NEWSLETTER
Robbie Gould, long held as the gold-standard of Chicago Bears kickers, announced his retirement from the NFL in social media posts via Instagram and The Players’ Tribune.
Gould dives deep in his retirement post at The Players’ Tribune. And, of course, there’s a lotta love as he recollects his time with the Chicago Bears. Here is a snippet from Gould looking back at the good old days in Chicago:
From start to finish, I loved everything about my time in Chicago. Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo created a team-first culture by assembling a locker room full of future Hall of Famers. To be able to go to work every day surrounded by guys like Brian Urlacher, Julius Peppers, Olin Kreutz, Roberto Garza, Charles Tillman, Lance Briggs, and dozens of other first-rate guys — it was the best football home imaginable. We had some deep playoff runs, and we made a ton of memories. The McCaskey family gave me the opportunity to live out my childhood dream, and it was an honor to play for them. Ultimately, I hope that we made Bears fans proud. They deserve it.
In addition to how much I loved playing for that team and its fans, the city of Chicago became my home. It’s where I met my wife, and we’ve raised our three boys there. The nostalgia I feel for that wonderful city — the connection — makes it hard to imagine living life with my family anywhere else.
Ah, man. Who decided it was a good idea to cut onions at this hour right next to my work station?
There is only one thing left for Robbie Gould to do
This is the part of the post where I gush over Robbie Gould’s NFL career.
The Penn State product wraps up an 18-year NFL career with an 86.5 percent success rate on field goals. He hit extra-points at a 97.5 percent clip throughout the duration of his career, including a stretch from 2006-2012 in which he didn’t miss a PAT. During that span, Gould was true on 86.6 percent of his field goal tries. To put it through another lens, Robbie Gould was successful on 446 of 475 attempted kicks — which comes out to a 93.89 percent accuracy rate. And to think, I haven’t even gotten to to the part in which I gush about his playoff success.
Robbie Gould is the most successful postseason kicker in NFL history. In 16 games with the Bears, San Francisco 49ers, and New York Giants, Gould went 29-for-29 on field goals while connecting on all 39 of of his PATs. Good as Gould, indeed.
Robbie Gould began his career with the Bears in 2005 replacing Doug Brien in the kicking game and booting field goals for a team that saw Kyle Orton, Rex Grossman, and Jeff Blake throw touchdown passes. It was a humble beginning for Gould, who went on to make 85.4 percent of his field goals an 99 percent of his PATs during a stellar run of kicking excellence in Chicago from 2005-2015. His unceremonious dumping by Ryan Pace still irks many Bears fans to this day. But if it makes you feel any better, Pace *DID* try bringing Robbie back in 2019.
At this point, there is only one thing left for Gould to do in his career. But he’ll need the Bears to extend that olive branch out. Because now that Gould has announced his retirement, it is time for Chicago’s football team to reach out, give him a one-year contract, and allow one of the all-time greats in franchise history to retire as a member of the Bears.
Happy trails, Robbie. Enjoy retirement. We’ll always cherish the memories. And we’ll always have this:
