Bears-Lions nastiness most welcome

Isn’t this lovely?

Overdue, too.

“Detroit (bleeps) … Detroit (bleeps) … Detroit (bleeps)… ” the Soldier Field crowd chanted Sunday afternoon.

It has been many a year since the Bears and the Lions cared enough about each other to attempt serving each other a heaping helping from the punch bowl.

The time has arrived.

As Jay Cutler said of the mood on the field, “It wasn’t clean and it wasn’t quiet.”

The Bears’ quarterback should know. Detroit defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh ripped Cutler’s helmet off, almost with his head still in it.

“He shouldn’t do that,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said matter-of-factly of the Suh act, and perhaps of Detroit’s overall act.

Not that the Bears were innocent bystanders. This was a rough, tough football game between two franchises beginning to sincerely dislike each other all over again.

The Lions were being embarrassed. Suh was frustrated. No wonder, what with the Bears administering a 37-13 beating to them.

Speaking of frustrated: After Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford threw 1 of his 4 interceptions, he took Bears defensive back D.J. Moore down by the cranial area.

Moore responded by jumping on top of Stafford — “A lot of times they catch the second guy,” Smith noted — and about a 20-player scrum ensued. Whatever happened at the bottom of the pile will remain for the league to sort out.

Ah, the memories the exercise in hostility inspired.

You know, like when Detroit center Ed Flanagan used to accuse Bears linebacker Dick Butkus of biting him; like when Bears coach Mike Ditka would be annoyed at Lions coach Wayne Fontes blowing cigar smoke at the Bears; when more than a half-century ago the Bears and the Lions would finish the regular season wrestling around in the Wrigley Field mud.

“Division games are always like this,” Smith said.

But it seems division games are more like this when Chicago and Detroit teams in any sport have something important to play for.

Think of how it is when the Blackhawks play the Red Wings, and how it was when the emerging Bulls used to play the Bad Boy champion Pistons.

Then remember how it was early in the 2000 baseball season when the White Sox and the Tigers set off riot alarms with a brawl in Comiskey Park.

Now the Lions are developing a reputation around the NFL as Bad Boys themselves, and the Bears have enough rowdy powder of their own to stand up for themselves.

Good for them both. The Chicago-Detroit rivalry should always be testy evolving into feisty evolving into nasty.

The Lions and Bears haven’t been that way for a while. The Lions haven’t been good enough to be relevant for a couple of decades. For that matter the Bears haven’t been all that good all that often either.

Now, though, these NFC North rivals are competing for wild-card playoff berths. Sunday’s victory tied the Bears with the Lions for second place in the division.

The Lions should have been embarrassed by the outcome, just as the Bears were by a loss at Detroit last month.

This time some ill-intentioned activity spiced the game, to which Smith said, “That happens from time to time, I don’t think too much damage was done.”

Yeah, but imagine if this was just another early round leading to another rematch in the playoffs.

Wouldn’t that really be really, really lovely?