Robbie Gould attended the Chicago Bears’ playoff game Sunday at Soldier Field.
The Bears could have used him on the field, rather than watching from a suite with two of his boys.
Chicago kicker Cody Parkey missed a 43-yard field-goal attempt in the closing seconds when his kick bounced off the left upright and then the crossbar to secure the Philadelphia Eagles’ 16-15 victory over the Bears in an NFC wild-card round game. The kick appeared to be tipped at the line of scrimmage.
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Parkey immediately came under fire from Bears fans. Chicago won the NFC North with a 12-4 record, but the missed kick guaranteed an early exit from the playoffs.
Parkey this season struggled with the Bears, his fourth NFL team in five seasons. He made just 23 of 30 field-goal attempts while also missing three extra-point tries. But Parkey signed a four-year, $15 million contract with the Bears last year. He is guaranteed $3.5 million from the Bears next season.
Meanwhile, Gould, who's 36 and a 14-year NFL veteran, had the highest accuracy percentage of his career this season with the 49ers, who signed him to a two-year, $4 million contract on the first day of free agency in 2017.
Gould is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent, and he's likely to be popular target among Bears fans. He played the first 11 seasons of his career in Chicago before the Bears released him in 2016. The 49ers have sole negotiating rights with Gould until March 11.
San Francisco 49ers
Gould, who has made 72 of 75 field-goal tries in two years with the 49ers, lived in the Bay Area this season while his wife, Lauren, and their three boys remained at the family’s permanent home in Chicago.
“My wife and I decided this year because my deal is up at the end of this year that we wanted them to have normalcy,” Gould said late in the season on the 49ers Insider Podcast.
Gould was the 49ers’ nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. On the field, he was nearly perfect, making 33 of his 34 field-goal attempts (97.1 percent).
He ranks No. 2 in NFL history in field-goal accuracy at 87.7 percent, behind only Baltimore’s Justin Tucker (90.1 percent).