Jay Cutler is amazing in that everyone seems to have a strong opinion about him. But this is the wrong way of viewing J-Cutty. When taking an objective look at things, he's not great or awful, because all of that greatness and awfulness averages out to...well, average.
As a quarterback, he has a very strong arm, but man, he makes some really stupid decisions that kill the Bears. But he would also make ridiculous throws that would give you hope that he could accomplish anything on the football field. Then he'd throw an interception that would give you a neck cramp from shaking your head. I'll admit that I focused more on the latter, but it doesn't cancel out the former.
Cutler is amazing in that people have very strong opinions about him, and when it comes to football, there really shouldn't be strong opinions on him at all. As much as I have bashed Jay Cutler over the years, there's nothing inherently wrong with him. If opinions were simply based on his results, you would look at it and say that he is a perfectly reasonable quarterback. Nothing grand, but nothing awful either. Some good games, and some bad games. Most Bears fans think he has the potential to be a top-five quarterback in the league. Here's the problem with that. he's 30 years old. We're past potential at this point. He is what he is. But he's not awful. He provides a lot of ups and downs, but it all balances out to a middling quarterback. He's just a way more exciting version of Alex Smith. They both get you to the same end result, just with very divergent paths.
Why a lot of people hate him is his personality. From everything we know about Cutler, he seems like kind of an asshole. But his personality is actually a reason that I really respect him. Jay Cutler is who he is. He has not changed his personality a bit, and I bet he's really happy to be him. Peyton Manning may be the greatest quarterback ever, but there is no way he is as happy about life as Jay Cutler is. He spends so much time studying and worrying about football that he has no time to host annual 80s parties with a reality TV Star wife.
Jay Cutler is what he is. At quarterback, he's perfectly reasonable to play as a starter. As a person, he may be a bit of a prick, but at least he's honest, and he's doing what makes him happy. You gotta support that.
So, cheers to you, Jay Cutler. Throughout most of the first half of yesterday's game, I was convinced that he was going to get my team eliminated from the fantasy playoffs, but he turned it around and put in a perfectly reasonable performance. I don't know why I expected anything else.
There are a lot of ridiculous terms and sayings in sports, at least 94% of those deal with Brett Favre. "He just loves to play the game." "He's a gunslinger." "When you see Brett Favre, you think of two things, Crocs and Cocks." As ridiculous as those are, the most ridiculous term I hear used constantly has to be "America's Team." Somehow, in baseball, it's the New York Yankees, in football, it's the Dallas Cowboys, and in basketball, it's, um...the Toronto Raptors? But do any of these teams really represent America? Let's investigate:
New York Yankees - Rich Assholes
Dallas Cowboys - Rich Assholes
Toronto Raptors - Even worse, Canadians
How in the hell do these teams come close to representing America? They don't. But I do know of one team that represents America, and that team is the Chicago Bears. The combination of the team, the front office, and the fans all work together to create a true slice of Americana. Let's break it down.
1. They suck - The United States has become a country of the haves and have nots. I'm pretty sure 1% of the population has 90% of the wealth. Then there's a shrinking middle class, and then there is us regular folk. We don't have the three vacation homes, yachts to travel across the ocean, or ice makers built into our refrigerators. The Bears are the same way. They aren't the 1% that is doing great every year. They lose...a lot. But they don't need fancy things like wins, because of reason number two.
2. Blind optimism -They have a loyal fan base that thinks every move they make is absolutely brilliant. It is amazing that everyone can go into the offseason knowing that offensive line is their biggest weakness. When the Bears do nothing to address that position, but instead address wants instead of needs, all their fans reply, "Our offensive line may suck, but we're going to be AWESOME everywhere else." The Bears can do no wrong. When the Bears got Jay Cutler, I thought, "Wow, they are completely screwed." All of my friends thought, "Wow, we just go a QB with Kurt Warner's accuracy, Peyton Manning's smarts, Joe Montana's clutchness, and Fabio's good looks." To be fair to Bears fans, they may have got confused with the other Jay Cutler on the last one:
But this blind optimism of their fanbase also represents America. Every human being on the planet thinks they are going to be rich and/or famous. It's the reason that people's cleaning ladies bought three houses without thinking that maybe that wasn't such a great idea. It's the reason that people continue to buy lottery tickets when the odds of success are so unfathomably low that people might be better using that money as toilet paper. It's probably the reason I'm unemployed, but hey, I never said that blind optimism isn't a great time. This is America; this is the Chicago Bears.
3. Clinging to the past - You can talk to any random stranger, ask them about the best thing that happened to them, and watch them light up as they tell you their story. The amazing thing is that no matter how big or small the accomplishment was, the person gets the same joy out of reliving it. It doesn't matter if you ran for a touchdown in a junior high football game or won Super Bowl MVP, that moment will always be yours, and it'll always make you feel awesome. We romanticize the past and talk about it like it was just yesterday. It's human nature and no team better exemplifies that than the Chicago Bears. The Bears last won the Super Bowl in 1985. I was barely alive back then (I was a worthless baby at the time), yet I know more about that season than any season that has come since then. Most have zero memories of actually watching that team, yet would still come to blows with you if you said any team was better than the 1985 Bears. This was 25 years ago, but people act like it was yesterday. This is only going to get worse. In 1000 years, when linebackers are seven feet tall, and weigh 400 pounds of pure muscle, the Bears defense of 3010 will still get compared to the 1985 Bears. The sadder thing is that the Bears still may not have won another title since then, but hey, nobody will ever be able to take 1985 away from us.
4. Jay Cutler - Ricky Stanzi may love America, but Jay Cutler is America. He's the best of America, and hte worst of America. Look at Jay Cutler:
What a goofy looking bastard, yet this is who Jay Cutler is dating:
Good God. We've all walked down the street, seen a great looking girl with some ugly douchebag, and wondered how in the hell they were together. Well Jay Cutler is the epitome of that douchebag. He's the American Dream. But he's also the worst of America. Jay Cutler has a great arm, yet there is no way he'll ever win a Super Bowl. Why? Laziness. In yesterday's Bears game against the Patriots that was played in the snow, Phil Simms actually said something interesting (yes, it shocked me too). He talked about how Tom Brady meticulously rubbed down his balls to make sure that he'd have a good grip on them so their passing game did not suffer. Jay Cutler was not as meticulous. In fact, he didn't rub the balls down at all. He told Simms, and this is no joke, that it took too much effort to rub them down so it wasn't worth it. Too much effort?
This is a great example of the American people. Everybody wants success, but nobody wants to put the work in to achieve it. When things get tough, it's easy to give up, and Jay Cutler totally believes in this strategy. People don't want to do the little things that lead a select few to great success. Neither does Jay Cutler. He is getting paid millions and millions of dollars to succeed at football, and rubbing a ball down so it isn't slick is too much effort? Jay Cutler must be playing a joke on all of us. He wasn't; he fumbled the next play.
Only in America.
-Joe
P.S. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I love Derrick Rose.
