The Chicago Bears brain trust are a head scratcher in my mind. They draft well. They have made some nice free agent signings. They have made some interesting trades that have panned out. All of those right moves, they are like the Catholic church and hiding the one move they have completely messed up on. The one weakness they have not addressed this off-season that knocked them out of the playoffs. The player they had already in place but they got rid of. The mistake that still haunts Ryan Pace at night as he wakes up with the cold sweats. The cutting of Robbie Gould is a move that haunts the Bears like the goat that jinxed the Cubs for decades.

Last season the Bears gave Cody Parky, a free agent, big money to replace the mistakes from the previous year of mistakes that kicked the ball for the Chicago Bears. They signed Parky in hopes that the Robbie Gould mistake would go away. In the Bears’ books, they were fixing the sports car that the young 16 year daughter took out without a drivers license and crashed through their own garage door. They spent money to fix that car and door immediately so none of neighbors would ask them questions on what happened. Sometimes after the crash, the car with the work done is never the same. Cody Parky was not the same kicker from Miami Dolphins as he was with the Chicago Bears. The one game, he hit the uprights four times as the ball did not pinball the right way and were flat out misses. Then in the first round of the playoffs, to drive down the length of the field in the last minute of the game. To get the ball in position for an easy field goal to win the contest and move on to a second round. Another kick, another off the goalpost for a miss. Hollywood could not even write a story about this.

Robbie Gould wants out of San Francisco. He actually still has his family living in Chicago. He even went to the Bears playoff game versus the Eagles and watched Cody Parky miss the kick that could have sent the Bears to the second round. Since Robbie Gould was cut by Ryan Pace, he has been almost perfect with the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. While the Bears have paraded every dick and harry in an helmet to come up with weak numbers in a position that has haunted them. A position that is an obvious a glaring weakness. Still a position they have not addressed in the off season. The Bears even know Robbie Gould wants out of San Francisco. The 49ers are holding on to Robbie with a franchise tag, but he does not want to kick for the 49ers. He wants to come home where he belongs as the Bears best kicker in the history of the franchise.

Sounds easy to just make a trade for Robbie Gould with the 49ers. You’d think they owe us especially for all the draft picks we gave them just to move up one spot to grab Mitchell Trubisky. Is Ryan Pace this stubborn to admit that he made a huge mistake years ago releasing Robbie Gould for having a down year? The Bears still have some money on the books to pay the ineffective Cody Parky from last year. Is bringing every person that kicked a ball at one point off the streets, the answer to solve this weakness that plaques your team right now? Or even the trade with the Raiders for Eddie Pineiro in a deal that will cost the Bears a late round draft pick. Which is a deal dependent on if Eddie Pineiro even makes the squad. Which tells me the Raiders know the guy is hot garbage and perhaps he gives them a draft pick or he would have ended up at the curb anyways.

Why is going on and on about a kicker so important anyways? Some teams would just put a band-aid on their kicker position. Which the Bears have done and are still trying to do that. This position is not the reason why they made the playoffs. The defense and the up and coming offense is that reason for the Bears resurgence in the Central division. In baseball a closer is huge for teams winning the World Series. They need somebody to close the door. In football a kicker does come into play as the closer role to make the one kick to put you over the top or tie the game to send it to OT with crucial seconds left. The Bears should have a great team for the next few years. However the window in the NFL shuts pretty quickly. Without the missed kick in the first round of the playoffs would the Bears have gotten to the Superbowl last season? The Bears defense definitely shut down the Rams team that represented the NFC in the Superbowl. You would love to think the Bears would have put up more points on the Patriots than the Rams did in the Superbowl. Speaking of the Patriots, they seem to always have a good kicker as their destiny continues this long. With the Bears window opened all the way, we do not want to go down the road of missing a crucial kick especially in the Superbowl. We do not have to live the life of Buffalo Bills fans in the 1990s when Scott Norwood missed that kick with seconds left. Some say if the Bills had won that game, they might have won a few Superbowls with that team. Ryan Pace needs to man up, admit he made a mistake, go get Robbie Gould from the 49ers and bring him home where he belongs. This is more than being wrong and not asking for directions when you’re lost driving. These days your phone can guide you to your next destination. Let the phone guide you to call up the 49ers and get this deal done.