Knee-Gate: The Jay Cutler Saga

The media fire storm that has taken place in the days after the NFC Championship, targeted at enigma of a QB, is unprecedented. Jay Cutler has always been criticized in regards to something or the other, but this is taking it to a whole new level. Some of the NFL, as well as America are now questioning whether this guy is tough enough, or has enough heart to play in the NFL. Let me put it plainly: Jay Culter is extremely tough, he doesnt quit, and has a lot of heart. He just doesnt show it on his sleeve, which is perfectly fine. Before you go making your judgments about whether he quit, or isnt tough, at least look at all the facts before making up your mind. Lets take a look, starting with the actual injury.

Cutler suffered a grade II MCL sprain in his left knee. In terms of MCL injury's, a sprain is a tear, but depending on the grade, it can vary form a partial, to a full grade III complete tear. Now you might be saying that you've heard of guys playing with MCL sprains before, but I guarantee you none of those guys were QB's who suffered grade II sprains, in their plant legs. Cutler was injured in his left knee, which means that is the leg he plants and drives through in order to throw. A partial tear of your MCL does not allow you to plant and drive with your full weight, which spells bad news for QB's. If you have bad footwork, your accuracy will be way off, and balls will be sailing over recievers' heads, going wide, etc. Not to mention, since his shaky offensive line allows so many sacks, he needs that knee in order to scramble, and avoid rushers...difficult when you have a knee that is swelling up. Just to put it into perspective, All-Everything safety Troy Polamalu missed 9 games due to the same injury...granted, it wasn't the championship game, but still, that puts into perspective just how serious of an injury this actually is. He was injured in the 1st half, and came back in the 2nd and tried to play with it. It just wasnt working, and he was obviously in some pain. His center even commented that in the huddle, he saw Cutler's leg visibly shaking, and at that point, knew it was something serious.


To call Jay Cutler a quitter, gutless, or any other negative adjective about his toughness is just plain ridiculous. This very same "not tough enough" QB has missed ONE GAME in his entire career due to injury, oh, that's including college too. The only game he missed was this year and thats because he had a concussion. Not to mention he was the most sacked QB this year...you start to get the picture. Anyone who saw the Giants-Bears game this year should know exactly what I'm talking about.Time after time he was pounded to the turf, and still managed to pick himself up again. Would a player with no guts do that?

Jay Cutler is also playing with type 1 diabetes. If this guy was a quitter, trust me, that would have been the perfect excuse to hang em up, and no one would have thought anything bad about him for doing so. The fact is, hes a competitor, and tough as hell. You dont see him making excuses about the diabetes, he sucks it up, takes care of it, and goes out and plays hard each and every week. Another quick point about this, other players when they get hurt, receive cortisone shots to numb the pain so they can keep playing. Cutler cannot take cortisone shots because it will elevate his blood sugar....so if he gets hurt, hes feeling every bit of that pain, unlike some of the other guys around the NFL.

The training staff/medical doctors call the shots. They are the ones who wouldn't clear Cutler to go back in. Anyone who knows anything about pro sports knows that with an injury, no matter how much the player begs and pleads, the final say rests with the training/medical staff. They thought it a significant enough injury to not allow him to go back into the game. It was not Cutler's decision, so stop acting like it was. The head physician for the Los Angeles Dodger, Neal ElAttrache, weighed in on his thoughts regarding Cutler. He said that Cutler should in no way have finished that game. He said anyone with a Grade II or III sprain with no damage to their ACL is extremely lucky, and that had he kept playing, the next thing to go in a situation like that would have been the ACL......just a bit more to put it all into perpective.Even if, by some miracle, he was cleared, once a 3rd string QB enters the game, as was the case, the first 2 QB's are not allowed to go back into the game for any reason. So once Caleb Haine took the field, it was all over for Todd Collins and Jay Cutler.

Lastly, you have Brian Urlacher of all people sticking up for him no questions asked. People might say "oh well thats his teammate, he has to." Dont be so quick to throw that out there. When Cutler first arrived in Chicago, Urlacher famously called him the "P" word. Urlacher has a history of telling it like he sees it, not holding back, even when it comes to his own teammates, so why would he all of a sudden lie to save face, when he has no history of ever doing so before? This makes me believe he sincerely believed everything he was saying, and supported Cutler. He knew the extent of the injury, or what the training staff at the time believed was the extent. He's not questioning anything. Had Cutler simple made an excuse to come out of the game when things werent going well, you better believe Urlacher would be heated, and ripping Cutler apart....since neither happened, you have to take Urlacher at his word. He's earned that type of respect, and I think players around the NFL realized that.

I do agree that his body language was bad, and showed he didn't really care, however, not everyone in the NFL is a "ra-ra
type of leader. Eli Manning was criticized for being too quiet, too soft spoken of a guy. Where are people questioning his toughness/heart? I do understand that he is the QB and is thus a de facto leader of a team, however, he doesn't NEED to be that guy. They have guys like Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, and Peanut Tillman to take care of all the pumping up, vocal leadership. Cutler leads by his play, and to go from 9-7 to 12-6 shows this guy can play....personalities are different. Not everyone wears their emotions on their sleeves like a Tim Tebow, or Ray Lewis. Others let their play do the talking, and lets not get it twisted, talent wise- Cutler is in the elite of this league. I do agree he could have been more active, but I guess he was doing his thing, in his own way. You cant force someone to be something they are not, even though his position calls for it. I would have liked to see a bit more emotion out of him standing on the side lines, but can understand why there wasnt.

Lovie Smith had a great quote from his presser yesterday. " If you are in that fraternity, I would think you would step up for your fellow man." The amount of backlash from players was ridiculous, and unwarranted, especially since none of them actually knew what was going on. Once they learned the severity of his injury, some were quick to make excuses. Take Maurice Jones Drew for example. These were his tweets when Cutler went out of the game: ""Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now... When the going gets tough........QUIT," and " "finish the game on a hurt knee. . . . I played the whole season on one."............Ater leaning the extent of the injury yesterday, he quickly back peddled and had this to say, ""I never attacked him, called him soft or a sore loser," Jones-Drew told Long. "I never questioned his toughness. I think people took my joke out of context. I was taking at shot at (University of) Florida fans."....this happened a couple of times, and once people realized he had a sprained MCL, they were quick to shut up.


Jay Cutler is an elite talent in this league, if he puts all of it together. He is one of the toughest QB's around, and for anyone to question his toughness, after leaning exactly what was wrong, is just plain ignorant, and stupid. He's a professional athlete, by nature, the most competitive type of person on this planet, so to say he QUIT during the championship game is nothing short of absurd. I do agree with the body language part though. He needed to be somewhat more enthusiastic/lively on the sidelines, cheering his team on, but hey, thats not who he is, and you cant expect someone to be something they are not, even though they are the QB of the team, and the position calls for it. People need to look at all the facts before making their judgments...he got you to the championship game Bears Fans...where would you be without him? ......until next year...Cutler Down.




-Z$