Robbie Gould isn’t leaving Chicago after all.
Wednesday was a dark day for Chicago Bears Twitter.
While the Bears continue to set up a massive kicking competition to see who will be sending balls through the uprights this September for the Bears, Bears’ fans everywhere are still hoping Robbie Gould finds his way back to the Windy City.
Gould has talked about how much he loves Chicago and that his family lives here year round, no matter where he’s kicking. Coming back to the Bears is an obvious fit for Gould.
But when this news arose, fans began to panic.
Obviously, that seems like plenty of alarm bells that Gould is no longer going to be keeping his family based in Chicago, but as it turns out, this panic was all about nothing.
Gould’s family isn’t leaving the Chicago area, they are simply changing homes.
Gould was a guest of Zach Zaidman’s on 670 The Score in Chicago back in February. At the tail end of the interview, Zaidman asked Gould, “Will Chicago always be the home base?”
Gould’s response?
“Always. I’m building a house here and it’ll be done in a couple months. Chicago is my full-time home.”
He also finished the interview with, “Once a Bear, always a Bear.”
Gould’s heart is in Chicago and it’s clearly where he wants to be, but of course, we still have no idea if Ryan Pace is at all interested in bringing Gould back here.
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We know Gould is playing hardball with the San Francisco 49ers and have told them he will no longer negotiate a long-term deal with them.
But the bottom line right now is that 49ers have the franchise tag on Gould and as long as that’s there, Gould can’t go anywhere.
Rescinding the tag does the 49ers no good. They have another kicker on their roster, so if they are fine with the idea of having Jonathan Brown be their kicker while Gould holds out and jettisoning him whether Gould signs the tag in August or October, John Lynch could play it out that way.
At this point, would the 49ers trade him for anything they could get? Would a seventh round pick entice them to end this headache? It might at this point. Lynch has to know he’s not going to get a fourth or fifth round pick.
It’ll be curious to see how the 49ers play this out, but as of right now, the Bears are focused on the eight (yes, eight) kickers they have and hoping one emerges as a clear-cut favorite to win the job in Chicago.
The chance for Gould still probably exists to a degree, but Bears’ fans shouldn’t hold their breath.