Cody Parkey's double-doink miss in the playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles was officially changed to a block by Treyvon Hester after the defensive tackle got a fingertip on the ball.
"That's our guy," said defensive tackle Akiem Hicks, via the team's official website. "I'm going to ride with my guy. If you have that 'C' on your helmet, I'm going to ride with you to the end. I don't care what happens on the field. We are together, that's it."
Added guard Kyle Long: "I just told him, 'Dude, you had half our points today. I can't even imagine what he's going through. It's a tough job, it's a really tough job. I just wanted to make sure he understood that we all had his back and I think every guy in here did the same thing I did. I feel for Cody. At the end of the day, it's a team thing. We lost as a team. We win as a team. we lose as a team. We could have done better in a lot of areas."
Long hit the nail on the head. The missed kick overshadowed an offense that was bottled up by a heretofore porous Eagles secondary until the final quarter and a defense that couldn't get Nick Foles off the field with the game on the line.
Even though the loss was on the entire team, Parkey's future remains up in the air.
The 26-year-old kicker missed seven field goals during the regular season and three extra points, including hitting the upright four times (two field goals and two extra points) in a Week 10 victory over Detroit. Counting Sunday's double-doink, Parkey hit the upright six times during the 2018 campaign.
"To make a joke of it, hitting the upright, it takes some accuracy," corner Prince Amukamara said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. "He's been hitting the upright. We know he wants to make it. I think I heard the ball was tipped. For whatever reason, it didn't go in."
After signing a four-year $15 million contract this offseason, the Bears would take a dead money hit of $5.188 million by cutting Parkey, and get zero salary cap relief, with no guarantees the next kicker would be any better.
Whether Parkey will get another chance to kick in Chicago will be a decision for general manager Ryan Pace this offseason.
"Gosh," Amukamara said Monday, "I'm definitely glad I'm not the one making that decision."
