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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Robert Zeglinski

Bears kicker Cairo Santos trains at poorly-maintained Florida parks to simulate Soldier Field’s horrendous turf

Cairo Santos Bears Soldier Field Florida NFL

Very few things are going well for the Chicago Bears and their players or their much-maligned stadium these days.

But one thing they’ve been able to count on over the past couple of years is the reliability of their kicker, Cairo Santos. In 2020 and 2021, the veteran maintained a minimum of a 96.4 make percentage. He’s missed six total kicks on 62 attempts. Basically, Santos is as money as it gets when a ball’s been long-snapped to him.

As it turns out, Santos has had to go the extra mile to excel that much as the Bears’ kicker. In a report by the Chicago Sun-Times’ Jason Lieser, Santos said that he actually trains at poorly-maintained public parks in Florida during the offseason just so that he could be prepared for Soldier Field’s awful turf.

Uh, what?

I’m sorry, but you’ve lost the plot as a football organization (really, the Chicago Parks District) when your kicker is forced to actively train on terrible fields to prepare for his home stadium. It boggles the mind that a professional football team could play on such a shoddy surface.

But then again, everything the Bears do these days boggles the mind.

NFL fans were shocked by Santos' extra lengths to succeed at Soldier Field

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