With everything he had to go through to win the job, Eddy Pineiro isn’t going to let something like a pinched nerve in his leg keep him off the field.
But he also pushed through some mental hurdles as well as the physical last night.
Via J.J. Stankevitz of NBCSportsChicago.com, the Bears kicker said he could feel the pain, but kicked anyway.
“I felt it in every kick,” Pineiro said. “I gotta muscle through it. A lot of people play with pain. I’m not the only one that plays with pain.”
He is the only one in the bright spotlight that is his role, however, so he either has to be well enough to perform or not. The Bears held off bringing another kicker in, waiting until Monday to decide not to this week. But after getting hurt in the weight room Friday, he was able to come back.
Pineiro also missed his first field goal of the season, a 44-yarder in the third quarter. He came back to hit another, and was successful on all four of his PATs.
“I give him credit for fighting through that and fighting through the pain,” Bears coach Matt Nagy said. “He did his job and then hit that big field goal at the end. . . .
“Kickers, unless they have something nagging that’s going on, they’re not getting banged up every game like these other guys are where they have body ailments that they gotta take care of throughout the week. So when something comes up like that and you’re in a little pain, you gotta fight through it.”
If he can’t, the circus music will start again, and a clown car full of kickers may again roll into their facility for workouts.
