© Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
Former Bears kicker Kevin Butler is talking as if Robbie Gould has never kicked in Chicago.
Gould played in Chicago for the first 11 years of his career. He is the organization’s all-time leading scorer, a title formerly held by Butler.
Gould has not signed the franchise tender after the 49ers used their franchise tag, which would pay him nearly $5 million, on the veteran kicker. By all accounts, that’s because Gould wants to return to Chicago, where his family resides.
“The bottomline is, I’m unsure if I want to play there anymore,” Gould told ESPN’s Adam Schefter last month. “At this point, I have to do what’s best for me and my family back home.”
Butler, Chicago’s kicker during its Super Bowl XX win, has some advice for Gould.
“I’ve always said it to Robbie, be careful what you wish for sometimes, because it’s not easy to kick in Chicago,” Butler said on ESPN 1000’s Waddle and Silvy Show Tuesday. “It’s certainly not easy to kick in San Francisco, but he’s found a situation out there where he’s been as good as there is. Can you duplicate that by coming back to Chicago? I don’t know. … It’s a scary thing to mess with your legacy.”
The 49ers, at least for now, won’t grant Gould’s trade request. Why would they? In his two years with the 49ers, Gould connected on 72 of 75 field goal attempts, the most accurate two-year stretch for a kicker with at least 50 attempts in NFL history.
Butler said Gould will have to continue that success in Chicago if he expects his return to go well.
“It’s not like you’re going to get back there in Chicago and you’ll be hugging all these guys,” Butler said. “You still have to perform. He’s performing at a level that he’s never done before. It’s broke in Chicago and they need to fix it. Robbie is certainly not broke in San Francisco.”
