Robbie Gould is slipping a suit jacket over his NFC champion T-shirt, the one that proclaims: "One game. One dream." He's in a hurry to meet his parents, to hug someone, to get a grip on something he can't quite wrap his head around at the moment. "This isn't happening right now, you know what I mean?" he says, throwing various articles of clothing into bags, then pulling them out and then putting them in and pulling them out again. "I don't think I really understand it. I mean, we're going to the Super Bowl."
Three hours earlier he is standing on the soggy Soldier Field turf and practicing as he always does. But unlike most pregame practice routines, Gould is missing. Fairly badly. From 45 yards twice at the south end and way short from 50. Only a little better at the north end. "Yeah," he says afterward with a grin, "but those don't matter. If anything, it calmed me down." Before halftime he puts the Bears ahead 9-0 with field goals of 19, 43 and 24 yards. And with them, Gould ties the franchise record for most field goals made in a postseason game. He also sets an NFC championship game record for most field goals made in a half. "This isn't happening right now," he says after the Bears' 39-14 victory. "It's just a storybook ending to what has been a great playoff and it's not done by any means."
Just another week. And another game-winner... It was Monday, less than 24 hours after Gould's game-winning field goal against the Seattle Seahawks vault the Bears into the NFC championship and the Bears kicker still is coming down from the high. Behind him, a television in the Bears locker room flickers with the image of Gould racing around the field in celebration and he almost looks sheepish. What was going through his mind, someone asks? "I wasn't even thinking, I was just going nuts," he says. He is a little embarrassed at this. "I celebrated maybe a little too much on the game-winning kick," he says later, "but it was the biggest kick of my career and your adrenaline and your emotions kind of take over. It's one of those things where you try to live in the moment."
He does, however, have a hard time denying a few certain thrills. "One of the coolest phone calls (Sunday night) was from (Colts kicker and former Patriot) Adam Vinatieri (who kicked five field goals Sunday in the Colts' victory over San Diego) and the guys from the Patriots," he says. "I had a real close relationship with those guys and even in Baltimore, there were guys who called me." New England punter and kickoff man "Josh Miller called me and said, `I could tell you weren't too excited about making that kick.' Those guys are always giving you a hard time but at the same time, they're happy for you. Kickers all stick together."
