No matter which two teams are participating in the big game, Super Bowl week has a way of bringing people together. However, there’s one reunion that is top of mind for Chicago Bears fans and the latest tease isn’t going to tamper down those feelings.
I can't make this up! #BringBackGould @ChicagoBears pic.twitter.com/JRubmWjCF2
— Earl B. Bennett (@EarlBBennett) January 31, 2019
While wandering around Atlanta, the site of Super Bowl LIII, former Bears wide receiver Earl Bennett ran into ex-Bears kicker Robbie Gould. Oh, fate works in funny ways, doesn’t it?
“Bring back my man … Robbie Gould!”
Until it can’t feasibly happen, those words from Bennett will be the battle cry of the Bears fan this offseason – especially when Gould teases us like this:
“It’s been too long. Good to see you,” Gould told Bennett while caught on candid cameraphone. “Chicago Bears. Once a Bears, always a Bear.”
That tug you felt was the idea of Gould suiting up in a Bears uniform again and nailing one through the uprights – say, from 43 yards (I kid, I kid). Better get used to that feeling, too, because it’s not going anywhere for a while.
Gould has been better than ever since being cut by the Bears before the start of the 2016 season, making 96.5 percent of his kicks with the Giants and 49ers. Meanwhile, the kickers tasked with replacing the Bears’ all-time leading scorer have connected on just 76 percent of their kicks. It’s a woeful number that underscores Chicago’s frustration with the position (and it only gets more exasperating when you think of how the Bears’ season ended with Cody Parkey’s double-doink).
The good news is that Gould is set to be a free agent and doesn’t have any ill will toward the Bears or the city of Chicago. He made that much clear while appearing on Bennett’s podcast earlier in January. One way or another, Gould’s football seems destined to end in Chicago. But if Bennett (and Bears fans) have it their way, the beginning of the end will feature a return to Chicago.