Moment of Truth Led to Cairo Santos Streak

Adam Vinatieri holds the NFL record for consecutive field goals made at 44, so Bears kicker Cairo Santos will enter the season with plenty of work to do if he wants his name in NFL record books.

It's already in Bears record books for the 27 straight he made to finish the season.

However, it's the kick he missed before the streak started that he calls a key. It was a 46-yard try against Atlanta in Week 3 on the opening drive, and after he missed he was 3-for-5 on the year. He hasn't missed since.

He thought that miss might eventually prove his undoing and was frustrated enough that it caused him to think of his career just after the miss.

"It was just like, I want an opportunity and if it's to end right now, I accept it and I'll be happy moving forward, moving from football," Santos said. "Or if it's to restart a career, that's exactly what I want.

"So I just kind of took one kick at a time as they came and just tried to knock them through, and it's the same mentality that I look for to keep going. It was a life-changing (moment), for me, year with everything that happened. So, right now I just keep attacking one kick at a time, like I did last year."

Santos had missed four field goals in one 2019 game for Tennessee when he was having groin injury troubles and was cut, and didn't catch on until 2020. So his Bears opportunity last year might really have been his final chance.

He has analyzed what last year's mental change was exactly.

"I just needed to kind of let things happen," he said. "So I kind of came to terms with that last year and I accepted that one day it's going to end and I'm just trying to make it last."

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