Follow the bouncing ball...
A chronology of the Bears’ kicker chronicles since ‘The Double Doink’
When the Bears’ season abruptly ended four months ago, another season began: the entertaining search for a new kicker. Here’s a look at the key events since that playoff loss to the Eagles at Soldier Field.
Jan. 6: With five seconds left in the Bears’ first playoff game since the 2010 season, Cody Parkey’s 43-yard field-goal attempt bounces off the left upright, hits the crossbar and bounces out. “Oh, my goodness,” NBC’s Cris Collinsworth says. “The Bears season’s going to end on a double doink.” (Six of Parkey’s misses last season hit an upright.) The Eagles win 16-15.
Jan. 11: Parkey appears on NBC’s “Today” show and in a five-minute interview dissects the missed 43-yarder, the support he has received from teammates and his philosophical approach to the disappointment. “I’ll continue to keep my head held high,” Parkey says. “Because football is what I do. It’s not who I am.”
Jan. 13: In a brilliant marketing move, Goose Island Beer Co. holds a kicking contest, offering anyone who can make a 43-yard attempt a prize of airfare, hotel and tickets to any regular-season NFL game next season. It is snowing on the day of the contest, making the kicking area slick for the event, held outside the Chicago brewery with a makeshift goal post erected in the street. None of the 100-plus contestants makes the kick, though a few came close. Jan. 14: At the Bears’ endof-season news conference, coach Matt Nagy makes it clear he is not pleased with Parkey’s “Today” show appearance. “We always talk about a ‘we’ and not a ‘me’ thing, and we always talk as a team (that) we win as a team, we lose as a team,” Nagy says. “I didn’t necessarily think that was too much of a ‘we’ thing.”
Jan. 25: After trying out six kickers at Halas Hall, the Bears sign Redford Jones, who kicked for the University of Tulsa from 201417.
Feb. 22: News breaks that Bears will release Parkey at the start of the league year March 13. Parkey had signed a four-year, $15 million contract in March 2018. He was 26-for-34 on field-goal attempts in the 16 regular-season games and one playoff game.
Feb. 26: The 49ers place the franchise tag on kicker Robbie Gould, the leading scorer in Bears history.
March 6:
After a group tryout, the Bears sign former University of Pittsburgh kicker Chris Blewitt, a free agent with no NFL experience.
March 13: The Bears officially release Parkey.
April 12: The Bears sign kicker Elliott Fry to a threeyear deal. Fry was with the Orlando Apollos of the short-lived Alliance of American Football and kicked in college for South Carolina.
April 23: Gould reportedly asks the 49ers for a trade (to the Bears?), telling the team he no longer will negotiate a multiyear contract and he is not a lock to show up for the start of the season. The 49ers, however, say they will not trade him.
May 3: The Bears bring eight kickers — four under contract and four on a tryout basis — to rookie minicamp. The first day’s festivities end with each kicker trying “The Cody Parkey” — a 43-yarder.
“That was on purpose,” Nagy said, referring to the distance and what it symbolizes. “They know loud and clear why.” Six of the eight kickers missed.
Also, the Bears announce they hired Jamie Kohl as kicking coach.
May 4: The kicking derby continues at Halas Hall. Six of the eight kickers make a 42-yard field goal in front of the entire team at the end of practice. And to further complicate matters, tryout punter Alex Kjellsten participates with the kickers and is one of the most accurate.
May 5: By the end of the night, as rookie minicamp ends, only two kickers remain: Fry and Blewitt.
“I thought it was awesome,” Fry says of the competition done in front of all the players. “That’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to create pressure situations, and obviously you can’t go out to Soldier Field and have 60,000 people there and have pressure on the line. That’s one of the best ways to create pressure, and as kickers that’s kind of what it comes down to.”
May 6: The Bears acquire 23-year-old kicker Eddy Pineiro in a trade with the Raiders for a conditional 2021 seventh-round draft pick. Pineiro, who went undrafted out of Florida in 2018, was set to be the Raiders’ starter last year before suffering a groin injury. He joins the Bears as the third kicker under contract.
Meanwhile, Gould posts on Instagram a video of him practicing on a wet grass field in Lake Zurich.
May 21: The Bears will begin organized team activities at Halas Hall, and the kicking circus will continue.