Mike and Mike raised this point...if he was legitimately hurt and knew he would be ineffective, should he actually be praised for being willing to take himself out knowing he'd be hurting the team? Although it's hard to base a lot on 1 throw, his throw to Forte was woefully short in the 3rd quarter.

2nd thing, this may be a ridiculous question by me, but even if he has a slight tear or minor sprain, do you think the team would be willing to fudge the report to the public to make it appear worse than it is? If it's reported to NOT be a substantial tear, we all know he'll be hated more than Bartman or Lebron in Cleveland.

LOL, that actually made me laugh out loud. Good stuff.

It wouldn't surprise me if Cutler was out and about though, they guy doesn't seem to really give a crap what anyone thinks about him.

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I think it would be wise to fudge the report if necessary. Cutler is their franchise QB. I can think of no good that would come from allowing the perception that he wasn't really injured to fester in the minds of the fan base.

Fans have their players on too short a "leash" as it is, generally speaking. We are all guilty of knee jerk reactions, (no pun intended) the media will only cream him him further, etc.

I'd lie if I had to, if I were them.

Report: Cutler has MCL tear

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Injury or no injury, he gave up without a fight. If you're really hurt that bad, why aren't you icing it? Why are you standing on the sidelines?

a little more to add

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The controversy really has less to do with Cutler's toughness than it does with the fact that he is unlikable and has atrocious body language on the sidelines.

When we had a Cutler thread a couple weeks ago, beginning with an article that described some of Cutler's boorish behavior, Cheesey made the comment that he can get away with it as long as things are going well, but when things go bad, look out. That's what we're seeing right now. When you're a jerk, you don't get the benefit of the doubt.

Having said that, I will say that I think these NFL players on Twitter are just a bunch of blowhards and the criticism is way over the top.

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My whole take on this is this:

WTF IS WRONG WITH THE BEARS!!! Their doctors, training staff should come out and say "we forced Cutler to sit out". They're not doing that. They have said nothing. I know his teammates have defended him(which is a good sign for Bears fans), but the doctors and Lovie Smith need to defend him more than anyone else.

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Yep. There's a very well-known girl on my campus who typifies this. She is rude, bossy, aggressive, manipulative and in every way unlikable. She forces her way into groups and demands accommodation by trying to intimidate everyone. She used to be reasonably good looking (for a Korean), and while that lasted, she more or less got her way. Then over a period of two or three months she gained about 40 lbs and went from reasonably attractive to downright repulsive. Yet she kept treating people the same way. Now no one listens to her and she has no friends left. She failed to realize that as long as you're hot (or in Cutler's case, winning), people will make allowances for your flaws; but as soon as that goes away, so does the tolerance. I'm not saying it's right, but it is the way the world works.

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I find it interesting that sport figures and fans tend to object quite frequently to political correctness (which, btw, I have no problem with at all), yet they also get really bothered when an athlete like Cutler refuses to be nice and "personable".

I'm not a Cutler fan. He's always struck me as a Brett Favre who has never learned discipline on the field, and of course he plays for the Bears.

But I also think he takes a bad rap because, unlike your average quarterback, he doesn't bother to be nice nice on the podium or when a reporter shoves a mike in his face.

So fucking what if a camera catches him on the sideline not smiling or wrapped up because he's just been knocked out of the most important game in his life.

I'm not saying he's a saint or a role model. He's a quarterback -- my working assumption is that, like most quarterbacks, he's basically an asshole. And if people want to rip on him for his play when he's in the game, that's one thing. But ripping into him because he didn't "man up" and play through the injury, or because he wasn't spending his time chatting with Caleb Hanie? Give me an effin' break.

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