Is Cutler Really to Blame?

Jay Cutler has drawn an immense amount of criticism following the Bears loss to the Packers for not gutting it out and staying in the game despite his injury. Some samples:

Derrick Brooks: "I have to be crawling and can't get up to come off the field. Josh Freeman would not come out. Meds are available ... "

Brooks again: "There is no medicine for a guy with no guts and heart."

Deion Sanders: "I never question a player's injury, but I do question a player's heart."

Darnell Dockett: "If I'm on the Chicago team Jay Cutler has to wait 'til me and the team shower [and] get dressed and leave before he comes in the locker room."

Mark Schlereth: "As a guy [who has had] 20 knee surgeries you'd have to drag me out on stretcher to leave a championship game."

Maurice Jones-Drew: "All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee ... I played the whole season on one."


Pretty harsh stuff, and that's just a small sample of the stuff that's out there. Now, I get it. Some people are upset because Cutler wasn't lying on his deathbed, or jumping up and down screaming to get back into the game, and to them that means he had no heart and/or he should not have come out of the game. I don't know that I agree with that. Sure there are tons of examples in sports of guys gutting it out for glory and putting everything on the line. Phillip Rivers comes to mind. Rivers played in the AFC Championship Game in 2008 against New England with a torn ACL. What people don't remember is that the game Rivers was hurt in, he didn't return. That divisional playoff game against the Colts was won by backup Billy Volek. It's not unheard of for quarterbacks to not be able to return from injury in playoff games. Carson Palmer tore both his ACL and MCL against the Steelers in the 2006 Wildcard Game and had to give way to Jon Kitna. Heck, Joe Montana got blown up by Leonard Marshall in the 1992 NFC Championship Game and had to give way to Steve Young...It happens. I don't recall any of those guys having their toughness questioned by the entire world though. How about 2 years ago when the Titans played the Ravens in the second round of the playoffs? At 13-3 the Titans were the #1 seed and if ever there was a year when they looked poised to make a Super Bowl run this was it. Chris Johnson goes down with an injury in the first half. No crutches, no stretcher, just sat on the sidelines in a parka a la Jay Cutler. Left with LenDale White, the Titans offense which had leaned so heavily on Johnson all year sputtered and the Titans lost on a late field goal to Joe Flacco and company 13-10. Did anyone say anything about Chris Johnson's toughness? Or throw fits about why he wasn't doing everything HE could do to get back into the game? I'm a Titans fan, and while I was disappointed that our star player was out, I don't recall blaming him or accusing him of not trying. I just think it's unfortunate that so many people are jumping on Cutler before they even know the extent of the injury. I mean if it comes back that he had a bad bruise or something, than yeah, go ahead and question his toughness. But this is a guy who plays football despite having Type I Diabetes, got sacked more than anyone else over the course of the season and missed just one game (due to a concussion), and seems to have the complete support of his coach and teammates. Brian Urlacher and center Olin Kreutz seemed quick to defend their quarterback when asked. Same with safety Chris Harris, and backup quarterback Caleb Hanie. Not one hint of dissension among the Bears ranks. To me the whole thing is disappointing. It's easy to say that if you were in Cutler's shoes you would've done things differently, but the fact of the matter is that none of these critics were. Yeah, some of them are football players who battled through injuries. But a lot of them weren't quarterbacks, and they don't know what Cutler was going through. For Maurice Jones-Drew to say that he played the whole year on a bad knee is ridiculous. When the Jaguars were tied atop the AFC South at 8-6 with the Colts and his team needed him, Jones-Drew missed the last two regular season games. Hmmmmmm... Anyhow, people need to lay off of Cutler. He led his team to the NFC Championship game and they came up short. It's unfortunate the way things went down, but no one deserves the sort of judgment that he's receiving.