By The Beachwood Injury Investigation Unit
It’s gonna be a long offseason.
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He Took The Stairs
“Jay Cutler and girlfriend Kristin Cavallari dined at Mastro’s Steakhouse on Sunday after the Bears’ 21-14 loss to the Packers in the NFC championship game,” the Tribune reports.
“Cutler, who left the game in the third quarter with a knee injury, was not on crutches but ‘he limped a tiny bit,’ according to a source. The couple was joined by 11 other people in Mastro’s private upstairs dining room, and our spies tell us that he took the stairs rather than the elevator. ”
The Trouble With Jay
“I know Jay personally, and I can’t imagine he’d sit out a game of that magnitude and watch his team go out and play,” Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway said. “I’m guessing it was severe. From my vantage point, if I were out there, they would have to pull me out of the game on my last leg. But I’m not going to tear the guy apart.”
Giving A Damn About A Bad Reputation
“If Jay Cutler held a stronger reputation for toughness in the football community, neither the media nor his peers would have piled on their negative remarks the way they did,” twonhoff writes on a Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog. “Did the local Seattle media or other players around the league throw Matt Hasselbeck under the bus when he was unable to play in the Week 17 game against the Rams with the playoffs on the line? No, because Matt Hasselbeck is well-liked, and maintains a strong reputation among fans and his peers.”
Mile High Club
“[T]he Jay Cutler Fan Club is meeting in the bathroom of a 747, for which he has himself to blame,” Neil Hayes writes for the Sun-Times.
Mocking Apparently Should Be Restricted To Crappy Columnists
NFL Players Who Mocked Cutler’s Injury Via Twitter Crossed The Line.
Status Update
Cutler listed as questionable for next season’s opener.
Nobody Thought He Was Faking
Seems to us the Bears – or at least Julius Peppers – were trying to knock Aaron Rodgers out of the game on Sunday. Turns out they came close.
“How could a quarterback who threw only five incompletions in the week prior against the Atlanta Falcons, complete only two third down conversions eight days later?” Ryan Cook writes for Acme Packing Company.
“Hold your horses folks, an answer has been discovered. According to head coach Mike McCarthy, Rodgers was playing with an injured shoulder . . . ”
Most Hated Player Ever?
“It’s one thing for fans or the media to criticize a player, but rare for fellow players,” Bob Sansevere writes for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “It’s a strong indication Cutler isn’t respected by peers, or they would have cut him some slack. You don’t suddenly start questioning a guy’s competitiveness. Among the tweets was this from former player Deion Sanders: ‘I never question a players injury but I do question a players heart. Truth.’ And this from Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett: ‘If I’m on Chicago team jay cutler has to wait till me and the team shower get dressed and leave before he comes in the locker room!'”
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“To Aikman, the vitriolic reaction to Cutler was about the attitude he has shown since he arrived in the league. Aikman said, ‘I think it speaks to how polarizing he has become.'”
Jerry Angelo Looks For The Union Label
“I think [players’ criticism of Cutler is] 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.”
Huh?
If this is any indication of Angelo’s intelligence, the Bears have bigger issues than Cutler’s injury.
Angelo: Chicago Tough On Quarterbacks
Chicago: Quarterbacks Tough On Us.
Dunce Cap
Wait a minute. The backup quarterback doesn’t get any reps with his own team’s offense?
Questionable Call
“And the severity of Cutler’s injury might have inadvertently been played down by the Bears when they termed his return ‘questionable’ and by Fox’s being unable to find the play on which he was injured.
“‘To say he was questionable implies the injury wasn’t too bad,’ Aikman said.”
This Just In!
Appellate court kicks Cutler off Pro Bowl ballot.
Being Ditka
Means never having to say you’re sorry.
Brian’s Sad Stupid Song
Bears defensive tackle Anthony Adams picked up on Brian Urlacher’s theory that players criticizing Cutler were just jealous that he was in the playoffs and they weren’t when he complained that many of the anti-Cutler tweeters came from teams “who we have beat.”
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Funny how Urlacher – and Lovie – don’t care what anyone else thinks until they care what everyone else thinks.
Hanie Belatedly Reveals Conversations Nobody Saw
”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.”
Sarah Palin’s Fault
Jags Player Gets Death Threats After Tweets.
Bears Coaches May Be Even Stupider Than We Thought
Meanwhile, it’s now less clear that Lovie Smith and Mike Martz should be given credit for coming to their senses when they yanked a pitiful Todd Collins in the third quarter and replaced him with Caleb Hanie.
NBC reports that Collins actually hurt his shoulder and is scheduled to get an MRI today; he may need surgery.
Or Are They?
A Collins injury would explain this:
“[B]y turning to Hanie, the designated third quarterback, before the fourth quarter, it ensured the Bears could not play either of their first two quarterbacks in the remainder of the game,”the Tribune reports. “Even if Hanie was injured, Cutler and Collins were then ruled out because Hanie had played before the fourth quarter.”
Then Again . . .
. . . if that was the case, why didn’t Lovie just say so in his post-game interview? Lovie Smith gets a lot of credit from his players for not calling them out in public, but Lovie’s supremely arrogant opaqueness has its dangers too. Just ask Cutler.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on January 25, 2011