(670 The Score) In 2015, a group of behavioral scientists at Canada's University of Victoria were curious about habits. They wanted to know more about the physiology behind habit formation and what factors played prominent roles in the successful – or unsuccessful – implementation of new ones. The scientists studied more than 100 new gym-goers during a 12-week period, hoping to learn more about not just the rewiring of psychological pathways but also the immense impact that habit-forming can have on a person. It did, after all, save Cairo Santos’ job.
The Bears’ kicker has made 34 straight field-goal attempts. Cut it any way you’d like and it still sounds equally impressive – a league-best run that has already earned him the franchise record for consecutive makes now has him on the cusp of the 10 longest streaks of all time. He’s one of only four kickers to hit every single kick – field goal or extra point – that he has tried this season. Santos hasn’t missed a field goal in 382 days. What’s more impressive than all of that, quite frankly, is how boring he makes it sound.
“My mentality has been copy and paste from week to week for a while,” Santos told reporters this week. “Just trusting the preparation and the routine from week to week. I try to copy and paste and not worry about the result, and things are falling as they should. Because I feel good out there. We’re getting great reps with the snap, hold and kick. It’s fun when we see that on Sundays.”
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Until Santos emerged, it had been a minute since Bears fans had fun seeing that on Sundays. Connor Barth and Mike Nugent’s time came and went, and Cody Parkey’s tenure featured a whole lot of doinks even before those two very specific ones. Eddy Piñeiro was forged in the fires of Augusta Silence in 2019, only to flame out after peaking in a Week 2 win against the Broncos (hell of a game-winning kick, though).
Santos is now in his second Chicago stint, and his secret lies in the habits he has settled into – ones that have inarguably altered his career’s path. They have a tendency to do that.
“You have to attack every day with that mentality that you’re there to win that day and not just go through the motions thinking it will be an easy day,” he said. “I come out here with the mentality that I can’t relax because bad habits or tendencies will develop if you just think that because things are hot, you’re gonna make every kick. I have the confidence that I will, but you still have to work, to be good every day.”
And if you’re one of those Bears fans – the especially nervy type, the type that may focus on south end zone wind patterns a little too often – you can take a deep breath: Santos, who has spoken fondly about the new routines he has implemented over the last year, added that he has always felt “starting a streak is harder than keeping one.”
“To start a streak, you just came off a miss and kind of getting yourself together to start that again, I think, is the hardest part,” he said. “And it’s one that you hope for more than to keep one going. Right now, I’m just going through the motions, just copying and pasting what I’ve done the last several weeks to my routine and preparation week to week and not thinking about the results, and the results are just coming.”
After 12 weeks, the University of Victoria’s researchers drew several major conclusions from their study. Of them, most notably, was that of the many factors involved in the habit-forming process, "consistency" was the variable most significantly associated with successful changes in habit formation over time. Here in Chicago, that sounds about right.
Cam Ellis is a writer for 670 The Score and Audacy Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KingsleyEllis.