The 2013 season could best be called the disintegration of the Chicago Bears as people had known them for almost a decade. Lovie Smith had been fired earlier that year, replaced by Marc Trestman. With him came a new breath of fresh air on offense, which was good. It also brought a frightening lack of discipline, which wasn’t so good. Devin Hester and Robbie Gould, unbeknownst to the fans showed just how much.
Before long that year, cracks began to show. The defense was a shell of what it once was. New personalities were taking over the locker room and the old core was starting to get phased out. It’s no surprise the team saw a mass exodus of established veterans after that year including Julius Peppers, Lance Briggs, and Charles Tillman. Gould and Hester, the pillars of what was once the best special teams unit in the NFL, began to feel the strain.
Both started out that season well. Hester was still effective on returns and Gould was perfect on field goals. However, according to former teammate Earl Bennett, both were starting to get on each other’s nerves. Things came to a head after back-to-back losses against the Lions and Saints. Before taking the field against the New York Giants in Chicago, they finally had a heated confrontation.
“Robbie did not like when Devin refused to run up FAR and fair catch balls. Devin did not like it when Robbie missed field goals or kicked kickoffs short. So, when one guy says something to the other, prepare for a faceoff. Two of the top guys on the team face to face in an epic argument that could lead to a battle royale.
The argument was relatively short, and guys stepped in, but you could see there was no backing down from either guy. Robbie stood his ground as Devin was being pushed away by teammates. Knowing both guys combative nature, I can only wonder who would have won the fight.”
Devin Hester and Robbie Gould were never the same
It sounds crazy, but that fight pretty much put everything out in the open. It broke the aura of invincibility for both players. Before that confrontation, Gould had connected on 86.2% of his kicks. After it, something seems to snap in his head. From the next week through to his final game with the Bears in 2015, that number dropped to 82.9%. That snipe about missing field goals even haunted them later in the year when Gould missed two of them in Minnesota, costing them the game in a 23-20 loss.
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Hester had a fumble in that game against the Giants and would have three more over the course of that season. This no doubt contributed to him being let go in 2014 despite still being a highly effective returner. People will say that sometimes getting grievances out in the open helps clear the air between teammates. This isn’t always the case though. Sometimes it can merely be confirmation that the core has rotted away and the infection has spread too far to fix.
