Robbie Gould is slipping a suit jacket over his NFC champion T-shirt, the one that proclaims: “One game. One dream.” He’s in a hurry to meet his parents, to hug someone, to get a grip on something he can’t quite wrap his head around at the moment.
“This isn’t happening right now, you know what I mean?” he says, throwing various articles of clothing into bags, then pulling them out and then putting them in and pulling them out again. “I don’t think I really understand it. I mean, we’re going to the Super Bowl.”
Three hours earlier he is standing on the soggy Soldier Field turf and practicing as he always does. But unlike most pregame practice routines, Gould is missing. Fairly badly. From 45 yards twice at the south end and way short from 50. Only a little better at the north end.
“Yeah,” he says afterward with a grin, “but those don’t matter. If anything, it calmed me down.”
Before halftime he puts the Bears ahead 9-0 with field goals of 19, 43 and 24 yards. And with them, Gould ties the franchise record for most field goals made in a postseason game. He also sets an NFC championship game record for most field goals made in a half.
“This isn’t happening right now,” he says after the Bears’ 39-14 victory. “It’s just a storybook ending to what has been a great playoff, and it’s not done by any means.”
Just another week.
And another game-winner
It is Monday, less than 24 hours after Gould’s game-winning field goal against the Seattle Seahawks vaulted the Bears into the NFC championship, and the Bears kicker still is coming down from the high.
Behind him, a television in the Bears locker room flickers with the image of Gould racing around the field in celebration and he almost looks sheepish. Someone asks what was going through his mind.
“I wasn’t even thinking; I was just going nuts,” he says.
He is a little embarrassed at this.
“I celebrated maybe a little too much on the game-winning kick,” he says later, “but it was the biggest kick of my career, and your adrenaline and your emotions kind of take over. It’s one of those things where you try to live in the moment.”
He does, however, have a hard time denying a few certain thrills.
“One of the coolest phone calls (Sunday night) was from (Colts kicker and former Patriot) Adam Vinatieri (who kicked five field goals last Sunday in the Colts’ victory over Baltimore) and the guys from the Patriots,” he says. “I had a real close relationship with those guys and even in Baltimore, there were guys who called me.”
New England punter and kickoff man “Josh Miller called me and said, `I could tell you weren’t too excited about making that kick.’ Those guys are always giving you a hard time, but they’re happy for you. Kickers all stick together.”
Gould is eager, however, to stop talking about last Sunday.
“Today’s the day we have to get back in the routine, back to business. . . . We have to get ready for New Orleans. It’s the biggest game of my career.”
Back to business
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In the Monday morning meeting with special-teams coordinator Dave Toub, Gould studies his kicks and finds fault even with his game-tying kick of 41 yards and the winner from 49.
“If anything, I was coming out of my kicks a little bit and falling off on it a little bit,” he says. “You’re in Chicago, you have to hit a lower ball, so to drive it, you try to get on top of it more.
“I’m a perfectionist, so I want everything to be perfect and if it’s not, I’m really hard on myself. I don’t think it’s a bad thing but, at times, I probably think about it a little bit too much.”
On the practice field behind Halas Hall, Gould kicks in the same direction as Soldier Field, north and south. But one thing he does not do is worry about the weather for Sunday.
“I never even look at the forecast,” he says. “You really don’t want to know so you don’t worry about it.”
A day off
Even this week, Gould still has time for his usual Tuesday appearances. He meets with Army Staff Sgt. Bryan Anderson of Rolling Meadows, who served in Iraq, and plays some table tennis with him before visiting a wellness event run by a friend.
“I do a lot of charity work, I enjoy it,” Gould says. “It makes for a long day but at the end of the day, it’s exciting for me.”
Gould has done charity work since high school and college at Penn State. Now he is eager to start his own foundation.
“I’ll have a lot of help from my agent and family and friends and hopefully get that put together this off-season,” he says. “A lot of it would be geared toward kids and young adults, help grant them opportunities to go to sporting camps they wouldn’t get a chance to go to. Really whatever they need.”
Gould does turn down one appearance Tuesday in which he was to meet Mayor Daley.
“You know the mayor of Chicago meets the mayor, supposedly, of the Bears (Gould’s nickname),” he says. “I think he’d be a great guy to meet. It was just too crazy this week.”
One of the guys
The son of a professional soccer player, Gould was a solid college kicker but undrafted. New England and Baltimore cut him, and he spent a couple of weeks working construction for a family friend before coming to the Bears in October 2005. Gould’s story is well known.
His humble roots make him a perfect fit for his position and an easy fit in the locker room. The night of the victory over the Seahawks, long snapper Pat Mannelly gets together a group to go to Timmy O’Toole’s and the Bears get a rousing ovation when they walk into the restaurant. As usual, however, Gould’s teammates tease him, making sure his success doesn’t go to his head.
Gould is comfortable with his role, and well he should be as the NFL leader with 143 points this season.
“When you get an opportunity, you don’t have to tell the guys what you’re going to do,” he says. “You gain respect from your peers and people within your profession simply by the job you do on the field.”
The details
Gould plans on “vegging out” and catching some “American Idol,” which he doesn’t end up doing Wednesday night,
“The excitement I have right now is through the roof,” he says.
On Thursday, in cold and windy conditions in Lake Forest, Gould goes through his usual routine, but the overtime kicks at the end of every practice are his favorite part.
“But really for me, whether it’s an extra point or a 49-yarder, it’s the game-winning point,” he says. “Every kick has to count. . . . When you have that mentality, you’re going to make a lot of kicks.”
On last Sunday’s game-winner, like every other, Gould explains, he picks a spot–this time behind the right upright–and uses that as his target.
“It has to be something that sticks out, whether it’s a sign or a person wearing an orange hat,” he says. “There’s a guy in the end zone that usually has a target [sign], so if we can kick down the middle, I use that as my target.”
Game time
Gould barely sleeps the night before the game.
“I was just a little anxious,” he says. “I was ready to get after it the whole week.”
When his teammates see the weather–a cold, wintry mix–most love it. And Gould?
“As long as there’s not a lot of wind, then a kicker really doesn’t get too upset about it,” he says.
Afterward he can’t be upset about a thing. Another 3-for-3 day, 13 of the Bears’ 39 points. He runs over to his parents in the first row of the stands. He dresses in a daze, unable to recall much of the scene afterward on the field or in the locker room.
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“It’s just a storybook ending to what has been a great playoff, and it’s not done by any means,” he says. “It can get better. We want to go down to Miami and win it. That’s our No. 1 goal. The Pro Bowl and everything is great, but I’d rather win the Super Bowl. It has been a magical ride, a great ride, and it’s not done.”
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