It was the sound that launched a thousand memes and broke an entire city's heart. Most NFL fans remember where they were on January 6, 2019. It was a freezing night in Chicago. The air felt heavy, the way it only does when a 12-4 season—the best the Bears had seen in over a decade—is hanging by a literal thread. Then came the kick.
Cody Parkey, the bears double doink kicker, stepped onto the turf with ten seconds left. 43 yards. In the world of professional football, that’s supposed to be a standard business transaction. But for the 2018 Chicago Bears, nothing was ever simple when it came to the uprights.
The Physics of a Heartbreak
Let’s be real for a second: the odds of hitting the upright and the crossbar on the same play are astronomical. If you asked Parkey to do it again on purpose, he couldn't.
When the ball left his foot, it looked good. For a split second, Soldier Field held its breath. Then came the first "doink"—the ball clanged off the left upright. But it didn't just bounce away. It took a wicked, physics-defying redirection toward the crossbar. Doink. The second hit sent the ball tumbling backward, landing uselessly in the end zone.
Cris Collinsworth, calling the game for NBC, gave the moment its permanent name: "The Bears' season's gonna end on a double doink."
But here is the detail people often forget. It wasn't just a bad kick. A day later, the NFL officially changed the stat to a blocked kick. Look at the slow-motion replay again. Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Treyvon Hester got a fingertip on the ball. Just one finger. That was enough to change the trajectory by a fraction of an inch. Without that tip, Parkey likely makes the kick, the Bears move on to New Orleans, and the entire trajectory of the franchise changes.
Why the Double Doink Still Matters
The reason we’re still talking about this years later isn't just the kick itself. It's the psychological fallout.
Chicago is a town that loves its "lovable losers," but the 2018 team felt different. They had Khalil Mack. They had a "Club Dub" locker room culture that felt unstoppable. When Parkey hit those two yellow poles, it didn't just end a game; it felt like it cursed a generation.
Think about the context:
- Parkey had already hit the uprights four times in a single game against the Lions earlier that season.
- He hit the uprights a total of six times throughout the 2018 campaign.
- The Bears were 12-4 and the #3 seed.
Honestly, the "Double Doink" became a shorthand for Chicago's kicking woes. It led to one of the most bizarre offseasons in NFL history. Head coach Matt Nagy became so obsessed with the miss that he held a "kicker gauntlet" in training camp. He brought in eight different kickers and made them all attempt a 43-yarder in front of the whole team. It was weird. It was tense. And it showed that the organization hadn't moved on.
The Aftermath for Cody Parkey
Life as the bears double doink kicker wasn't easy. Parkey was a Pro Bowler earlier in his career, but Chicago fans are famously unforgiving when it comes to playoff failures.
The real "nail in the coffin" wasn't even the miss itself—it was what happened a few days later. Parkey appeared on the Today show to talk about his faith and how he was handling the loss. Nagy and the front office were livid. They felt he was making it a "me" thing instead of a "we" thing. By March, he was gone.
He moved on to the Titans, then the Browns, and the Saints. He actually had a decent stretch in Cleveland, proving he wasn't "broken" as a player, but the shadow of that night in Chicago followed him everywhere. Whenever a kicker hits the upright now, announcers immediately bring up his name. It's the "Bill Buckner" of kicking.
Lessons from the Doink
If you're a coach or an athlete, there's a lot to learn from this disaster. It's a case study in how one play can define a career, even when that play was technically a "block" and not a "miss."
- The Icing Effect: Doug Pederson called a timeout right before the first attempt. Parkey actually made that "practice" kick. It went right down the middle. Did the icing work? Statistically, it's a toss-up, but in this specific instance, it gave the Eagles' line one more chance to time the snap.
- Mental Resilience: Parkey's career didn't end that night, but his time in Chicago did. Sometimes, the environment becomes too toxic to stay, regardless of talent.
- The "Tip" Factor: In sports, we love a scapegoat. It's easier to blame the kicker than it is to acknowledge that the defense gave up a go-ahead touchdown to Nick Foles with less than a minute left.
The Bears' offense only managed 15 points that day. Mitchell Trubisky played well enough to win, but the team settled for three field goals earlier in the game. If they'd scored one more touchdown, the kick wouldn't have mattered. But that's not how the story is told.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Analysts
If you're looking back at this moment for your own research or just to settle a bar debate, keep these facts in your back pocket.
- Check the Official Scoring: Always remember the NFL ruled it a block by Treyvon Hester. If someone calls it a "shank," you can politely correct them. It was a deflection.
- Contextualize the Season: The 2018 Bears had the #1 scoring defense. The fact that they lost 16-15 shows how much the defense carried the load, but also how thin the margin for error was for their offense.
- Watch the "Today" Show Interview: If you want to understand why the Bears actually cut him, watch that clip. It wasn't the foot; it was the PR move.
The "Double Doink" remains the most improbable sequence of events in modern playoff history. Two hits, one ball, zero points. It’s a reminder that in the NFL, the difference between a hero and a pariah is often just a fingertip.
To truly understand the impact, you have to look at the "kicker search" that followed in 2019. The Bears cycled through Eddy Piñeiro and eventually found stability with Cairo Santos, but for years, every field goal attempt at Soldier Field was met with a collective gasp. The "Doink" lived in the rafters. It's only now, years later, that the franchise has finally started to shake the ghost of Cody Parkey's right foot.