While I am not the kind of person to hit a man while he is down that is what I am sadly kind of what I'm going to do. So much scrutiny has been laid on Jay Cutler for not coming back into the NFC Championship. The word is out that it is a Grade II MCL sprain. This limits a players mobility, and for a quarterback it would limit his ability to get efficient drops and slide around in the pocket. So in that regard I can not hate on the man it would have been extremely difficult to play through it, but not impossible. In modern football the toughness that this game was originated on has almost left the game completely. Guys used to play with broken arms, fingers, noses, you name it the original guys pushed through pain. They didn't wear helmets and if the felt dizzy, probably because they just got a concussion, the were told to get back out on the field and hit the one in the middle. While those days are over, because concussions are a serious issue, toughness is part of the foundation that this game was built on and should never leave it.
Safety is a big issue that should be addressed and at the speed this game is played at concussions must be monitored and the league must try to limit them. With medical advances players can get back into the game quicker than ever. While I'm not saying pumped every athlete that could continue to play with a cortisone shot. However what I am hinting at that if you are in the biggest game of your life wouldn't you want to do everything you could to play it through?
The reason why people jumped down Cutler's throat is because he looked like he didn't care that he was out. This injury reminds me slightly of an injury I had my senior year of high school, a grade two separated AC joint. This is a shoulder injury that takes 6-8 weeks to recover from, which would have been my whole senior year. I finished playing the game until 2 minutes left in the game because my coach told me the game was a lost cause. Am I toughest guy in the world? Absolutely not, but no one ever questioned my heart or desire for the game because the passion was always shown in my eyes. I am man enough to admit that I started crying because I thought my season was over and it was a thought I couldn't take. It made me sick to see Cutler's dopey face with zero emotion and not even a grimace of pain.
Personally I don't care that Cutler came out because he was playing like crap. If anything I wish he would have stayed in because Caleb Hanie started to scare me as a Packers fan. I repeat: CALEB HANIE STARTED TO SCARE ME. Crazy statement of the month that Caleb Hanie is the next Matt Cassel and now is going to get paid by some other team to be a pimp daddy QB. Every player and fan is going to protect Cutler saying that he 'helped' Hanie. The thing was that once he was out they probably showed him about 10-15 times and not once was he helping nor was he supporting the team. That must be some selective Jersey Shore camera crew that they had working that game then. His team defended him afterwords but no one, not even some third string guy, came and gave Jay Cutty love.
The demeanor that Cutler plays with is one of the worst that I have ever seen. I've played with kids that have awful attitudes but that was because they sucked and were never going to see the field. Then I've played with kids that overachieved tremendously and had more heart than I myself had which I though was impossible. The thing that disturbs me is that Jay Cutler has the gifts to be a Top 8 QB in the NFL. He doesn't have the desire or the will though to get into that top tier of QBs. In my eyes unless he comes out and shocks us by making the Bears contenders ever year to me he is just a middle of the pack QB. Sure he can have games that rival the likes of Manning and Brady, but he also has games that make Bears fans miss 'Sexy Rexy' and Kyle Orton.
Sure the Bears offensive line is miserable but that is just another excuse that could be put out there for Jay Cutler. Heart is something that you have or you don't. Show me some emotion Jay, cheer on your team, do something for God's sake. Donovan McNabb played the rest of a game with a broken ankle in a regular season game. Andy Reid tried to take him out and he wouldn't allow that, probably because the only crazier fan base than Bears fans are Eagle fans. Eagles fans always hated McNabb too, but at least he tried to gain their respect. Jay Cutler's nonchalant attitude is why players around the NFL crashed down on him. The Bears history is a great one with great coaches and players, and when the one coach that has coached the Bears to win a Super Bowl attacks the 'franchise' QB it makes me shake my head. Once a Bears problem always a Bears problem: quarterbacks.
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P.S.- Jay Culter of the Bears isn't even the most famous Jay Cutler, go to google images and type in Jay Cutler. Cousin Money Mike sent me a reply, I wanted to show some mercy to him/Bear fans so I'll post this for him: As everyone knows this past Sunday Jay Cutler was injured late in the first half of Sunday's NFC Championship between my beloved Bears and the Packers. Originally while the Packers still had the ball the camera showed Cutler walking off the field before the 1st half had come to an end. To start the 2nd half Cutler came in for a series then was pulled. When I saw Todd Collins trot out onto that field my initial reaction was Jay Cutler is the biggest bitch of all time. How could he do this, he has no heart he has no desire like my friend Steamboat Jackson said. Collins eventually got hurt when Clay Matthew's finger tip brought him to the ground or he sucked so bad they never really cleared that up. Anyways Caleb Hannie was brought in and almost pulled off which would have been arguably the best storybook ending in Chicago. But he didn't and instead he broke our hearts and we can move on from that. But before I finish talking about Hanie I have to say hats off to him what a great job he did. Onto the main event of Jay Cutler. After 24 hours of gathering my emotions I came to rationalize that I am going to defend Jay Cutler. Why? Because he is a competitor. How about in Denver when he had that battle with Phillip Rivers? Or last years game when he was pounded by Atlanta on Sunday Night Football and kept getting back up? Or how about the entire year when he was sacked and league high 52 times and got up? During his two years in Chicago and you can correct me if I'm wrong here, but has he ever blamed anyone else besides himself or thrown a teammate under the bus? I can't remember him ever doing such a thing. The guy is a tough quarterback. Let's remember playing the quarterback in the NFL is not easy what so ever. You probably have to be the toughest. Think about a 6'6" 285 pond Julius Peppers trying to absolutely destroy you. And you basically in a defenseless position. Not fun. If Cutler thought he could gut it out then he would have been in there. Now lets get another thing straight about Cutler and his body language. Terrible!! And that is probably an understatement. But then again let's look at the facts here. Unless you were at the game and were eyeing Cutler the entire game only you know how he was acting the entire 2nd half because the people at home only saw shots of him bumming around the sidelines. Selective camera work is what that is called. Should he of acted better and looked more supportive? No doubt. But again lets look at it.. Jay Cutler has been waiting since they beat the Seahawks to play the Packers. This was the biggest game of his career. He had everything riding on this game and he has to come out because of a leg injury. Not to mention he had nothing to cheer about because of his lackluster performance in the first half which probably made him feel more like shit. Knowing that if he could of got just a field goal or 7 points on the board it becomes a completely different game. So think about playing the biggest game of your career then getting hurt and not being able to finish while playing bad in the first half before you take shots at my QB? Bottom line: The bottom line is Cutler will always be remember for this until he gets to or wins a Superbowl simple as that. Is it unfair yes! Same thing happened to Scottie Pipen before the Bulls won all the championships. He sat out game 7 of conference finals with a headache vs the Pistons. He was always remember for that until he won 6 titles. One final thing..... Go Steelers!!! SteamboatJackson Thank you Cousin Mike for chiming in but I want to send a few things in your direction. Last year Aaron Rodgers was sacked the most times in the league and still went to the playoffs and performed well throughout the season; having a better season than Cutler had this year and a better playoffs. Jay Cutler doesn't have Julius Peppers chasing him down he had Clay Matthews 6'3 255. On the contrary Julius Peppers lowered the boom on Aaron Rodgers, blooded and dazed still stayed in the game to finish not to mention a bruised shoulder from the first drive of the game. While they are different categories of being hurt, I do believe this could have been a time Cutler could have played hurt. Instead he went out with an injury, an injury that should have sent his ass back into the locker room if he wasn't going to play anymore. Riding the bike is something that I would avoid if I was that 'seriously' hurt that I couldn't give it a go. Probably wouldn't be taking the stairs at a restaurant if an elevator was available if I couldn't finish a pro football game. Then again maybe he was trying to impress Krisin Cavalarri, since he couldn't do it on the field the way Aaron Rodgers did for Erin Andrews. Go Pack Go!! |
1 comment:
Just because Jay Cutler is a head case doesn't mean he wasn't hurt. The guy has been taking shots for five months; it's hard to imagine that he would actually "quit" on the biggest stage the game provides to this point. I get all the "body language" stuff and don't disagree. Yet I have to think that if he could have gone, he would have.
They showed a play early on where cutler was trying to dump it to a back, and couldn't plant, and threw the ball at the receiver's feet. If you can't plant it's hard to throw accurately.
The Bears have closed ranks around him, which is to be expected. So we'll never know the truth. For me, though, it's hard to imagine that, after trainign for this moment for years, and competing at the highest level possible for months, a player would decide to pack it in without a very good reason.
My two cents!
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