Robbie Gould Injury: Bears Kicker To Miss Rest Of Season

Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould will miss the rest of the season after injuring his left calf.

According to Fox News, Gould suffered the injury in pregame warmups before Sunday’s 21-14 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Though he was able to connect on pair of extra points in the game, he did not attempt a field goal and was replaced by punter Adam Podlesh for kickoffs.

ESPN reports that the Bears placed Gould on the season-ending injured reserve on Tuesday and signed NFL veteran kicker Olindo Mare to replace him.

“The injury put us in a situation where we didn’t know exactly when I could come back, so the decision was made to put me on injured reserve and bring in another experienced kicker,” Gould told ESPN. “That was the best call for the team. I spoke with Lovie Smith and Phil Emery about it, and we were all on the same page. Whatever can help this team win a Super Bowl, that’s what I want to see happen. These guys are working too hard for me to be selfish about this whole thing. It’s tough for me personally, but for the team, that’s the decision that had to be made.”

Gould, the Bears’ kicker since 2005, is the fifth-most accurate field goal kicker among active NFL kickers with a percentage of 85.597.

His steadiness — he has made 208-for-243 field-goal attempts over the course of his career and hasn’t missed a game since 2005 — has been one of the Bears’ most consistent features under Lovie Smith.

As for Gould’s replacement, Olindo Mare, the 15-year NFL vet has spent time kicking for a number of teams, including the Dolphins (1997-06), Saints (2007), Seahawks (2008-10) and Panthers (2011).

Mare has made 350 of 431 field-goal attempts (81.2 percent) in his career.