NBA / Jan 24, 2011 / 3:00 pm

Quitness For The Prosecution: Finding the NBA’s Jay Cutler

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Around Christmas time, I was playing NCAA Football on PS3 against my boy from college. I was at his house, on his system, on his game … and I stomped him. At some point in the fourth quarter, frustrated and getting done in by the Legion of Hokies Doom, he yelled “F*** this!” and tossed his controller against a wall.

Crazy? Yeah. Awkward? Definitely. Scary? Almost. But hey, at least he left no doubt that he really cared about the outcome. If only Jay Cutler had heard this story, maybe he would have acted differently yesterday and wouldn’t be the national sports pariah of the moment.

I’m just about done with this whole sports media thing. The latest headache-inducer began Sunday afternoon, while the Chicago Bears were in the process of losing to the Green Bay Pacers in the NFC Championship game. Cutler, the Bears’ starting quarterback, injured his left knee in the first quarter and had to leave for good in the third quarter. He should have actually left. Because by the time the game was over, Cutler’s sideline demeanor and decision (whoever made it) to stop playing — and the fact that he wasn’t limping enough for some people’s taste — was being bashed by a legion of NFL players, fans and media. Essentially, the charge was that Cutler bitched out of the biggest game of his career.

While today’s revelation that Cutler suffered a torn (or sprained) MCL hopefully snuffs out the accusations that he was faking/milking an injury, there is still ill will toward Cutler by jersey-burning fans in Chicago for not showing enough “fire” and “emotion” while his team went down. As ESPN football analyst (and former Super Bowl-winning QB) Trent Dilfer put it, “It’s the fact that he didn’t show the demonstrative behavior most players would have shown.”

I will say this much: I didn’t like how Cutler seemed to let third-string QB Caleb Hanie burn in the frying pan by himself, as the veteran never appeared to (at least on camera) stand by the youngster’s side and offer counsel during the biggest game of his career. Almost every time I saw Cutler after he was sat down, he was …. well, sitting down. But then again, his knee was hurt, and I know from my days playing football that your body gets A LOT colder when you’re not playing as opposed to when you’re on the field. So making a cocoon out of yourself on the bench in 10-degree weather is kind of understandable.

But the whole “demonstrative behavior” concept is what annoys me, especially when people take one moment and turn it into a smudge on a player’s entire career. We went over this earlier in the NFL season with Arizona Cardinals QB Derek Anderson, who was “caught” laughing and smiling on the bench while his team was getting molly-whopped in a Monday Night Football game. But haven’t we all had a day that was going so badly all we could do was laugh? And what is Anderson supposed to do, keep a twisted mean-mug “game face” on for the entire four-hour MNF production? Read More>>

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  • hahns

    good article – when it comes to carter its probably more about focus and discipline, in terms of attacking, that is the problem. im definitely guilty of criticizing vc for being soft, but at the same time, its sometimes upsetting to see a guy w/ carter’s talent waste it on jump shots.

  • http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/files/you_re_a_homo_767.jpg JAY

    AB, I hate Vince Carter but Vince and what Jay Cutler did last night are totally different. Vince, even though he’s a puss, would still get up in an important game and play. He might not play well, but he would play. Vince fakes injuries in the regular season, not in Championship games… or at least he hasn’t done it yet.

    Jay Cutler bailed on his team. He might have been hurt, but he didn’t look injured enough to stay out of the game. He walked around like nothing was wrong and that was a championship game!!! Willis Reed was hurt more than that, and he played. Isaiah Thomas was more obviously hurt than that, and he played. Cutler got a boo-boo and quit.

    Deion Sanders tweeted it best: “i never question a players injury but i do question a players heart. “

  • http://www.balla.net Balla

    This is true, but Cutler and Vince are missing the competitive edge of players who are less talented who also put those same hours in empty gyms and stadiums. That same competitive edge that will not let u lose. The edge where u are ready to live in an empty gym/stadium if u did not leave it all on the line. Cutler and Vince put in time to be good talents, but you can not train competitive nature and the will to win.

  • Stunnaboy2K11

    This was a championship game, repeat, CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. F this, Farve plays his heart out at 40 and takes ridiculous hits, Rivers played with a torn ACL, Brady played half the year on a stress fracture. Isiah Thomas played on a horrible ankle in the NBA where movement is necessary. No reason to believe Cutler couldn’t shotgun the way through the rest of the game.

    His team was one game away from the Super Bowl and he bailed on his team. They can defend him all they want, but I bet most of them have that niggling doubt in their mind. Cutler fing left them out to dry. Look, if your knee is hurt ice it or at least cheer on the team. Don’t stand around looking like your at the DMV. Like you said he couldn’t even help his backup (WHO GREATLY OUTPLAYED HIM)

    Also, the most overriding factor in the Cutler hate, he’s a GIANT douche. Simple.

  • king

    people need to stop. the man tore/sprained A LIGAMENT IN HIS KNEE. if he played more on it and someone hit him low his career couldve been in jeopardy. We seen what happened to Grant Hill when he decided to “tough it out” for the pistons in the playoffs. His career was never the same. I think Jay Cutler is a bum and was extremely overrated when he was going from denver to chicago. But if you think he needed to tough out a knee injury youre ridiculous.

  • shuttles

    agree with king. playing hurt is stupid. you can screw up your career and in most cases you’re hurting your team by hobbling around out there when a healthy backup would probably contribute more. and i definitely saw cutler cheering when hanie threw the first touchdown pass, although i wasn’t really monitoring cutler’s reactions for the entire 2nd half.

  • chucktaylor

    great article

  • Chris

    You media clowns are an absolute joke. Get your mother f’n facts straight. Hanie publicly spoke about how jay helped him. Just because fox showed your jackass cutler sitting by himself for a minute doesnt mean anything. None of that is in real time. My season tickets are right behind the bears bench and I watched jay talk with Caleb over game photos. Real bear fans are still with cutler and the idiots burning jerseys should’ve left them on before lighting them on fire. You clowns sit and wait for every reason you can find to rip jay cutler when you should be writing about how manning, brady, and brees are sitting on their asses. Get a life and do some real work.

  • NTstateOFmind

    nice to see a good article on here once in a while
    good job AB

  • Chris

    Furthermore Lovie Smith PULLED HIM FROM THE GAME. Educate yourself on what really happened before you go writing this ignorant bullshit.

  • Chris

    This article is almost funny. Caleb Hanie addressed the clownshow(media) about how cutler helped him. I sat right behind the bears bench watching cutler review photos with him. Just because fox showed you 30 seconds of jay on the sideline by himself means jack shit. None of the garbage they show is in real time. Get your head out of your ass and write some real pieces.

  • listingstarboard

    With the response of the Chicago Bears fans, burning his jersey, denigrating him in tweets, blasting him on blogs IS IT ANY WONDER CUTLERS HEART WASN’T IN IT? With a fan base like that who WOULD want to risk crippling themselves with an irreparable injury? Cutler should tell Chicago to shove it–it is a festering cesspool of corruption anyways.

  • granadaCoder

    http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2011/01/hanie_refutes_critics_who_say.html

    The camera(s) can play tricks on you, just like an advertisement for a new episode of “Survivor”.

    Here is what Hanie said:

    Hanie said Cutler talked to him several times during the second half, but was frustrated that it seems like only the times Cutler is standing by himself doing nothing get shown on television.

    ”He talked to me. He was very encouraging,” Hanie said. ”You only get five-second clips on him during the game. For some reason they didn’t get the clips of him talking to me standing up when I come off the field, which would have been nice for everybody to see that.

    ”But he encouraged me before I went in, when I came off the field, between every drive. A few of the things he said was, ‘Hey, just play within yourself, trust the offensive line, those guys are doing a good job protecting. Just use your legs if you need to and just go make plays and have fun.’ He said that to me numerous times, calmed me down, did a great job of that.

    ”To hear that criticism of him, he doesn’t care about the game when he’s out of the game is very aggravating when you know … I can tell you first-hand that he was very encouraging to me and helped me out tremendously during the game.”

  • Stewart

    This is stupid. Cutler took this team to the NFC Championship and now all people want to say is that he quit. If fans are not knocking him for forcing passes, they are knocking him for some petty nonsense. The man had a torn MCL…keep playing, win the game, and have to retire from the game of football? That is just stupid. Not having killer instinct? When the guy clearly goes for the jugular every game. He took the “Bears” to the NFC championship with no pro-bowlers on the offensive side of the football. Don’t compare him to the likes of Vince, Vince fakes his injuries. Last year, Vince faked an injury in the playoffs, on the court holding his left arm and then on the bench trainers looking at his right. Get the hell out of here with this crap Jay Cutler. Looking mad doesn’t mean that you care. The fact that somebody could be laughing when situations are at their worst, that is something to be fearful about…

  • chucktaylor

    lol wonderin why dis Chris guy is catchin feelings in the comments section…

  • Rafa23

    WTF? the media in the US is ridiculous, but so are the moronic fans that believe all the shit.. every fucking time it’s about “heart” or “toughness” or if someone isd “soft”. wtf is this macho bullshit. the man was too injured to play. what’s so hard to understand here? just because one other has been tells the world “I played with this and that for a whole season bla bla bla”. comparing injuries is just dumb.
    does anybody really think he wouldn’t have played if he could? that was the biggest game of his career and he doesn’t play if he can? no way. just felt he couldn’t help his team that way.
    and LOL @ Fox. this channel gets laughed at all around the world. they portray stuff as news that is just complete propaganda. and people still complain about goebbels.
    didnt they say Obama was a communist? stop listening to this stuff.
    this whole help your team other ways is probably the dumbest thing. you think Haney doesn’t mess up the last throw if Cutler is screaming encouraging things from the sideline?
    just because it worked a few times to energize your team by playing injured doesn’t mean it’s always great. did it help the Lakers when Magic tried to play injured in 1989 vs the pistons? even the good will probably hurt the team cause they started with him and then were thrown off cause he exited after a few minutes.
    just play the game and cover it in a respectful way. not this bs ur seeing there.

  • WinDelRoj

    Nobody likes Jay Cutler. Not the media, not scouts, not fans, nobody likes him. He is Barry Bonds. Doesnt matter what he does hes going to be hated for the most part. Plus hes a crybaby. Forcing his way out of Denver because his name came up in a trade rumor. Its why Lance Armstrong gets a pass for all of the allegations but Barry Bonds was found guilty by the public a long time ago. When you are a douche or have douche tendencies people are waiting for you to slip..

  • 808

    @17

    I think you got it right. Cutler’s whole M.O. was “asshole”…even when he was winning. Body language this, facial expressions that…if this was another QB with a different track record, Cutler’s NFL peers, media heads, and fans, might have reacted differently. But if you know anything about Cutler, CUTLER was a large reason for all of the brimstone.

    Funny, because I’m neither a Jay Cutler fan nor a Vince Carter fan. And I’m becoming less and less of a KG fan. But all of this body language and shit is overrated. Players can’t win. If you give of the impression that you don’t care (even if you put up 30 pts or 3 TDs), you’ll get nailed….If you act like an aggressive asshole slapping the floor, pounding your chest, and swearing at the crowd, they’ll still hate you.

    If your a pro athlete, you just can’t win. No wonder pros put a facade up when interacting with fans and the media…

  • Rafa23

    lol, Lance Armstrong is not a douche? have you ever seen him interact with the media or other cyclist? the guy is as arrogant as they come. I respect him for his fight and the fight for other people against cancer. but I don’t think anybody outside the US likes his character. that’s again the picture the great media is painting.

  • Claw

    I strained my MCL and played ball a couple of weeks early and ended up tearing my ACL, and that was with a huge knee brace specifically for ACL injuries. I did have to get crutches when I did my MCL, I’m surprised he wasn’t icing it and on crutches.

    That can lead to a major injury but for a chance to a SB but possibly be out for a year and 7 months of rehab I don’t know if it’d be worth it. Is Carson Palmer back to where he once was after his knee surgery?

  • Claw

    Thought this was a Lebron article “Quitness”

  • Mark

    haha @Claw

    Sports are entertainment akin to Roman gladiators. Athletes get paid an exorbitant amount of money to throw a ball around better than we can. That’s why apparent nonchalance will never be accepted by the public.

  • https://twitter.com/#!/djlocdog Loc

    Sometimes I think AB just likes getting Raptors fans riled up. I like the argument and I agree that it will be sad to see NBA players making the extra “hurt” face to look better when they don’t play.

    But Vince would not play when he was ok, phantom injuries, and he quit midseason/midseason contract and refused to play or give it his all, then demanded a trade. That is totally different than pulling out of an NFL game with a serious injury.

  • asmatic asiatic

    The ps3 story reminded me of a situation back in college; Some roomates of mine were playing NBA live 98 and the game got so heated with the trash talk at 4am in November they wanted to take it outside and see who really had game. It was hilarious as the time but the outdoor game was overhyped, as one dude went hard and the other played soft, complaining of the cold and chance of injury kinda like the cutler situation. I can’t knock cutler with the knee injuries though, they are no joke but I guess if he atleast tryed to continue longer it would have satisfied the crazy bears fans…

  • https://twitter.com/PoppiGEE POPPI GEE

    I just wanna say Austin I will WORK you on NCAA (you pick the year) lol.

  • Young Gunner

    I thought this is the same kind of thing DIME got on Tim Thomas for

  • neoy

    good article AB!

  • http://getyourishbusted.net Chicagorilla

    I’m a Bears fan, been one since I can remember. I’ve seen the best (85′s bears) and the wrose (Rex Grossman) from this orginazation. And what people are missing is that true Bears fans have been $h!tting on Cutler since last year. The terrible decisions he makes by not getting rid of the ball, his lack of awareness, and his nonchalant attitude on the sidelines during losses. The guy is a cocky and arragant f^ker. Now with that said, I don’t think he gave up during the game. I did not see the knee injury happen but the guy has been getting smashed all season (50 sacks or so) which is partly his fault. That look he had on his face is the same look he had when the giants sacked him like 100Xs and the same look he had last year when he threw like 4 interceptions in a game. The guy just doesn’t give a ish.

    So No i don’t think he quit, I just don’t think he cares that much. also I did notice when the bears did score, led by Hanie, Cutler was smiling and pumping his fist and highfiving teammates just like everyone else.

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