Robbie Gould, one of the greatest kickers in Bears history, is retiring.
The 41-year-old last kicked for the 49ers last season. The Penn State alum kicked for the Bears from 2005 to 2015, making 276 of 323 field goals and all but four extra points.
After being a surprise cut at the end of training camp in 2016, Gould kicked for the Giants that season and for the 49ers from 2017 to 2022. He led the league in field goals made in 2017 and field-goal percentage in 2018. He made two field goals in the Super Bowl at the end of the 2020 season.
In 2017, he returned to Soldier Field as a member of the 49ers and made five field goals to beat his former team 15-14.
With the Bears, Gould made a 49-yard field goal in overtime to beat the Seahawks in the divisional round of the playoffs at the end of the 2016 season. He booted three field goals in the Bears’ 39-14 NFC Championship Game win against the Saints and one in their Super Bowl loss to the Colts.
Gould never missed a postseason kick, making all 29 field goals and 39 extra points.
“Great competitor,” said Bears special-teams coordinator Richard Hightower, who coached Gould briefly in Chicago and then in San Francisco. “Clutch in big moments, when we needed him to be. Consistent. Just everybody knows he’s the all-time Bears leading scorer and means a lot to the city of Chicago. And just want to congratulate him on a hell of a career. He has done an outstanding job.
“Wishing him the best in the next phase of his life. And I know if he attacks that the way he attacked his career, he’s going to be super-successful at that, as well.”
Gould returned to the Chicago area and has been raising his three boys — aged 10, 8 and 5 — here. He has dabbled in sports-talk radio work in recent months and is an avowed golf nut.
He has maintained an affinity for the Bears; he was in the stands as a fan when Cody Parkey double-doinked the potential game-winner in January 2019.
“In addition to how much I loved playing for that team and its fans, the city of Chicago became my home,” Gould wrote Thursday in The Players Tribune. “It’s where I met my wife, and we’ve raised our three boys there. The nostalgia I feel for that wonderful city — the connection — makes it hard to imagine living life with my family anywhere else.”
Gould holds the Bears’ franchise record for field goals made. He made 85.4% of them, which ranks second in team history behind current kicker Cairo Santos.
