The NFL can be a very cruel sport, especially for its own players. In the NFL, unlike baseball, player contracts are not guaranteed. So imagine being a young player that has outperformed your contract, then you finally hit free agency and get paid as you deserved. Then you have a down first year playing under that deal, and the next season just a couple games in you tear an ACL. The team is in a pickle and up against the salary cap, so they cut you and essentially wipe you deal off their books. The worst bit, you are no longer paid. Now say you catch on with another team, signing a one-year deal for much less than you were getting, you play well and earn another opportunity with another team. Three games into that deal you rupture your knee and they cut you after the season, and you’re not given a chance again.
Sure, in that scenario the player may have banked for a couple of years, but because of injury, you lost out on millions of more dollars. Maybe you are still skilled enough to be on an NFL roster, but once you really leave the bubble, you’re not likely to get another opportunity. I’m certain there aren’t a lot of fans crying over the career choice of a likely millionaire, but similar scenarios like this happen on every team’s roster, every offseason.
So what does this have to do with Mitch Trubisky and Cody Parkey?
Well, as I mentioned, football isn’t fair. In 2018, it wasn’t fair that the Chicago Bears had a championship-caliber team in every aspect outside their kicker. What’s more, it seemed as if this club would be able to hang for two or three seasons with the talent that was on the roster and the coaching staff on the bench.
That team would impressively finish 12-4 in the regular season, won the NFC North pretty impressively, and was pegged as many as a Super Bowl favorite. In the NFC playoffs, playing the Philadelphia Eagles, the Bears were trailing going into the last could minutes of the game. Trubisky was in the middle of an impressive second half and had the Bears driving with time running off the clock. Trubisky would take the offense to the Eagles’ 25-yard-line. Coach Matt Nagy called upon Cody Parkey with seconds remaining on the clock to win the game.
In week three, playing the Arizona Cardinals, the Bears were losing 14-0 after the Cardinals second possession in the second half. The Bears would put together a nice offensive drive, and then their defense turned the heat up. With the score 14-13, in favor of the Cardinals, Parkey would hit a 43-yeard field goal to take the lead as time was dwindling down. The defense continued to be staunch and didn’t allow the Cardinals to get past their 35-yard line. Parkey’s kick was the deciding factor in the game.
In the playoffs, Parkey missed that same 43-yard field goal and the Bears would go home early, losing to the Eagles 16-15.
“It’s one of the worst feelings in the world to let your team down,” Parkey said after the game. “I feel terrible. Continue to put things into perspective, continue to just put my best foot forward and just sleep at night knowing that I did everything in my power this week to make that kick and for whatever reason it hit the crossbar and the upright.”
Had the Bears won that game, they would have faced the New Orleans Saints. While the Saints were third in the league in scoring (31.5) the Bears had previously shut down the Los Angeles Rams who were second in football, scoring 32.9 points per game. Most pundits had already believed the Bears would beat the Saints, and would meet with the New England Patriots or Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
The Bears need to make a decision on Mitch Trubisky’s fifth-year option by Monday, May 4th. In the NFL, rookies drafted in the first-round are guaranteed a four-year deal and their team is given the option to pick-up the fifth year of that deal. The decision on that fifth-year needs to be made after the third season, but before the fourth season. So when teams are picking up that fifth-year option, there can be a bit of a leap-of-faith with some players.
The Bears have been wishy-washy on the fifth-year option on Trubisky’s deal. After the 2019 season concluded, the consensus was that the Bears would pick up that option. As the months progressed there were several conflicting reports. Then the Bears acquired Nick Foles, the very quarterback that beat them in the 2018 playoffs. As recently as the week of April 26th there were reports that the Bears were not picking up that fifth-year option, the biggest of which was from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, and when he says it, it’s likely true.
Bears haven’t made any official announcement on whether they will pick up QB Mitchell Trubisky’s fifth-year option, but people around the league believe they will not. Should the Bears pick up Trubiksky’s option, the salary projects to be over $24 million.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 25, 2020
Imagine fast-forwarding a couple of years after a potential Super Bowl appearance, and maybe win, and the Bears suggesting that they do not pick-up a fifth-year option on a QB that led them there? What about a QB that led the Bears to an NFC Championship game? Or orchestrated a fourth-quarter comeback against the Eagles in the playoffs? Even if you believe the defense carried him. Even if he came back and had his 2019 season. When a young QB takes you deep into the playoffs, to an NFC Championship game, or to a Super Bowl, (and possibly) winning a championship, you keep that cat around.
So, yeah, Parkey’s kick sucked for the Bears franchise. It sucked for the fans. It sucked for the NFL, as it is always a good thing for a league to have Chicago relevant in whichever sport we’re talking about. But, among all else, that kick just might suck the hardest for Mitch Trubisky as he just might be out $24.8 million because that kick didn’t go through the uprights.
No one will feel very sorry for a guy that will have made $29 million in four years and whether he earns another $25 million from the Bears. But this is just another potential example of how the NFL just ain’t fair.
