That is exactly what I thought when I first saw him pouting on the sidelines. I hope the media crucifies him just as bad as they did LT.
They put Cutler on the bike so that it would appear that it was a knee issue, but I'll put all my money on the fact that he was knocked silly and didn't know what country he was in. Cutler wasn't the only one. Aaron Rodgers couldn't function by the end of the game either. We see the real effects of concussions in basketball. Taj Gibson struggled for a month after getting knocked (not half as hard as any play in the NFL.) Carlos Delfino was out two months. In the NFL, it's an accepted part of the game, and I don't believe the talk coming from the league office is anything but CYA for when this explodes five, ten years from now. After the game I came away with the question, who likes this sport? And then I looked online and I saw your post calling Cutler a "fucking wet dripping pussy." I have my answer.
I've said it many times before, though never on this board. I will never ever understand fans who call out injured athletes for a lack of toughness. They don't know what they're talking about, it's mean-spirited and just plain wrong.
To be fair, it comes with all the "war" terminology in sports these days. If the Packers were Germans and their coach was Hitler and Green Bay was incarcerating and then incinerating all the Chicagoans going up there for vacation, and this game was going to stop all that, I might expect Jay Cutler to keep playing.
What you say is true, but it reinforces an unfortunate misconception...Cutler not only wanted to continue after getting injured, but he in fact did continue after sustaining the injury. He played through the end of the first-half, then the doctors/trainers gave him some treatment at halftime. Against the doctors' advice, Cutler insisted on trying to play and started the 2nd-half. He couldn't perform...he had trouble moving, running and throwing (like the doctors told him he would). The coaching staff replaced him in what was a football decision, that is, to give the team a better chance to win the game. As Lovie Smith just said in his press conference, if someone doesn't like the fact that Cutler didn't finish the game, they should blame him (Smith).
I'm pretty surprised by the apparently huge number of actual athletes and former athletes jumping up and down and saying it, not fans. Driving around listening to the radio this morning, I couldn't believe the people I heard talking about it had watched the same game I had. Watching the game, I clearly saw Cutler looking dejected on the bench. I clearly saw shots of him cheering when the Bears scored. I clearly saw him talking at a couple points to his teammates on the sideline. It didn't even occur to me that he wasn't really hurt. His last couple series he certainly looked like he couldn't make throws I've seen him make a lot. I didn't say anything about it. My dad, my mom, my wife... everyone I was watching the game with... nobody said anything about it. So today I flip on the radio and hear what I can only call a completely manufactured controversy. But I still don't get the why's of it. Why do people give such a shit, and why does it cause people to ignore obvious facts. Like, I heard a whole series of people talking about how, with absolute certainty, Cutler couldn't have been hurt, didn't care about the game, and didn't even try to counsel his teammates after he couldn't play. But I saw all of that stuff with my own eyes. And for as much as I don't get that, I really don't get guys like Maurice Jones-Drew saying he couldn't have played, when, IIRC, Jones-Drew sat out the last couple of games when his team was still in the playoff hunt. Aside from "we had such success with the shootings in Tucson, we should pull this shit more often", is there any explanation for this sort of thing?
Football is, by far, the most popular sport in this country. Who likes this sport? Everybody but you, apparently. By the way, one day I hope to be half the person you are. Us football fans are scum compared to you. It is honor to be able to communicate with you.
Another thought... the same guys that have been complaining all year about how an 18 game schedule would be too hard on the players physically are the same sort of guys jumping up and down about who's tougher and chomping at the bit to declare their fanatical willingness to go out and risk being further crippled by playing with an injury. That doesn't make any sense at all.
Mike, I can only guess. It starts with the fact that a lot of folks just don't like Cutler. Some reasons: 1) Cutler, like his head coach, has been very honest, if undiplomatic, when he says that he really doesn't care what people outside the locker room think of him. Some members of the media hate this attitude...it kind of challenges their sense of self-importance. They then use their influence, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, on fans. 2) Cutler, unlike some other sports stars, isn't much of an actor. When he's not in the game, he doesn't always remain "in character," playing the role of the heroic all-american quarterback-type. The camera sometimes catches him in less than fully-engaged mode, infuriating some fans. 3) Along the lines of his failings as an actor, when you're hurt, apparently you need to let everyone, and particularly the cameras, know about it. Wince. Limp. Perhaps a mild yet earnest cursing of the fates. Then and only then do you firmly set you jaw and continue on. Cutler didn't act injured enough for many folks. He needs to watch more Brett Favre tape. As for what Jones-Drew et al said/tweeted, I'm really kind of appalled. Any athlete who has been injured and suddenly finds his body unable to do what it's been trained so hard to do should know better...and this doesn't just apply to professional athletes. Cutler may indeed be a jerk and he can certainly be undisciplined and reckless as a QB. He also played like crap before he got hurt yesterday. But he doesn't deserve what he's been getting.
I'll take the shot and stand by my words. The thing that bothers me about football is the deception. The object is to get the ball in the end zone, but on every play someone is taking a cheap shot and trying to knock an opposing player out of the game. At least in boxing -- which I love -- it's honest. It's not prepackaged and covert. Whenever I watch a football game I feel like I've taken a time machine back to the 1998 Sosa-McGuire home run race and everyone is just pretending to not be aware of what's really going on.
