Bears Blitz

Published by Flockaball on January 28, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

by Charlie Peters

America, you have decreed that Jay Cutler is more unlikable than Ben Roethlisberger and Michael Vick. What in the name of medial collateral ligaments is wrong with you?

ESPN’s SportsNation ran a recent poll asking who was the most unlikable between dog murderer Michael Vick, twice-alleged rapist Ben Roethlisberger and Jay Cutler. Cutler won (or lost, depending on how you look at it). America considers Cutler to be more unlikable than those two men, because he doesn’t smile much and he didn’t play the second half of a football game when he had a (proven) knee injury. What land are we living in? And why has rapid-fire, thoughtless Twitter criticism replaced honest analysis and evaluation when fans consider what to judge as truth?

Cutler suffered a sprained or torn MCL, depending on which media source you trust. In any event, a difficult injury. But during the game, which the Bears lost, Cutler was seen standing on the sideline. And then taking stairs at Soldier Field. And then window shopping with his reality star girlfriend in L.A. in the following days. What, you wanted him wheelchair-bound like Paul Pierce?

ESPN’s AFC South blogger Paul Kuharsky said it best. “Standing on the sideline in a parka is a much easier thing than dropping back, dodging a rush or absorbing a hit and stepping into throws,” Kuharsky said. “If he limped more, grimaced more, stayed in for a few more plays to make bad throws to prove just how bad it was, would that have made it more palatable?”

Maybe so, for the legion of haters across the Twitterscape. The media has been quick to broadcast those that doubted Cutler’s injury. Instead of allowing the quantity of voices to influence an anti-Cutler opinion, consider the quality of the shouters. Players around the league weren’t shy about Tweeting their displeasure, even if they didn’t have much credibility on the matter.

The chief critic was Maurice Jones-Drew, who said that Cutler should have played on a knee because the Jacksonville running back played on a sore knee all season. Someone may want to get MJD a 2010 game log, because the fantasy football darling skipped the final two games as the Jags were trying to lock up a playoff spot. The Eagles’ Asante Samuel ripped Cutler; yes, the same corner back who said he wasn’t paid to tackle. Kirk Morrison and Darnell Dockett also gave their two cents, but they’ve played a combined zero games at quarterback in the playoffs. They’re the ones who careen into quarterbacks, not the guys taking the hits for 16 games.

Many defended Cutler, but many more criticized the critics. Consider Herschel Walker’s response: “To be honest, I thought it was insulting that players would criticize Cutler,” Walker said. “They don’t know what he was going through.

“And what was so strange was they called him a wuss and words like that. You’re sitting on a couch calling him a wuss and he’s playing? Maybe if you had played better, you’d be out there playing and we’d be talking about you! I don’t think you put down another player who says he’s hurt.”

Also, Cutler couldn’t have come back anyway after Caleb Hanie was inserted. NFL rules stipulate that once a third-string quarterback goes into the game, the first two quarterbacks are not allowed back into the contest (click here for the rule, scroll to 1995). Silly rule, but a rule nonetheless.

You cannot measure a man’s toughness by sipping a Miller Lite on a couch and watching him on an HDTV. The men who know Cutler best are afforded the opportunity to judge him. Chicago’s offensive linemen, who scraped him up off the turf after every one of his 52 sacks this year, know best. Chicago’s defensive players, like Brian Urlacher, who chased him around a Bourbonnais, Ill. field for two-a-days this past August, know best.

“Anyone who knows Jay and has played with Jay and seen the hits he’s taken in his career knows he’s not a sissy,” a visibly agitated Urlacher said after the loss to the Packers. “He’s a tough guy. He goes out there every day and doesn’t say anything about what’s going on, just practices and plays and goes about his business. [The criticism] really frustrated me.”

Think their opinions just biased as teammates? Ask the guys trying to kill him each Sunday. Charles Woodson, a veteran who knows something about longevity, said that he believed Cutler was injured. Tough guy Phil Rivers once played an AFC title game on a torn ACL, but he too understood Cutler’s situation and did not question the Bears quarterback. Another quarterback who remembers what it was like to get crushed on occasion, Kurt Warner, defended Cutler. And Super Bowl-winning quarterback Eli Manning, who has to deal with the New York media on a consistent basis, doesn’t understand why players feel it’s their responsibility to use Twitter to report their opinions.

“The whole tweet thing, that kinda bothered me more than what happened in the game with Jay Cutler,” Manning said. “If you’re at home, watching  the game, and you’re an NFL player, you shouldn’t be allowed to tweet on anyone’s performance.”

Jay Cutler doesn’t smile a lot. He has nearly no personable traits. He’s not someone you’d want to help you move or say hello to at a high school reunion or even share an elevator with, but that doesn’t mean he’s a wuss. The man deals with diabetes each and every day, a disease that makes being a professional athlete very difficult.

He’ll never be a great quarterback, but he’s a good one and he was injured that day in Chicago. He didn’t play, and although Jones-Drew, Samuel and the rest of Twitter tried to pull the sky down on Cutler, the world didn’t end. Now maybe if Cutler can manage to slice up a few dogs or sexually assault a woman on a bad knee, maybe America will start to like him just a little bit more.

Read more Chicago Bears news on BleacherReport.com