CHICAGO — Cody Parkey was kicking himself after Eagles 16, Bears 15.
“You can’t make this up,” Parkey said. “I feel terrible. I let the team down. It’s on me. I have to own it. I have to be a man.”
Parkey’s 43-yard field-goal attempt with 10 seconds left that hit the left upright and goalpost cost the Bears their season.
“I thought I hit a great ball,” Parkey said. “One hundred percent that loss is on me. It is what it is. Sun is going to shine tomorrow. Life’s going to go on. Unfortunately, it’s going to sting for a while.”
That Treyvon Hester appeared to get his left hand on the kick was of no consolation to Parkey.
“I’m going to continue to put things into perspective,” Parkey said. “Continue to put my best foot forward and sleep at night knowing that I did everything in my power this week to make that kick. For whatever reason, it hit the crossbar and the upright. I still couldn’t do it. Yeah, I feel terrible.”
The wind was blowing left to right.
“Trying to play the wind,” Parkey said.
He had made the kick on his first try but only after Doug Pederson had called a timeout.
“I heard the whistle,” Parkey said. “I knew it was a practice kick. I struck a good ball. Unfortunately, I can’t make this up, I hit the post, what, six times this year, and I hit it twice on that one.”
Asked if he thought about being iced, Parkey said: “I don’t really think about that.”
Of course his teammates consoled him. “I just told him, ‘Dude, you had half our points today,’ ” Kyle Long said. “I can’t imagine what he’s going through.”
A number of outraged Bears fans took to Twitter to express their anger at Parkey, with some going so far as to threaten his life and family, however facetiously.
Bears tackle Charles Leno had a curt message for those fans when asked by NBC Sports Chicago about the hate directed at the kicker.
“What would my message be? F–k you,” Leno said. “You’re not in our position. You don’t know how hard this s- -t is.”
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