General NFL discussion thread

[tomkaters]

I keep finding myself in the awkward position of feeling bad for Jay Cutler.

Chicago is a bad combination for him.

A local media who has some sort of hang up about QBs, and organization that can't seem to actually build around his strenghths, and he doesn't have the most effusive personality.

Earl Bennet, Johnny Know, and Devin Hester are all fine players.... but what team with aspirations towards a high powered passing game would have those be the top 3 wide receivers on the team?

[Wood]

I keep finding myself in the awkward position of feeling bad for Jay Cutler.

Chicago is a bad combination for him.

A local media who has some sort of hang up about QBs, and organization that can't seem to actually build around his strenghths, and he doesn't have the most effusive personality.

Earl Bennet, Johnny Know, and Devin Hester are all fine players.... but what team with aspirations towards a high powered passing game would have those be the top 3 wide receivers on the team?

Yep, same here. Cutler by no means does himself any favors with the way he comports himself to the media (not that he has to be nice to them), but the guy is a Type 1 diabetic who got sacked nearly 60 times this year. So this notion that he quit on his team or somehow isn't tough just baffles me to no end.

[steve bryant]

A local media who has some sort of hang up about QBs...

But it's not the Chicago media who's crucifying Cutler, it's all the national media, who made up their minds about Cutler two years ago.

[Lawrence]

While I completely agree with you guys, its hard for "fans" to not attack a guy who looks like he is capable of playing. Its just the nature of the beast. Unfortunately it is the Albatross all million dollar athletes in high profile positions must carry  .

[Jay Tomio]

I've always been fascinated with perception that the Bears somehow win despite of Cutler's penchant for making mistakes. I've always thought that reality was more that their entire offense is mediocre and Cutler is the only one with a skillset on that team that makes them (at times) otherwise. I always see this "Martz protecting him" line and I think it's more Martz knowing his playmakers are just below optimal. The funny thing is that perhaps their best weapon (related to the rest of the league) is their TE who they don't use very often.

[steve bryant]

I love all the people who said Cutler should have gotten a cortisone shot. Fun fact: Cortisone elevates the blood sugar and doctors generally avoid giving it to diabetics, unless it's an emergency.

I'm not sure where the Hippocratic Oath stands Championship Games.   

[Dave A]

Man... a lot of run is being given to Cutler's diabetes here...

It's not cancer, y'all. Lots of diabetics live active and healthy lives, especially when they're still in their 20s. Cutler's not even the first diabetic in the NFL.

It does affect him in cases like the cortisone shot Steve mentions, and whenever it was going undiagnosed, depending on how long that lasted, it could have had effects on his vision and left him feeling extremely lethargic and/or irritable for a while. (I'd bet it didn't go undiagnosed for very long, though, with a whole team of doctors sniffing around every time you fart funny.) And, of course, it's something that needs to be monitored, particularly in game time situations. But being diabetic doesn't have anything to do with toughness, and isn't his excuse for losing football games.

It sounds to me like a lot of people in the national media (including former NFL players) just plain don't like the guy.... But it's not absurd, I don't think, to question Cutler's mental toughness... the qualities in him that had him sitting on the bench pouting through the rest of the game instead of trying to rally his team or trying to help his backups win. The qualities in him that made it look like he couldn't be less interested in the outcome of the game if he wasn't in it.

Either way, I'm not going to hammer the guy, because I don't really know what the situation was (and I thought the quarterback play improved considerably after he left the game, so there probably is something to him saying he couldn't plant right). I don't know that I feel sorry for him either, though...

[steve bryant]

Some noted MCL injuries this season, resulting in games missed:

Troy Polamalu
Brandon Jacobs
Matt Cassel
Chris Ivory
Jason Witten
Kyle Kosier
Chris Hoke
Tracy Porter
Knowshon Moreno
Marcus Spears
Vince Young

Apparently, none of these guys have heart...   

[Wood]

Some noted MCL injuries this season, resulting in games missed:

Troy Polamalu
Brandon Jacobs
Matt Cassel
Chris Ivory
Jason Witten
Kyle Kosier
Chris Hoke
Tracy Porter
Knowshon Moreno
Marcus Spears
Vince Young

Apparently, none of these guys have heart...   

Good posting, Karma to you sir.

I DETEST the sliding scale of fandom.

Cutler = unlikeable ergo he's a pussy
Big Ben is a rapist, but because he's heading to his 3rd Super Bowl in 7 seasons, he's now a "gamer who overcame personal obstacles"


I mean...do fans and the media ever take a step back and look at themselves? In a year where Michael Vick was turned into a human interest story and Big Ben is being lauded as a Hall of Famer and being compared to Tom Brady, we've got 70+ NFL athletes coming out on Twitter calling Jay Cutler a bitch because he wasn't in a game yet wasn't carted off?
 

[steve bryant]

Good posting, Karma to you sir.

I DETEST the sliding scale of fandom.

Cutler = unlikeable ergo he's a pussy
Big Ben is a rapist, but because he's heading to his 3rd Super Bowl in 7 seasons, he's now a "gamer who overcame personal obstacles"


I mean...do fans and the media ever take a step back and look at themselves? In a year where Michael Vick was turned into a human interest story and Big Ben is being lauded as a Hall of Famer and being compared to Tom Brady, we've got 70+ NFL athletes coming out on Twitter calling Jay Cutler a bitch because he wasn't in a game yet wasn't carted off?
 

And Karma back to you.

Players are jealous...some labored under piss-poor contracts or hated their teams or management, or whatever...I think most of the guys are pouncing on him for this reason. Ironic, in light of the politically correct speak that comes when a player has a contract holdout, "It's business."

I'm loving Jerry Angelo right now, who spoke out against all the bitch-ass players taking shots at Cutler. “I’m very surprised,” Angelo said. “I think it’s crap. I thought they were a union. If that’s the way they unionize themselves, they got bigger issues than the one that they have with the owners" (over the absence of a collective bargaining agreement for next season).

In fairness, part of the responsibility falls on Cutler, who hasn't managed his public image.

Part also falls on the Fox team, whose director found the shots that make Cutler look pouty, on Aikman and Buck for not digging deeper on why Cutler wasn't playing.

And part of the responsibility falls at the feet of the Bears organization, from Angelo to Smith, for not getting out in front of this sooner, controlling the narrative, and saying what the hell was going on. Part, I'm sure, comes down to gamesmanship (Smith has long been cagey about injury reporting), but they still screwed the pooch on this.

[JimN]

It sounds to me like a lot of people in the national media (including former NFL players) just plain don't like the guy.... But it's not absurd, I don't think, to question Cutler's mental toughness... the qualities in him that had him sitting on the bench pouting through the rest of the game instead of trying to rally his team or trying to help his backups win.

Pouting? Not helping?

Don't forget, the cameras give us viewers fleeting glimpses of what happens on the sidelines and those glimpses, just like the editing on a reality show, can even be an attempt to reinforce a storyline or an "angle". I didn't see any pouting from Cutler and as for helping his teammates... well, listen to what Bears QB Caleb Hanie had to say about that:

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

It just frustrates you to hear that stuff from anybody, let alone other players and well-known respected media guys on TV,'' Hanie said. ''I'll just tell you this: The one thing I know about Jay Cutler is that he's tough. Another thing I know about him is that he's going to stand up for his teammates. And he didn't want to let his teammates down. So if he could have been on the field and been productive at all for the team, he would have done it.''

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.

Jim

[tomkaters]

Hey...Cutler is friends with Rodgers so he can't be that big of an asshole.

[tomkaters]

Good posting, Karma to you sir.

I DETEST the sliding scale of fandom.

Cutler = unlikeable ergo he's a pussy
Big Ben is a rapist, but because he's heading to his 3rd Super Bowl in 7 seasons, he's now a "gamer who overcame personal obstacles"


I mean...do fans and the media ever take a step back and look at themselves? In a year where Michael Vick was turned into a human interest story and Big Ben is being lauded as a Hall of Famer and being compared to Tom Brady, we've got 70+ NFL athletes coming out on Twitter calling Jay Cutler a bitch because he wasn't in a game yet wasn't carted off?
 

You know what drove me crazy...after the game when Nantz asked Ben about "Everything he has gone through...", like all those things happened TO him instead of him causing it. It wasn't a flood or a family illness.

[ValorPhoeniX]

cutler should take a lesson from jim rice. be nice to sportswriters because they write the narratives.

[ValorPhoeniX]

You know what drove me crazy...after the game when Nantz asked Ben about "Everything he has gone through...", like all those things happened TO him instead of him causing it. It wasn't a flood or a family illness.

jim nantz is a dink. he was the one who framed phil mickelson winning the masters after tigers troubles as a "family man" and great person.a shot at tigers infidelity. as if we really know what any person is really like. stop. he also got pissed at his ex wife because she wouldnt let him hand a self painting of himself in the living room.

[allen]

BTW.  The Stealers can lick my hairy nutsack.  Go Packers.

[Wood]

You know what drove me crazy...after the game when Nantz asked Ben about "Everything he has gone through...", like all those things happened TO him instead of him causing it. It wasn't a flood or a family illness.

It was MADDENING, I agree Tom. When that fat face was talking and his first response was, "God is good." REALLY? I mean, REALLY? I wonder if the woman he forcibly fellated in that bar was pointing to the sky and thanking her god at that moment, too. 

[thefreakytiki]

uhm... Go Steelers? 


the Tiki

[Wood]

uhm... Go Steelers? 


the Tiki

Sorry man, I can root for 52 of the 53-man roster, and your coach seems like a bad ass, but the way the media is crowning Big Ben and not holding him accountable for what a reprehensible human being he really is just mystifies me, in the same day when EVERYONE is trying to rake Jay Cutler over the coals. As though being a "pussy" with a torn MCL is a graver affront to our sensibilities than being a world class douche bag with a penchant for sexual assault.

[thefreakytiki]

Sorry man, I can root for 52 of the 53-man roster, and your coach seems like a bad ass, but the way the media is crowning Big Ben and not holding him accountable for what a reprehensible human being he really is just mystifies me, in the same day when EVERYONE is trying to rake Jay Cutler over the coals. As though being a "pussy" with a torn MCL is a graver affront to our sensibilities than being a world class douche bag with a penchant for sexual assault.

Big Ben is a strange albatross for a Steelers fan.  I try separate the on field QB from the off field immature knucklehead.  I will be the first to admit that I yelled trade him when this was all going down.  Hell, I have a first hand story about Big Ben from my sister when she met him at a bar years ago (to which my Wife decided to hate him after that). 

I totally agree with your rooting for 52/53 synopsis.  As of today, right now, the only thing I can go on is how that incident was a wake up call for him and how many people I know in Pittsburgh have said his actions are a complete 180 from how the city viewed him PRE Georgia incident.

NOTE:  From what I understand the BIG wake up call for Ben was when his Dad grabbed him and read him the riot act.  Specifically how he (the Father) was torn apart by hearing HIS name, Roethlisberger associated with such immaturity.  Sometimes, no matter how old you are, how much money you make or how many Super Bowl rings you have your old man is still your old man and his word carries more weight than anyone else.


the Tiki