Ron Rivera iced a Bears kicker in a preseason game to help Chicago out

In any other context, calling a timeout near the end of the first half of the opening NFL preseason game of the year might seem like a thing that would cause some bad blood.

But in the case of what happened on Thursday night between the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears, it was actually a positive thing.

Toward the end of the second quarter, Bears kicker Elliott Fry was ready to try a 43-yard kick and Panthers head coach Ron Rivera called a timeout, pulling off the ol’ icing the kicker routine. Fry booted the kick through the uprights when play started up again.

Ron Rivera calls a timeout with :03 left in the half to ice Elliot Fry!!

He still nails the 43-yarder.

He tried to ice the kicker in the preseason.

— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) August 9, 2019

But Rivera did it for a specific reason: He knew the Bears have had kicker problems ever since last season, which included Cody Parkey’s postseason “double doink” and some OTA woes:

I asked Rivera about icing the kicker in the second quarter and he very transparently admitted he did it to help the Bears. He knows they’re trying to find a kicker.

— Jourdan Rodrigue (@JourdanRodrigue) August 9, 2019

So there you go. How nice of Rivera!