Philadelphia Eagles Kicker Jake Elliott defends Cody Parkey once more

Jake Elliott is happy Cody Parkey missed that critical field goal in the playoffs. At the same time, though, he does feel for his fellow kicker.

Being a kicker in the NFL is not as easy as you think. While the position is pretty limited in comparison to others, it doesn’t make it all that easy – especially in today’s NFL where kickers take a lot more heat than they did back in the day with the presence of social media. If a kicker has an off day, he can expect to hear it not only by the fans in attendance but he will likely see criticism on social media as well. And if a kicker misses a critical kick with the game on the line, they may end up getting called every name under the sun. That’s just how it works nowadays.

Just this past winter, former Philadelphia Eagles kicker Cody Parkey felt the wrath of Chicago. Although Parkey was no longer a part of the Eagles, he did end up helping them in a way. During the Wild Card round of the playoffs, the Eagles and the Chicago Bears were down to the final seconds of the game. The Bears were well within field goal range, and they had an opportunity to wrap the game up and send the Eagles back to Philly without a second round appearance.

At first, Parkey made the field goal no problem, but it ended up not counting thanks to Doug Pederson’s last-second timeout in an attempt to ice the kicker. Some say that method doesn’t work – but Pederson proved otherwise. The next snap, the holder got the ball in place, and Parkey booted it. Although the kick had the power, the accuracy was a bit off. Then came the infamous ‘double-doink,’ which sent the ball in front of the uprights, instead of past it. Just like that, the Eagles won, and Parkey’s time with the Bears was over.

Jake Elliott Feels for Parkey

Despite having issues all across the board throughout that game, all of the blame got placed on Parkey. The veteran kicker responded to the craziness with class, but that didn’t increase his chances of remaining with the Bears. Chicago ended up releasing Parkey eventually and began a search to replace him. And although the Eagles were excited at the moment, one of their own really felt for Parkey. It was Philadelphia’s kicker, Jake Elliott.

This wasn’t the first time Elliott defended Parkey, and it may not be the last. Although Elliott and company obviously benefitted from the miss, it turned out that the ‘double-doink’ would be caused by a tipped ball, which ended up getting marked as a block by the Eagles, rather than a straight up miss by Parkey.  That didn’t matter to Chicago and their fan base though. Hence the reason why Elliott decided to stick up for a fellow kicker.