Steve Walsh. Erik Kramer. Dave Krieg. Rick Mirer. Steve Stenstrom. Shane Matthews. Cade McNown. Jim Miller. Chris Chandler. Henry Burris.
Hold On, I’m not done yet, just a finger cramp
Kordell Stewart. Craig Krenzel. Chad Hutchinson. Jonathon Quinn. Kyle Orton. Brain Griese
That was exhausting, but I feel like I had to do it. That my friends is the list of Bears quarterbacks to start since 1994. Notably missing from that list is the Bears current quarterback Jay Cutler. Cutler was under a lot of scrutiny in this the week leading up to his first ever playoff start. You may be thinking Cutler had a bad game last week or maybe he was in the midst of a bad season. But then you need to remember that he actually didn’t play last week because he led his team to a first round bye in the playoffs and he had statistically one of the beat seasons a Bears QB has ever had. So why is Cutler so under the gun? Because some people don’t like the way he acts in the media. Cutler has never been “a friend of the media” and because of this it seems like sometimes members of the media are more critical of him when it comes to pure football ability. Well I’m here to tell the members of the media and Cutlers critics to JUST SHUT UP
Going in to this season, I did not see one expert or even fan pick the Bears to win more then 7 games. Here they sit at 11-5 and hosting a divisional playoff game and people have a problem with Cutler because he does not smile enough? Give me a break. Cutler has accomplished a very good statistical season despite playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in the league. Cutler has also put together an excellent statistical season without having a Wide receiver that has ever had a 1,000 yard season. No one mentions the fact that Cutler has found success despite learning his 3rd offense in the last 3 seasons. All these things are conveniently forgotten when talking about how Cutler doesn’t keep enough eye contact when someone is speaking to him. Last time I checked eye contact was not a statistical category in the NFL.
What frustrates me the most is the fact that people automatically consider Cutler a bad guy just because he is not extremely comfortable being in front of a microphone. This became extremely evident when full- of -himself ESPN writer Rick Reilly came to town this week. Reilly, who is notorious for making up facts for stories and writing in a manor that would make the most egotistical person seem humble, attended Cutler’s weekly press conference this week. After asking some questions in regards to how well people know Cutler and not getting any serious responses, Reilly proceeded to ask Jay if he was ok with his public image. Jay responded by saying that he didn’t know what his public image was and that he did not really care. This led Reilly to basically call Cutler an unlikable guy. My problem with this is basically two fold. The first issue I have is that this has no bearing what so ever on his ability. Looking at the list of quarterbacks above, you will find many people who were a lot of fun and media savvy, but you won’t find a winner in the bunch. My other problem is all the evidence that people tend to ignore that actually would lead you to believe that Cutler is a really good guy. Outside of all the work he does for Diabetes organizations, he also does a lot of other charity work. My favorite story is one that is actually very recent. Around the Christmas holidays a bunch of the bears visited a children’s hospital. They brought a bunch of media outlets and fanfare with them. Jay Cutler was not there. He did however visit the children’s hospital hours later with his sister. They bought presents for the whole floor. Cutler was adamant that he wanted no media coverage of the event. He was doing it just because he believed it was right. Sounds like a pretty good guy to me
If you haven’t noticed, Jay Cutler has my support. I believe that he has shown me no reason not to. His physical ability is not only so much better then any quarterback the bears have ever had, it is one of the best in the league. He has taken a team that on paper is not that good and has carried them to within 2 games of playing in the Super bowl. As far as his public image goes; in a league where you have quarterbacks forcing themselves on women, throwing there pads into the stands, fighting dogs, and sending pictures of their penis to any woman they see, I’ll take a guy who sometimes forgets to smile in a press conference
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