What is a scapegoat? According to the dictionary, it is “a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of convenience.” In other words, one person is rather unfairly blamed for wider issues of a group. So it was interesting when Cody Parkey was the choice of the biggest scapegoat of the 2010s for the Chicago Bears.
Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report plucked what seemed to be an obvious low-hanging fruit for this one.
“It’s amazing just how much a single play can seem to cause things to fall apart. Less than two years ago, the Chicago Bears were NFC North champions, Matt Nagy was Coach of the Year, and Mitchell Trubisky appeared to be on his way to becoming a franchise signal-caller.
Now, Nagy is on the hot seat, Trubisky faces competition from Nick Foles, and the Bears may be a few losses from blowing everything up. Everything changed with Cody Parkey’s missed 43-yard field goal in the playoffs.
Parkey’s miss came with just 10 seconds remaining in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Wild Card Weekend. It would have given the Bears an 18-16 lead. Instead, the defense got a piece of the kick, and the ball bounced off the left upright. Philadelphia won but then lost to the New Orleans Saints in the divisional round.
It was Parkey’s 11th missed kick of the season—and sparked a heavily followed offseason kicking competition.”
Except here’s the thing. Parkey was not a scapegoat.
The treatment he received was perfectly fair. While most people remember that playoff game as the one he cost the Bears most, it wasn’t the first. Back in October of that year, he missed what would’ve been a game-winning 53-yard field goal that cost them the game. That game ended up costing the Bears a first round bye in the playoffs, setting up their fateful meeting with the Eagles. So in addition to having a terrible year overall, he directly cost them two games that led to their early exit from the postseason.
He was not a scapegoat.
There are better choices than Cody Parkey for biggest 2010s scapegoat
Remember that a scapegoat is somebody who gets blamed unfairly for a team’s demise. There are far better examples than Parkey. Jay Cutler is a big one. The former Bears quarterback was railroaded by critics during the NFC championship game back in January 2011. This due to what turned out to be a slight tear of his MCL. Chicago lost the game 21-14 to the Packers and he was blamed for it.
Nobody talked enough about the atrocious blocking he had to stand behind. Blocking that failed to establish any sort of group game to take some of the heat off him.
Then of course there is Chris Conte.
Everybody holds him responsible for giving up that fateful Hail Mary TD on 4th and 8 in 2018 to Randall Cobb that cost the Bears the division title. It was a busted coverage and so naturally he was blamed for it and basically got run out of town. Later it was revealed though that this happened because nobody signaled him that the play had been changed to an all-out blitz. Something that would’ve told him to carry Cobb deep instead of sitting shallow as he did.
Not enough people talk about James Anderson failing to recognize Aaron Rodgers fumbled in the 2nd quarter, permitting Jarrett Boykin to recover it and run in for a touchdown. Or how about Alshon Jeffery dropping a 1st down on 3rd and 17 the drive before the final sequence? One that would’ve put the Bears in chip shot field goal range to extend their lead to eight at least and a chance to put it away with a touchdown.
Those two guys are way better scapegoat options than Parkey. The kicker dug his own grave over the course of that season.