One Chicago Bears mistake showed up big on Wild Card Weekend

You can build a Super Bowl champion out of the mistakes that the Chicago Bears have made over the last 30 years or so. There is the Mitchell Trubisky debacle, Matt Nagy tenure, and firing Lovie Smith after a 10-6 season just to name a few. Another big one was on display during Wild Card Weekend action on Sunday.

On September 5th, 2016, the Chicago Bears cut kicker Robbie Gould. That was a mistake that they are still living with to this day. He later found work with the New York Giants before finding work with his current club in the bay area.

Gould’s San Francisco 49ers are on to the second round of the NFL postseason following their win over the Dallas Cowboys. It was a win by a final score of 23-17 on the road which was rather impressive. 

Robbie Gould didn’t miss a kick as he went 3/3 on field goals and hit two extra points for a total of 11 points. Having that many points come off his foot was the main reason that they were able to beat the Cowboys. He did his job with no issues. His long in the game was from 53 yards which is no chip shot so you know that he is nails.

The Chicago Bears really should regret allowing Robbie Gould to leave.

Of course, since his departure, the Bears have had some serious kicking issues. It wasn’t a problem in 2021-22 but nobody will ever forget Cody Parkey. He missed a lot of field goals during the 12-4 season that the Bears put together in 2018. He was their only true weakness.

Gould was in attendance for their playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles that season and watched Cody Parkey miss yet another field goal except for this time it came in the form of a season-ending miss. If he would have made it, the Bears would have won but he missed and they left the tournament much too soon.

If the Bears would have kept Gould, they would have won that game and you never know what would have happened from there. He makes a lot of money for a kicker but it is clear that doing that is well worth it.

Now, at 39 years old, he is still one of the best kickers in the game and the 49ers are beneficiaries of it when it should be the Bears. It is a complete joke that they allowed this to happen because he was someone who truly loved Chicago. Hopefully, Gould is able to have a deep playoff run this year because he deserves it.