There was a time when Bears fans were clamoring for the return of former kicker Robbie Gould during an ugly period of kicker woes, which started after Gould was released in 2016. And it sounds like a reunion was nearly in the cards.
Gould recently appeared on ESPN 1000’s Waddle and Silvy, where he shared an interesting nugget about how he almost wound up back in Chicago.
“Ryan Pace tried to get me back in a trade a few years afterward,” Gould said. “When the Eddy Pineiro trade happened because I was holding out from San Francisco.”
We know @ChicagoBears fans wanted @RobbieGould09 back.
Robbie says Ryan Pace wanted him back too and tried to trade for him pic.twitter.com/hcEWC8YEOQ
— ESPN 1000 (@ESPN1000) May 11, 2023
Setting the scene, that means the potential trade would’ve gone down during 2019 offseason. You know, following the infamous double doink missed field goal by Cody Parkey, which led to his release.
When trade talks fell through for Gould, the Bears had to turn elsewhere at kicker. Soon after, the Bears hosted a circus-like competition, where there were as many as nine kickers vying for the job. Ultimately, it came down to Eddy Pineiro and Elliott Fry, who battled it out in training camp and preseason, and Pineiro won the job.
After starting one season, Pinerio lost his job to Cairo Santos, due to injury, during the 2020 season. Santos established himself as a reliable option in three games, and he ultimately earned a three-year extension.
Now, Santos is entering the final year of his contract with Chicago. As for Gould, he remains a free agent continues to mull his options. And many are wondering if he’d be open to a reunion with the Bears.
“For sure, if they called and said, ‘Hey, we want you to play for us,’ I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Gould said last month, via NFL.com.
