Eddy Pineiro overcame a lot of demons for the Chicago Bears. After enduring one of the wildest and most thorough kicker evaluations in NFL history, he put the Cody Parkey nightmare to bed with his last-second 53-yard bomb in Denver to beat the Broncos. For the season, the kid is now 8-of-9 on field goal attempts and a perfect 6-of-6 on extra points. His only miss came when he was suffering from a pinched nerve in his knee.
It’s safe to say the guy is feeling pretty good. His job security is much stronger than it was last month. He has the utmost faith of his teammates and coaches. If he finishes this year strong, odds are he’ll be the Bears kicker for a long time to come. As it turns out, there is also another surprising bonus to his winning the kicking job. With that feat, he became the first-ever player of Nicaraguan descent to make and play for an NFL team. As recognized by the Nicaraguan ambassador to the United Kingdom.
While nobody is saying he’s Fritz Pollard (first black player) or Lou Molinet (first Latino), it’s still pretty cool to know that he’ll always have a piece of pro football history that nobody can take away.
Eddy Pineiro now has a chance to get a little revenge too
The good feelings may not be over quite yet. This Sunday marks a reunion of sorts for Pineiro. He will face off against the team that was the first to sign him in the NFL. The Oakland Raiders. As a rookie, it appeared he was destined to win the job after a flawless start to the preseason. Then a freak injury in practice ended his year. In the scramble to find a kicker afterward, the Raiders came across Daniel Carlson who himself had been discarded by Minnesota.
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He performed well down the stretch and that was enough for Oakland to make him their permanent kicker. Despite assurances that Pineiro was their unquestioned guy, they ended up trading him to Chicago for a conditional 7th round pick. While he’s tried to hide any emotions about the situation, it’s clear Pineiro is at least a little bitter about how things ended there. He feels they gave him up for pennies and is no doubt anxious to have a big game in London against them.
