Robbie Gould on being cut from Bears: ‘I wanted to finish my career here’

Robbie Gould on Bears: ‘I wanted to finish my career here’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

What could have been?

For Robbie Gould and the Chicago Bears, we’ll never know what would have happened if John Fox and Ryan Pace didn’t decide to cut the legendary kicker from the team back in 2016.

The Bears tried and suffered.

They signed Cody Parkey to a four-year, $15 million deal and he imposed a historical amount of mishappenings during his time in Chicago. Most notably, the kick head round the world, the infamous ‘double-doink’ that caused the 2018 Bears to lose to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC wild card game.

After that, a plethora of kickers came through to try to become the next starting kicker. In no order, the Bears tried Elliot Fry, Eddie Piniero, Connor Barth, Mike Nugent. They finally landed on Cairo Santos, who has kicked brilliantly for the team. But, it was a long, windy road to get where the Bears are today.

Yet, we can’t forget Gould, who said he wanted to be a lifetime Chicago Bear on the Waddle and Silvy show.

“I wanted to finish my career here,” Gould said. “I would have loved to have been a Bear like Jason Hanson for 20 years. That would have been amazing to me. Those are things you can’t control as a player.”

On the show, Gould explained the way in which he got cut, late at night with no one around.

“I got cut at 9 o’clock at night and no one was there,” Gould said. “There was a trainer, John Fox and Ryan Pace. I didn’t get to say goodbye to anybody in the building for 11 years and you cut me at the very last minute in hopes that, you know obviously, I wouldn’t get a job which wasn’t the care. I had opportunities I just chose not to do those because I didn’t want to go play for places that were gonna lose.”

Gould’s dismemberment from the Bears hurt the hearts of many fans. But, Gould remains optimistic about his release and how the back half of his career has unfolded.