for Amon-Ra than an analysis.

He referred to Johnson as “one of my favorite coaches.” He told Equanimeous, a former Bears receiver, about the conversation he shared with Johnson.

“I would want to have him in Detroit forever, but that’s not the reality of things,” Amon-Ra said.

A subtle shift had developed, however — even if in a somewhat joking manner — in the hours since the loss. Not that they wouldn’t be friendly off the field. But Johnson left the Lions for one of their fiercest rivals.

That wasn’t lost on Amon-Ra, who can name all 16 receivers selected ahead of him in the 2021 draft. Johnson wasn’t just leaving for some other team. The Bears and Lions compete twice a year in the NFC North. They’ve faced each other 190 times since 1930. Some Lions fans felt Johnson had betrayed their team.

“I told him, I said, ‘Two times a year, Ben, we’re gonna f−−− you up,” Amon-Ra said on the podcast.

Johnson had a quick response.

“I’ll f−−− you up,” he shot back.

‘Going to be a little hostile’

Johnson knew exactly what he was doing when he left Detroit for Chicago. He was well aware of the can of worms he potentially was opening.

“Yeah, everything last year ran through my head,” he said this week. “And that was one of the unfortunate parts of making that decision was you were saying goodbye to a lot of friends and a great place.”

For the first time this weekend, Johnson will walk onto the Ford Field turf with a Bears logo across his chest. The Bears and Lions renew their rivalry at 1 p.m. ET Sunday, and the coaching change is sure to dominate the narrative.

During his media sessions, Johnson made an effort not to be sentimental about his return. During Monday’s season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings, he had his game face on. He showed little emotion — positive or negative.

In fact, Johnson said he wishes he hadn’t thrown a challenge flag in the second half Monday because he felt he was influenced by the emotion of his players on the sideline.

When he walks into Ford Field on Sunday, it will be all business.

“My mind’s going to be about winning the football game,” Johnson said. “That’s really what it’s going to come down to is us going out there and looking to find our first victory of the season.”

“For him, it’s going to be another game,” said wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle-El, who came to Chicago with Johnson from Detroit. “And we take the feelings and emotions out of it because we’ve got to go coach.”

The Lions faithful, on the other hand, won’t be devoid of emotions.

“It’s probably going to be a little hostile,” Bears guard Jonah Jackson told the Chicago Tribune with a laugh.

Jackson played four years with Johnson in Detroit. When he was a rookie in 2020, Johnson was the tight ends coach. The Lions promoted Johnson to coordinator in 2022, and the offense took off from there.

One of the first moves the Bears made this offseason, after hiring Johnson, was to trade for Jackson as part of their mission to overhaul the offensive line. Jackson spent one injury-riddled season with the Los Angeles Rams last year between his stints in the NFC North.

He feels a special bond with Johnson because they came into their own together in Detroit. When they first got to know each other in 2020, they were both “young pups,” as Jackson described it.

Even back then, Jackson said, Johnson carried himself “like he was an alpha.”

“He keeps you locked in too,” Jackson said. “You better get rolling. It is a business. It’s a cold one too.”

Cold is a word Lions fans might use to describe Johnson’s exodus to Chicago. When he took the job, he talked about how his family would spend time in Chicago every summer going to Cubs games at Wrigley Field.

Detroit might view that as a betrayal.

“My family, myself, we’ve got a lot of strong relationships there in that community (in Detroit),” Johnson said this week, reflecting on his decision. “Hopefully that continues to stay that way as well.

“But we felt like this was the best opportunity for myself and my family and we were really excited about coming to Chicago. At times you have to make tough decisions.”

‘A young, snot-nosed computer punk’

Lions coach Dan Campbell and Johnson first worked together in 2012. Campbell was a Miami Dolphins assistant coach from 2010 through 2015, and Johnson — after beginning his coaching career at Boston College — landed his first NFL job as a Dolphins offensive assistant. He coached in various roles in Miami through 2018.

“We have fond memories of back when I was just a young, snot-nosed computer punk — as he likes to call it — in Miami,” Johnson said of Campbell.

That snot-nosed computer punk joined the Lions in 2019 as a quality control coach on Matt Patricia’s staff. When the Lions fired Patricia and replaced him with Campbell, the new coach happily reunited with Johnson and kept him on the staff.

“Ben’s my friend,” Campbell told reporters in Detroit this week. “He’s always going to be my friend. Nothing about that’s going to change.”

But both are also fierce competitors. As Jackson said, it’s a cold business. The only thing that matters is wins and losses.

“We’re going to win this game,” Campbell said. “We have to.”

Both teams are coming off Week 1 losses in the division. An 0-2 start makes the path to the postseason much harder. Since 1990, only about 11% of teams that started 0-2 have made the playoffs. Both analytically inclined coaches are well aware of what the numbers say.

The Lions are trying to figure out what their offense looks like without Johnson calling the plays. It’s a work in progress. There was no sparkle or razzle-dazzle in a Week 1 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

“I don’t really care about trick plays,” Campbell said. “Let’s just handle the meat and potatoes of an offense, a defense, what we think we’re going to hang our hat on.”

The Bears are in a similar place. They committed 12 penalties in Week 1 and the offense was stuck in the mud throughout much of the second half. Johnson and his team have work to do.

Sunday’s game could be the first page in a new chapter of the Bears-Lions rivalry. If Johnson can turn the Bears into a consistent contender in the division, the Johnson-Campbell connection will be an ever-present part of the conversation for years to come.

What, exactly, might that look like for these two franchises?

“It’s like any other rivalry game, you know?” Jackson said. “There’s a winner and there’s a loser.”

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