While McHenry County is a train ride away from Soldier Field and solidly on the Illinois side of the Wisconsin border, the county has its share of Packers faithful.

Ahead of the playoff game Saturday, area bars are getting ready to welcome fans from both sides of the Bears vs. Packers divide.

Families with splintered loyalties also are preparing their smack talk for before, during and after the postseason matchup.

If the Bears win Saturday, those watching the game at Huntley’s Pub 47 might get free food.

The bar is offering refunds for all food purchased – dine-in or carryout – before 7:30 p.m. Saturday if the Bears win and Caleb Williams throws for 300 or more yards.

Julie Brannon, a server at the pub, said although the restaurant has been trying to do more this year during Bears games, it’s the first time Pub 47 has offered something like Saturday’s promotion.

“They’re very excited,” Brannon said regarding how customers feel about the game, adding that the comments online have been a lot of Bears and Packers fans poking fun at each other.

Whether customers get the promo relies heavily on Williams. The Bears’ quarterback has thrown for more than 300 yards just once this season – 330 yards in a 42-38 loss at the 49ers on Dec. 28. Williams threw for 298 yards in a 31-14 win against the Cowboys on Sept. 21.

The Packers have a following in the county, too.

Wonder Lake resident and Packers backer Jeff Young said that his family mostly stays home to watch the games on his basement TVs.

“My whole family dresses up in our Packers garb. We have three TVs to watch all the games. I have the NFL package so we don’t miss a game, and an antenna just in case [the cable signal fails],” Young said.

He’s also a shareholder – the team is officially a publicly owned nonprofit organization – and has been at Lambeau Field for games twice this year. While believing his team has a shot at winning Saturday, Young predicted it will be a close contest.

“If the Packers can stop the Bears’ running game, I can see them winning,” Young said.

Like Young, Tom Henely, who owns Horizontals bar in Wonder Lake, and his son own stock in the Packers. They’re also season ticket holders.

Henely, who grew up in Wonder Lake, is a lifelong Packers fan, and his bar is officially a Packers bar. The team has an “unbelievable following,” he said.

With the Bears strong this season, the rivalry is back and fun, Henely said. More Bears fans have been coming in, and they have something to cheer for. The two fan bases generally get along, he said, but “everybody gets their jabs” in.

Henely’s family, however, isn’t divided. A Packers helmet appears in the first picture of his son after he was born. Wonder Lake was a big Packers area back in the day, Henely said, adding that it still is for the older generation.

It’s “definitely different for sure” being a Packers bar in Bears land, he said.

When the Packers aren’t on TV, people come from all over the Chicago area, and “we get flooded,” Henely said.

A short hop over the state line from Richmond is Herner’s Hideaway in Genoa City, Wisconsin, where owner Tammy Herner said they get a lot of couples who come in with divided loyalties even though the establishment is listed as a Packers bar at packerseverywhere.com.

The bar itself, Herner said, is “real close to 50-50,″ but perhaps a little more Bears fans due to being so close to the state line.

The bar offers raffles during both Bears and Packers games and, when the teams play each other, both quarterly raffles happen at the same time, Herner said.

She emphasized that the bar only does raffles for the Bears and Packers and never for the Minnesota Vikings.

“We just make it fun,” Herner said.

One of those split-down-the-middle families that Herner talked about includes Tim Santos and his in-laws, Steve and Jody Gee, all of McHenry.

A Wisconsin native, Santos is a diehard Packers fan – even after living in Illinois for almost 30 years. His 12-year-old daughter is a Bears fan.

“Her grandpa turned [her] into a Bears fan,” Santos said.

“He bribed her,” laughed grandma Jody Gee, who’s also a Packers fan.

“My granddaughter is my only ally in all of this cheese factory stuff,” Steve Gee said. “I supported her ... choice.”

He admitted, however, that buying his granddaughter some team gear may have helped encourage her fandom.

During their almost 50 years as a married couple, both Steve and Jody said they’ve occasionally cheered for the other side.

“In the ’60s, at the beginning of the Super Bowls, Green Bay was dominant,” Steve said.

He spent childhood summers at a Kewaunee, Wisconsin, resort, where he and Jody met.

“There was loyalty to the Packers in the Bart Starr era,” he said. “I wasn’t a hard loyal Bears fan until I got older. In the ’80s, I was all in.”

So was Jody.

“The ‘85 Bears – the McMahon era. I was a Bears fan that year – McMahon and the Monsters of the Midway. It charmed me and pulled me in," she said.

Santos said that although his team has had the upper hand, historically, “the tide has kind of changed this year.”

“It might be the Bears’ year this year. I think they have the Packers’ number right now,” he said.

He also might be OK with a Bears win for Steve’s sake.

“Seeing my father-in-law battling cancer ... if he can see his Bears win one more time, that would be awesome,” Santos said.

Right now, Steve is in remission from the lung cancer he’s fought for the past three years.

“I deserve some good karma, and the Bears have to win,” he said.