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Veteran Bears kicker Robbie Gould passionately defended quarterback Jay Cutler on the radio Monday and was critical of the dysfunction that’s occurred this season under coach Marc Trestman.
Gould, who also said his right quadriceps injury will sideline him for Sunday's road game against the Vikings, questioned whatever message Trestman tried to send to his players with his decision last week to sit Cutler.
“To be honest with you, I feel really bad for Jay,” Gould said on The Speigel and Mannelly Show on WSCR-AM 670. “When you’re having a tough season like this, he’s not the guy to be the scapegoat or the guy to blame. There’s a lot of guys you could put that blame on. Unfortunately, I don’t know if necessarily he’s a guy that should take the entire blame because he doesn’t deserve it.
Host Pat Mannelly, who was the Bears long snapper for 16 seasons before retiring in June, asked Gould whether Trestman was trying to send the team or Cutler a message by benching Cutler.
“I honestly don’t even know what the message is, Pat, to be honest with you,” Gould said. “I just think it’s been a long season. I think he thought maybe he thought this was going to provide a spark to the team. That’s what he told us. I wish Jay was out there playing.”
When host Matt Speigel pressed Gould about Trestman benching Cutler without holding other players similarly accountable earlier in this season, Gould broadened the discussion to the dysfunction that has crippled the Bears in Trestman’s second season.
“You could bench the whole team,” he said. “It’s not like anybody has really played fantastic or great. I mean, we’re 5-10 now. So ... Jay is not the problem. Jay is not the issue. It’s just unfortunate. This is, honestly, it’s not the Bear way. I mean, this whole season is not the Bear way. Pointing fingers, things getting out of the locker room -- that’s not the Chicago Bear way.
“I think, for me, being around the organization for, now, 10 years, seeing guys like Charles Tillman and Lance Briggs, who most likely have walked through the tunnel for the last time, it’s tough because we weren’t taught this way under Lovie (Smith, former head coach). We weren’t taught to do these sort of things and we always stayed together as close-knit as we possibly could. You don’t have to like everyone. You don’t need to like everyone. But you have to respect them and show up to work and go to work every day for those people. So I think it’s very difficult because, honestly, this isn’t the Chicago Bear way.”
As for his injury, Gould said his right quadriceps did not respond well to a kicking session Friday. He will have missed the final four games of the season.
"It’s still re-aggravated or sore, however you want to put it," he said. "It won’t allow me to kick the last week of the season, and that’s been disappointing for me because these are the times that you really want to be on the field. You want to be there with the young guys teaching the young guys."
_________________ FavreFan wrote: Im pretty hammered right now.
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