Last night's NFC Championship game between Chicago and Green Bay was a fascinating encounter for all of the right reasons. The real stories today should be both that the Packers are deservedly in the Super Bowl with one of the best QB's in the league at their helm (again), and also that young Caleb Hanie almost achieved a comeback of epic proportions. Of course, neither is the top story on twitter, or ESPN, or NFL Network, because a group of current and ex-players have used Jay Cutler's exit from the game in the third quarter as a stick to beat him with. Never mind that he was pulled from the game by Doctors, never mind that Centre Olin Kreutz vividly recounted Cutler's knee shaking in the huddle after a hit, and his 'amazement' that the Quarterback returned after half time. Never mind that he was diagnosed with a torn MCL this morning Never mind all of that, because nobody likes Jay Cutler, so he's fair game.
"All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee ... I played the whole season on one ..."
Maurice Jones-Drew
"Cmon cutler u have to come back," Cardinals safety Kerry Rhodes wrote on Twitter. "This is the NFC championship if u didn't know!"
Kerry Rhodes
“As a guy how had 20 knee surgeries you’d have to drag me out on a stretcher to Leave a championship game!”
Mark Schlereth
“Im telling u in the playoffs u must drag me off the field. All the medicine in pro lockerooms this dude comes out! I apologize bear fans! . . . Folks i never question a players injury but i do question a players heart."
Deion Sanders
BUT I'M NOT!
In all seriousness, the outpouring of scorn on Cutler before all the facts were known exposed the distaste for Cutler in the media on a grand scale. Does he warrant it? Perhaps. He doesn't seem to want any of the bonhomie and banter with members of the media that many players enjoy. He's not easy to talk to, he doesn't respond well at press conferences, and his body language is always that of a man content to wallow in his own world regardless of the game situation. Yeah, he warrants the criticism for all of those things.
But toughness? Nah. I'm not buying it. Cutler has shown in his career so far - often to his detriment - that he is a stubborn, cavalier type of QB, much like Brett Favre - indeed comparisons are often made between the two - so the idea of him actively seeking to stay on the sideline at a critical point of the season... has anyone even remotely applied any form of logic to this? Why would Cutler pass up a relatively short field, like the one that faced replacement Todd Collins? Why on earth, given everything Cutler has faced this year in terms of punishment and hits, would he choose that particular moment to quit on his team-mates? None of it makes sense.
No, what makes sense is that hypocrites like Deion Sanders, Michael Irvin and Maurice Jones-Drew, all of whom have missed plenty of games through injury in the past, decided that the widely hated Cutler was an easy target. It exposes the unsettling undercurrent of deceit that Sanders peddles, as he stubbornly refused to back down on NFLN last night in the face of reports that in fact it was the doctors that pulled Cutler. Instead, Prime muddled through a well rehearsed "perception vs reality" piece that in fact told us absolutely nothing. The perception amongst idiots was that Cutler quit on the Bears. The reality was that he didn't. That's all there is to it, but somehow Deion Sanders refuses to accept that he got it completely wrong.
The argument that players have played through X Y and Z doesn't hold water. Philip Rivers was poor in the AFC Championship 3 years ago playing with a torn ACL. Coach Norv Turner gave him a choice, but crucially advised Rivers not to play, citing the team's ability to return to the playoffs in the future. What people forget is that Rivers playing on, or Cutler playing on, may not actually be what is best for the team in the short or long term. If Cutler couldn't plant his foot, then he was useless to his team and was frankly more of a liability than anything. What would the Bears gain from further risking his knee in return for an ineffective at best performance? As far as the long term consequences, Carson Palmer has been awful since his knee injury in 2006, while Tom Brady took almost a full 12 months to recover from a torn ACL in the first game of 2008. If Cutler needed 12 months to rehab his injury, that puts him out for a whole season. While it's a worst case scenario, the fact is that coaches and doctors have to be aware of the repercussions that come with an injury to a franchise QB.
I have a friend who called Cutler a coward last night. He doesn't know Cutler, he just watched the same thing that we all watched. he didn't know the situation, yet he made a judgement. That's life, unfortunately, but hopefully if there is any positive lesson from this, it's that some of those people who love the sound of their own voice on TV and on Twitter, will wait for the facts to emerge before making assumptions about another player's injury.
Like a lot of people, I'm now actively awaiting the response to the next injury suffered by any of those so quick to judge Cutler last night. I'll leave the last word, though, to a surprising voice of reason in the whole sorry affair:
Turned on Espn and reading the tweets current/former players have sent out based on Cutlers injury.what if he's really hurt bad :( I'm sad
Chad Ochocinco on Twitter
