Deep in the fourth quarter, 6 minutes and 56 seconds in, Cairo Santos lined up a 53-yard kick to put Chicago ahead by two scores. Instead, the ball struck the upright, shattering the moment and reviving painful memories. Santos eventually saved the night with a game-sealing 58-yarder in a 30-24 triumph, but Amazon Prime had already twisted the knife by broadcasting the dreaded “Double Doink” highlight. That broadcast commentary didn’t sit well with former Bears guard Kyle Long, whose fiery callout brought a direct apology from Kirk Herbstreit.

“Just to be crystal clear I’ve had it up to *here* having to endure the utterance of the doink,” Long wrote on X after revealing that Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit were on his SL (s**t list). “I love Al and Kirk. I just have unhealed wounds. Ben Johnson and Co. are doing their best to heal those wounds.”

Amazon provided the visual callback, but Herbstreit delivered the punchline when the kick clanked off the upright: “It’s a single doink.” The comment didn’t take long to surface on Kyle Long’s timeline. Eager to clear the air with the Bears legend, Herbstreit promptly took to X to offer a swift apology.

“Sorry to bring up a brutal memory big fella,” Herbstreit wrote in his reply. “Hope you and your family are well!”

The comment scraped at a wound felt not just by Long, but by Bears fans too, courtesy of the infamous ‘Double Doink’ game. In the 2018 NFC Wild Card game, kicker Cody Parkey missed a field goal that cost the Bears their potential shot at the Super Bowl and allowed the Philadelphia Eagles to escape with a 16-15 victory Sunday. The ball hit the left upright and then the crossbar (two doinks), before landing on the ground. A closer look reveals Staley Da Bear collapsing on the ground behind the uprights. That is probably how everyone felt after that play.

“The double doink game took a mental toll on everybody,” Kyle Long told Barstool Chicago. “It took me many years to get over that.”

For Long, the trauma was a nightmare long lived in real time. That fateful 16-15 playoff loss brought an ominous, eerie end to a season that had otherwise restored joy to a fan base enduring an eight-year postseason drought. In the immediate aftermath of the missed kick, as a stunned Soldier Field fell silent, Long was among the first teammates on the field, wrapping an arm around a distraught Parkey as they walked off together.

“Dude, you accounted for half our points,” Long reassured him amidst the chaos. “We could have done more as an offense.”

While the Bears’ locker room rallied around their kicker with unwavering support, Parkey was inconsolable.

“This is a terrible feeling,” Parkey admitted softly after the game. “I can’t hide that.”

Fast forward to the present, and current Bears kicker Cairo Santos finds himself fighting his own silent mental battles. Entering Week 7, Santos was already shouldering heavy self-imposed pressure after dropping field goals in back-to-back games, missing a 56-yarder wide left in Atlanta and a 43-yarder left in Green Bay.

“The misses annoy me,” Santos conceded.

So when Santos redeemed his 53-yard “doink” against New England by drilling a career-long 58-yarder, his teammates swarmed him in jubilation. Yet, despite being mobbed in celebration, the 34-year-old veteran was in no mood to party.

“I’m having a hard time celebrating these moments, and I shouldn’t act this way,” Santos reflected postgame. “But I just feel like I’m hitting the ball way too good to have these misses happen. Even though they’re from 50-plus, I’ve been making them all the time.”

Despite his harsh self-critique, Santos delivered a solid night overall, going 3-for-4 on field goal tries and hitting all three extra points. He opened Chicago’s scoring with a 43-yarder, added a 31-yarder in the second quarter, and improved to 11-for-15 on the season (including 3-for-5 from 50+ yards).

The raw emotional weight carried by kickers like Parkey and Santos explains why Chicago’s field goal trauma remains such a sensitive subject. And while the online exchange between Long and the announcers ended amicably as friendly fire, the broadcast commentary itself triggered a far fiercer backlash from the fan base.

Social Media explodes over Herbstreit’s On-Air comments

Michaels and Herbstreit have been working together for Prime Video and covering Thursday Night Football for five seasons now (since 2022). The NFL community has been ripping the commentators for their poor calls. And the Bears-Patriots game carried a similar story. 

“It’s a single Doink.” No need to do Bears fans like that, Kirk Herbstreit,” one fan wrote, still not overtly calling out the sportscaster’s jab, but questioning the need for the attack nonetheless.

“Anytime a kick hits the uprights in Chicago…it’s like holy s–t gotta mention the word doink…or double doink…Yeah it’s getting old…A kicker doinks one every f—ing week,” a rather angry fan wrote.

“It’s not cute anymore it’s in dead horse territory,” another wrote.

“Kirk Herbstreit and Al Michaels should be in the coping corner after another dismal performance,” one fan wrote on X. 

Many fans even suggested that Herbstreit should just retire and leave the commentary booth. 

“Kirk Herbstreit needs to f—ng disappear. Insufferable clown,’ a fan wrote. “Kirk Herbstreit is getting insufferable. This dude is all over the country every week. It’s impressive for sure. But my god stop acting like you know what’s going on in every locker room and on every play call,” another fan added. 

Some fans bashed the analyst for questioning Bears kicker Cairo Santos. During the broadcast, he questioned if Santos was going for a “pooch punt.” But that didn’t sit well with many fans. 

“Kirk Herbstreit and Al Michaels are so f—ing terrible. Why would they pooch punt there and why would Kirk even be thinking that? Al Michaels said it was a ‘good chance’ lol,” one fan wrote.

“Kirk herbstreit is an idiot! Everyone already knew Santos has a range of at least 60 lol!,” another added.  

Even though Herbstreit’s apology smoothed things over with Long, he couldn’t balance it out with the fans. It seems like Herbstreit will need far more than a polite tweet to win back the court of public opinion next Thursday night.