What was Cody Parkey thinking going on the Today Show?
It’s a week later and for most Chicago Bears’ fans, it still stings. One field goal separated the Bears from advancing the Divisional round of the NFL Playoffs. Cody Parkey swung and missed. Whether you want to be supportive of the team and say, “Wait til next year” or scream and yell and throw things, this article isn’t about Parkey and the miss.
As Bears’ fans we all know what happened and we don’t need to re-live it. We will get over it, fans always do, but it doesn’t change the fact that Parkey let down the city, the fans and most importantly, his teammates.
Parkey almost certainly can’t return next season. He’s not a bad kicker, he was a few inches away from having a solid season, but instead, the uprights made sure he had an off-year. But his miss against the Philadelphia Eagles will be unforgivable in the eyes of fans. Parkey will be booed every time he’s on the field and any made field goal or extra point will be met with sarcastic cheering.
There needs to be a divorce, and after Parkey decided to pat himself on the back on the Today Show, there’s now no way the Bears can bring him back to Halas Hall.
Parkey went on to talk about how that kick won’t define who he is and he knows he let everyone down but he’s going to keep his head up and go out there and keep trying to make kicks.
Give Parkey all the credit in the world for sitting down at his locker after the loss and answering all the questions the media had for him. That wasn’t easy to do and many would have avoided that situation, but Parkey handled it well.
But that’s where it ends. Let the fans vent. Let your teammates vent. Did the Today Show ask Mitch Trubisky on to talk about throwing for 300 yards in the loss? Did they have Anthony Miller to talk about his bizarre catch/fumble vs no catch and how he felt?
No. They asked to have the kicker on to tell him he deserves the award of the “Most Honorable Player.”
Give me a break.
You can check out Parkey’s appearance on the Today Show here. You won’t love what you see.
Parkey thought it was more important to go on national television and pat himself on the back for how he’s handling the situation. This isn’t time for a redemption tour. This isn’t a time to tell everyone you are doing okay. He needed to go home and stay quiet.
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Parkey took his failure and waived it in the face of the fans and his teammates. Sure, his teammates said all the right things in the locker room after the game, but if you don’t think they were suppressing their frustration in that locker room, you’re crazy. Guaranteed, his teammates were not pleased with his decision to go on the Today Show and you can’t think that Ryan Pace and the front office were pleased either.
Pace is going to have to eat a couple million and remove Parkey off the roster next year. Kicker continues to be an issue for the Bears. It wasn’t much of an issue when they were rebuilding, but now that the Bears’ are contenders, it’s not a position that can be ignored. Pace tried with Parkey, but it was the one move that didn’t work out this year, and unfortunately, it cost them their season.
Parkey wants to tell everyone that he loves his wife and he’s holding his head up, splendid. But the Bears better recognize that he needs to be holding his head up some place other than Soldier Field in 2019.