Jay Cutler NFC Championship Game: Another Viewpoint
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My esteemed writing colleague, Cherie Burbach, wrote about the Jay Cutler debacle as created by the media, judgmental football viewers, and others in her article, Who Gets to Judge Jay Cutler? In keeping with the “Jay Quitler” theme, the story lays out all of the NFL twitterheads’ comments and the prevailing opinions of others regarding what people believe Jay Cutler should have done. I come at this entire situation from the other side. My contention is that what people who would comment about what Jay Cutler should have done – is: “can it”.
The reality is simple, none of us, NFL players included, could possibly have known the extent of Jay Cutler’s injury and its impact on his ability to effectively play out the rest of the NFC Championship game. In this day-and-age of instant feedback – we can’t stop people from shooting their collective mouths off about such experiences. It’s especially humorous coming from those of us who have never played a meaningful down of high performance football in our lives. Frankly, it’s alarming that it would come from fellow union members in the NFLPA.
Another reality is this: Short of a Chicago Bears comeback win with Jay Cutler at the helm, there was no good ending for this for him.
1 – He leaves the game or is pulled from the game by staff. We all know how that turned out already. It involves uninformed and unnecessary criticism of Jay Cutler before the facts are ever revealed.
2 – He stays in and plays poorly. He gets criticized, as he sometimes deserves, for his erratic play and he has “choked” in a big post-season game.
3 – He stays in and plays poorly and it’s later revealed that he has a severe knee injury, now known to be a grade 2 sprain of his medial collateral ligament with a partial tear. He and/or the training staff are vilified for allowing him to remain in the game and sink the team’s chances to win the NFC Championship Game.
Hurray for Jay Cutler. He loses anyone you slice it if he doesn’t win this game, regardless of the circumstances. Why? Because we allegedly know better – what, with all of our knowledge and NFL experience. In the words of Chicago Bears General Manager, Jerry Angelo, “I think it’s crap.”
When it comes to current NFL players making disparaging remarks from the quiet comfort of their homes, a comfort afforded them by their early exits from the playoffs, all I have to say is – shouldn’t you be out on the golf course? Didn’t Maurice Jones-Drew “bail” on the last 2 games of his NFL season when the Jacksonville Jaguars were fighting for their playoff lives? What a dumbass.
When it comes to former NFL players making negative commentary from the cushy chairs on the sets of their network studios, I have this to say – intelligent observers realize that you need to manufacture a controversy to hang on to your ratings. My very special message to Deion Sanders: shut your fat yapper, chief. You’re a guy who never missed an opportunity to avoid making a tackle. You have no business commenting on anyone else’s toughness.
To NFL fans who have no idea what the hell is even going on when it comes to injuries and their impact on the ability of players to do their jobs effectively – go have another beer. You’re the same degenerate who calls out sick from work when you run a slight fever and have a snotty nose.
In an era where the protection of the health of players is allegedly on the forefront of both the league’s and player’s minds – to spout off with this crap about Jay Cutler “sucking it up” and playing with a significant knee injury in a big game is beyond ludicrous. As for Jay Cutler - like it or not he also has the rest of his career to think about. If stepping out of the NFL Championship game to better preserve my ability to make tens-of-millions more dollars in an uncertain NFL career is accomplished by pulling myself out of the game, you can bet your ass that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Why is that? Regardless of what NFL players (current or former), NFL fans, and all the other talking heads have to say about what Jay Cutler should have done or shouldn’t have done – once his career is over, it’s over, and someone else will come and take his place while he fades into the obscure NFL afterlife. He will be forgotten quickly as we turn our attention to the next NFL star we can criticize from the convenience of our homes, our local bars, or our network studios.
Lost in all of this was the fact that Caleb Hanie, a third-string unknown quarterback, came in and played extremely well. Hanie made a one-sided borefest into an exciting finish. He ended up giving the Chicago Bears a very good chance of beating the Green Bay Packers and becoming one of those “stories for the ages.” That’s where our attention should have been. Not the guesswork that became the disgraceful criticism of Jay Cutler before the facts were known.
Very good take on the matter. And for all those sore-loser Bear Fans foaming at the mouth to blame Cutler’s cowardice for their loss, I ask you this: After seeing him struggle mightily in the game PRIOR to getting hurt, did you really like your chances with him playing AFTER he got hurt? You can blame him for sucking, but don’t question his toughness, especially after witnessing him get pumelled week in and week out and ALWAYS answering the bell.
In my opinion, anyone who steps on the field in an NFL game is a tough MF. As to the question of if he should have played it out, I’m 50-50 and not a doctor (just on TV). I think Hanie did better than Cutler would have. Bears fans would be throwing fists of fury if Hanie would have totally blown it.
My favorite line of the week: “My very special message to Deion Sanders: shut your fat yapper, chief. You’re a guy who never missed an opportunity to avoid making a tackle.”
So true!
Great points. Hanie did better than Cutler but could he have sustained it? Hard to say. I think what added to the judgement by the players was Cutler’s exterior – he looked emotionless. We’re used to guys showing their hearts on their sleeve, not always a good thing but it does catch attention, and to see Cutler in a zombielike state made it seem like he didn’t care.
I agree that his outward appearance fueled the “hate” – but that’s just part of the overall problem – people applying their own principles to what Cutler could have, should have, would have, whatever… done.
What it seemed like isn’t Cutler’s reality. What it seemed like wasn’t his teammates reality. What it seemed like wasn’t reality at all. Who he went to dinner with… how well he walked around the mall… whether he went and tried out for the Rockettes’ latest New York show…
Grade 2 MCL, partial tear, pulled from the game by staff after trying to continue to play on the knee.
The rest is just mindless blathering from people who probably weep when their knees start to ache when a storm is coming. There are a lot of people out there who were completely wrong and should just as publicly apologize to Jay Cutler for their dumbass snap reactions to the situation.
It’s also the same reason why I 100% Derek Anderson’s meltdown at his press conference because people saw him laugh during a game that they were losing. So f’ing what? A snapshot in time automatically is escalated to not caring about the game or the team? Seriously?
Some people need to keep their “tweets” to themselves until they have all of the facts.
Well said, sir.
With this post, I think we’re all secretly hoping we can finally put the Cutler matter to bed, even though we all know that won’t happen.