Sports Illustrated USA – August 26, 2019

49

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED AUGUS T 26–SEP TEM

BER 2, 2019

community say Parkey is better than anyone the Bears

brought in this offseason. He is currently home, in

Jupiter, Fla., playing golf and staying in shape. Parkey

did not respond to calls or texts, and through his agent

declined an interview request.

The day after rookie minicamp, Chicago sent a con-

ditional 2021 seventh-round draft pick to the Raiders

for Eddy Pineiro, who played in one preseason game

as a rookie last season before spending 2018 on injured

reserve. Blewitt didn’t make it out of veteran minicamp.

He was cut the day after all three kickers missed a

42-yard try under Augusta silence.

Nagy continued to show the double-doink during

team meetings in OTAs and veteran mini camp. At

training camp, Augusta silence was gone due to the fans

in attendance, but there was a new experiment. Fry and

Pineiro started camp by alternating days. If the kicker

performed well during practice, he earned “dealer’s

choice”—the right to name the distance for his final

attempt of the day. On Fry’s day he drilled a 60-yarder.

On Pineiro’s, he lined up from 63—and made it. With

that, the crowd broke into chants of “Ed-DEE! Ed-DEE!”

WITH THREE seconds left in the first half of the

preseason opener, the Bears found themselves

at Carolina’s 25-yard line. Fry trotted out, setting up

facing the north end zone goalposts, 43 yards away.

Right on cue, Panthers coach Ron Rivera called a

timeout. (He revealed later that he iced Fry as a favor

to the Bears.) Fry nailed it. He said he tried to treat it

like any other kick, but “obviously that number has

been ingrained into my memory.”

The good times didn’t last for Fry.

After pulling a 47-yard attempt in

the second preseason game, he was

waived. The Bears like how Pineiro’s

powerful leg projects in an NFC

North winter—December includes

two games at Soldier Field and one

in Green Bay. Snow would be new

for the Miami native and University

of Florida product, but he is the last

man standing. For now. After the preseason opener, Chi-

cago reportedly tried to acquire Baltimore kicker-punter

Kaare Vedvik. (He was dealt to the Vikings instead.)

There’s likely to be a pressure kick during the Bears’

2019 season, whether it’s Pineiro or a kicker to be de-

termined attempting it. As for the process that brings

them to that kicker—the process those four specialists

were trying to make sense of in an airport Chili’s—think

of it this way: Two kickers, a holder and a long snapper

walked into a bar. If Chicago lines up for a pressure

kick in January, we’ll find out whether that’s the setup

for another bad joke. ±

No contract after

rookie minicamp

No contract after
rookie minicamp

Cut after

preseason Week 2

EDDY PINEIRO

Acquired from

Oakland on May 6

No contract after

rookie minicamp

Cut during veteran

minicamp

STILL KICKING

Pineiro is

the last man

standing,

despite opening

the preseason

with a miss.