Bears Blitz

Published by Ed Berliner on January 27, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

The former football players who question the heart and commitment of Jay Cutler come off as little more than media hacks feigning outrage to stroke their own ego.

The Chicago Bears fans who burn Cutler jerseys and scream that he’s a quitter are venting over falling short to a better team, emphasis on “team.”

Denver Broncos fans mocking Cutler for the Bears’ failure in the NFC Title game are still smarting from the Mike Shanahan years. More recently, they have had to deal with a coach who was the NFL poster child for monogrammed diapers.

Most entertaining, however, are the comments made by people with lawn mowing, bowling, attic cleaning and “World of Warcraft” on their lifetime athletic resume.

Don’t try to crush me about the athletic benefit of bowling, kids. Not until Funyuns, beef jerky and nachos are banned from the playing area.

Proving that the issue surrounding the Bears QB and his NFC title game injury has gone beyond the surreal, we also have “The Round Mound of Rebound” defending Cutler.

Once upon a time in my 137 years of covering sports (yes, I was there when the Boston Red Stockings won their second consecutive title in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players league. Those 617 innings pitched by Al Spalding weren’t bad for a 23-year-old kid), I promised there was one thing I would never do:

Agree with anything Charles Barkley said.

Until now.

Barkley has a wide orifice under his nose and loves to open up. Bombastic. Preposterous. Inflammatory. Racially on the edge. Everything he says is honest, though, and more often than not, backed up by interesting depth.

The man thinks before he speaks. He just doesn’t say what many people want to agree with.

This time, Sir Charles strayed into Jay Cutler’s world and took on his sporting peers. He used that big body to leave more than a few of them tasting virtual hardwood.

Not only that, but he did it by naming names. Names of those who have absolutely no right to question the heart of any athlete, much less that of Cutler.

Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew is, without a doubt, a very talented player. There is also no doubt that he knows what it takes to be a winner on  a team contending for a title. 

However, Jones-Drew took the current route of choice for those looking to hide behind the media. His actions allowed him to avoid the TV cameras, the radio microphones or even the newspaper recorders.

By sending out a series of “tweets” (which, for some people, need to be sub-titled “twits”) he ensured his name would enter the fray and gain some cheap publicity from another player’s misfortune.

“All I’m saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee… I played the whole season on one…”

Indeed. Jones-Drew also missed the final two games of the recent season with a bad knee, something he conveniently failed to mention.

His 2008 season was less than stellar, but in large part due to key members of the Jaguars offensive line being busted with injuries of their own.

Jones-Drew, of course, never called out his teammates. To do so would have been unprofessional, and likely get him shipped to someplace worse than Jacksonville.

I hear Oakland’s not interested, but, I digress.

“Hey I think the urban meyer rule is in effect right now… When the going gets tough……..QUIT.”

Maurice is apparently still trying to explain away the Karl Dorrell years at UCLA.

Jones-Drew  doesn’t even have the conviction to stick with his slap at a fellow player. After being tanked by Barkley and plenty more and, allegedly, receiving death threats for the comments, he laughed it off and finally told legitimate reporters that he was not taking shots at Jay Cutler.

Uh-huh.

To hide behind technology to insult someone is cowardly. To then refuse to stand by your comments and arrogantly backtrack is the mark of someone who has more cowardly traits than he may care to admit.

Darnell Dockett is a talented defensive tackle for the Arizona Cardinals. About the closest he has come to a Super Bowl is getting the NFL notice that comes around offering players tickets for the big game. Seeking to capitalize on his “fame,” Dockett joined the “tweeting” ranks as well in knocking out a creative masterpiece.

“Jay Cutler thinking out loud* mannn I’m glad he threw that pic to #90 cuz I did not want to get blame for this Lost!”

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, grammar and spelling are not prerequisites to be a “twit.”

Oh, how empty our lives would be if there were no quick missive from Deion Sanders. He’s just one of many from the talented pool of former players who can’t get enough of their own voices, no matter how unwanted.

“Folks i never question a players injury but I do question a players heart. Truth.”

Hey, Deion. Put a do-rag in it. Truth.

What is now apparent, as any former player knows, is that the network TV cameras capture seconds in the sideline life of every player. These pictures have no reference points, facts, or explanations. There is no way of knowing what is actually going on.

Instead, we were provided with yet another example of the instant media and rapid-mouth society we have become. If you can’t make a knowledgeable comment based on facts—spit something controversial out.

No one will question you because you either used to be a player, or are a current player sitting home pining to be in Cutler’s colors. All you can do is hope to get a shot at hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

Hoisting an ego is a lot easier.

The most amusing point in this contrived controversy belongs to Jones-Drew. That macho football player calling out one of his peers for not being macho. Not being “a man,” if you will. Failing to “man up.”

Perhaps the most important part of being a “real man” is owning up to your mistakes, sucking it up and admitting you were wrong.

Jones-Drew puffs out his electronic chest, is called on it and makes a lame excuse. I guess when the going gets tough, you turn into a coward.

Fans will be fans and they deserve to hack and hammer away. Being fans of sport that will charge $200 for standing room at the Super Bowl (outside the stadium) comes with a few perks.

However, methinks the bulk of them are wising up to the bad opinions, false heroics, cowardly verbal attacks, hysterical malaprops, boorish bravado and self-aggrandizing bile being poured on-screen, on the airwaves and the Internet by these current players, retired players, and self-appointed “experts.”

Legendary comedian George Carlin used to have a character named “Biff Burns,” who started out his radio spot by announcing, “I call ‘em the way I see ‘em. And if I don’t see ‘em, I make ‘em up.”

Rest easy, George. Biff Burns is alive and well in the NFL.

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