Chicago Bears kicker Jake Moody played hero on Monday Night Football after a whirlwind experience joining the team.
Moody, 25, was added to the Bears’ active roster just hours before the team’s game against the Washington Commanders on Monday, October 13, as kicker Cairo Santos dealt with a right thigh injury.
After knocking through a 38-yard game-winning field goal as time expired, Moody was carried off the field by his teammates at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland.
The jubilation followed a rough night for Moody in the team hotel, where the bed was smaller than he prefers.
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“I like a big king bed,” Moody said after the game. “I like to sprawl out.”
In addition, he struggled to figure out the uncompromising hotel shower.
“I couldn’t get it to go in the middle,” Moody told reporters, explaining the shower was either far too hot or too cold.
He added, “I took a nice ice shower before the game. That may be the new tradition I start.”
Moody started the season with the San Francisco 49ers, the team who selected him in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft. San Francisco waived Moody on September 9, two days after he went 1-for-3 on field goal attempts in the team’s season opener against the Seattle Seahawks.
He signed with the Bears’ practice squad on September 12.
“It’s a pretty cool series of events,” Moody said after Monday’s heroics. “A couple days ago, I didn’t know I was playing and to get lifted up by my teammates, it’s an amazing feeling. I’m really glad I got to share that moment with them.”
Some of Moody’s teammates didn’t even meet the kicker until they were on the field.
“First time I’ve spoken to him,” Bears running back D’Andre Swift said on Monday. “He did a great job. I don’t know when he found out what his role was going to be today, but just coming in, resilient. Just proud of him. Happy to have him on the team, too.”
Bears head coach, Ben Johnson, was more than comfortable in putting his team’s fate in Moody’s hands.
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“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Johnson, 39, said after the win. “We’ve seen him in practice now for a number of weeks. That’s one. And then, we also knew what he was capable of. He’s made big kicks in big games over the course of his career so far. So none of that was surprising. I think that’s who he is, and I think that change of scenery was really good for him.”
Santos, the Bears’ injured kicker, joined the team on the road trip, which Moody credited for some of his success.
“Very, very glad that we did travel with him,” Moody explained. “He kicked here a fair amount and he was able to kind of help me with the wind, with the field surface, all that stuff. So I was very glad to have an extra set of hands on hand.”
The Bears have not announced if Moody or Santos will kick for them when they return to action on Sunday, October 19, against the New Orleans Saints.
