After 11 seasons as the most successful kicker in Bears history, Robbie Gould was asked to leave, unceremoniously replaced by journeyman Connor Barth on the eve of the regular season.
“They told me it was my performance,” Gould said Friday, recalling the reason he was given by Bears coach John Fox.
On Sunday at MetLife Stadium, it is possible Gould’s performance could send his floundering former team back to Chicago with a 2-8 record.
Considering the fact only one of the Giants’ nine games this season has been decided by more than seven points, the likelihood of the game being decided by a field goal is fairly high. And Gould, though he does not sound like the type to seek revenge, would love to be just the man to decide it with his right foot.
The Giants are 3-0 since they hurriedly signed Gould to replace Josh Brown, who was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list and then released after revelations of his domestic violence history.
“Hopefully this winning streak continues this week,” Gould said. “That would be nice.”
Gould, the all-time leading scorer (1,207 points) and most accurate kicker (85.4 percent) in the Bears’ history, has not had to do any heavy lifting so far for the Giants, with only one field goal and nine extra points — all of which he has made.
Gould was the Bears’ longest-tenured player and the only one remaining from their last Super Bowl appearance, but he was scheduled to make $2.9 million this season and Chicago clearly wanted to go cheaper at the position.
“If my performance wasn’t up to their caliber, then that was their choice,” he said. “I was kicking great, had a really good camp, kicking off well, kicking field goals great. It was just was a decision that they made. I didn’t know it was coming.
“Decisions get made all the time. Sometimes you’re just not in their plans moving forward and that’s OK. It’ll be fun to play against them on Sunday. It will be interesting to go out there and compete against guys you competed against in practice and developed relationships with. It’ll be like going against your brothers.’’
Gould said he turned down “a bunch of offers’’ before he got the call from the Giants.
“I was in a great position because I could wait for the perfect opportunity to get into a situation where I knew I could win and possibly win a Super Bowl and find a place I could stay for a little bit of time,” he said. “The biggest thing for me was I want to win a Super Bowl and play for a great organization and with the Giants everything fit that mold. So it was a really easy situation to say yes to.”