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SPORTS ILLUSTRATED AUGUS T 26–SEP TEM
BER 2, 2019
this way: “All the vibes they gave us just did not seem
positive whatsoever. It didn’t seem like anyone did well.”
There is also a scapegoating aspect at work. Specifi-
cally, before its ill-fated path to the left upright, Parkey’s
kick was tipped by defensive tackle Treyvon Hester, part
of an Eagles surge that overwhelmed the Bears. More
broadly, it was another rough game for Chicago’s offense
in a season of up-and-down performances. Second-
year quarterback Mitchell Trubisky’s near-disastrous
first-half performance was overshadowed by a heroic
throw to set up Parkey’s attempt. But the game never
should have come down to a last-second, do-or-die kick.
After practice wrapped on Sunday, none of the tryout
kickers were asked to meet with the front office staff to
sign a contract before they left. Baron and Jones were
cut. The group was told that three would survive, but
just two made it out of elimination: Fry and Blewitt.
Tabor made a call to the Saints to recommend Kjell-
sten, a Louisiana native, for their rookie minicamp.
When Kjellsten arrived in New Orleans the following
weekend, he was pleasantly surprised to see he was
one of only four kickers. It was back to anonymity.
“That Chicago experience really helped me,” he says.
“No nerves at all.”
T WO YOUNG boys, maybe around nine years old,
sit on the grass just behind the right corner of
the end zone, underneath a taut yellow rope that sepa-
rates the 8,000 or so training camp fans from the prac-
tice field. They clap as fan favorites Khalil Mack and
Tarik Cohen take their spots for drills. But the two
players that interest them the most aren’t in sight.
“Hey, do you want to go watch the kickers?” one
says. With that, they scurry off to one of the back fields.
While many assume Parkey’s appearance on the To d a y
show one week later sealed his fate, Chicago’s front of-
fice knew after the double-doink that they would have
to cut him. But several sources active in the kicking
“All of Jamie’s guys, they could have shanked the
kick, and it was like, Oh, you have really good rotation,
your foot is wrapping around the ball,” says one kicker
who was cut after rookie camp. “I don’t think this situ-
ation will be solved or will be what the team needs to
be until Jamie Kohl is gone.” (Kohl originally agreed
to an interview for this story, but hours later said, after
discussing the request with the Bears, he would defer to
Nagy and Tabor for all comments regarding the kicker
search. During a general press availability at veteran
minicamp, Nagy admitted, in regards to kicking, “I just
know you either make it, or you miss it. That’s what
I work off of.” The Bears declined multiple interview
requests for Nagy and Tabor. They responded only par-
tially to an emailed list of questions and did not address
criticisms of Kohl and the process of the competition.)
NAGY HAS a stable of pithy mottoes he trots out
to his team: Be you. We’re chasing great. It’s a we
thing, not a me thing. He spent the spring and early
summer trotting out a new one: Remember the hurt.
But at what point does owning up to a mistake from
the past morph into a counterproductive obsession?
Kickers are complicated creatures. Teams want to test
them in pressure situations in practice to know how
they will respond in games, but it’s a thin line between
that and setting them up for failure.
“You’re creating a negative situation; just move on,”
says former kicker Jay Feely, who was once spoofed
by SNL after missing three field goals in a 2005 game
for the Giants. He went on to be a reliable kicker for
another eight seasons after that. “You wouldn’t sign a
quarterback and have him throw [the same pass at the
same yardage repeatedly in practice] because the last
guy threw an interception.”
Adds Yoon, “It’s not efficient for the team to continu-
ously beat that one dead horse the whole time. You have
to build a system of confidence for your kicker.”
One kicker who requested anonymity summed it up
Cut on
March 13
No contract after
rookie minicamp
Cut after rookie
minicamp
Cut after rookie
minicamp
No contract after
rookie minicamp
THE 11 KICKERS IN
BEARS CAMP SINCE
LAST SEASON
JEFF H
AYNES (PARKEY, PINEIRO IN ACTIO
N); GEO
RGE W
ALKER/ICO
N SPO
RTSW
IRE/GETTY IM
AGES (JO
NES, BARO
N); KEITH
GILLETT/ICO
N SPO
RTSW
IRE/GETTY IM
AGES (CARPEN
TER); RO
BIN ALAM
/ICO
N SPO
RTSW
IRE/GETTY IM
AGES (EVANS); RO
NALD
MARTINEZ/GETTY IM
AGES (YO
ON); M
CNEESE STATE UNIVERSITY ATH
LETICS (KJELLSTEN); M
INNESOTA STATE M
ANAKATO
ATH
LETICS (BEDN
ARSKI); JUSTIN K. ALLER/GETTY IM
AGES (BLEW
ITT); NU
CCIO DINUZZO/GETTY IM
AGES (FRY, PINEIRO)
