The Don’t Care Booth Bear
It was a busy weekend, so I apologize if this one feels undercooked in any way. Undercooked like a Phil Simms booth comment. Boom, got’em!
I was not expecting Jay Cutler to end up an analyst. I expected Cutler to not get a job and fade away from consciousness, happy in his life with his family before his children die of a preventable disease. But then he apparently went to Fox and “winged it” in an interview and now he’s a booth analyst on Fox’s D-team. Know what? Good for him. I’m legit excited to see what we will get out of Mr. Cutler, Talking Head.
Cutler has had a certain perspective of him surround him for a long time. One that I have gladly aped for my own means. The chain smoking apathetic jerk who gives no shits. It’s a strange kind of character to have, and one that didn’t exist before that fateful NFCCG that changed the public’s perception of him. it’s kind of crazy how much that game changed his story. Before that, he was seen as pretty good, kind of a jerk (Remember his “Feud” with Philip Rivers?) and sort of a whiney baby (The demanded trade). Of course people stopped blaming Cutler when McDaniels tanked the Broncos and saw him as possibly smart for getting out. Then he hurt his knee in the championship game, smiled on the sideline, and the switch flipped.
I kind of wonder if his apathy came from his disgust over that whole thing. That incident blew the hell up. The media turned on him because they smelled drama. The fans turned on him because HOW DARE HE NOT SUFFER LIKE USSSS. He spent the next half decade dealing with that hate and I guess responded in a “who gives a fuck” sort of way. If you follow Cutler a little more closely, you realize he’s not just some apathetic jerk. He’s a decent guy. He cares about kids with Diabetes. He’s done a lot for research on the disease. He was funny during his guest spot on “The League”, which featured a lot of players who were far worse at acting for the camera than he was. Honestly most of the players who showed up on that show pretty much sucked on camera. Cutler was good. I’d link a video, but a good one is hard to find.
I think Cutler might be okay as a color guy. I’d wager Jay Cutler the human is actually pretty decent and might provide some valuable insight as a color guy. I doubt he’ll have a major career, but you never know. He’s being put in an easier spot than Romo is. Romo got thrust front and center with no experience, Cutler is a side guy most fans won’t see very often. He’ll have time to hone his skills in the booth while Romo is going to be immediately under intense pressure to not suck.
On the other hand maybe he will be exactly what we all want and until he gets fired it will be amazing.
Vaccinate your kids, people.
When I was younger, I messed up my knee. It wasn’t bad enough to need surgery, but it was serious enough that, after getting an MRI, the doctor said I was lucky I didn’t tear my ACL. I haven’t felt anything in my life that hurt as much as my knee did when I tried to walk on it right after I fell. I don’t claim to be a stoic titan or immune to pain, but I like to think I have a pretty decent tolerance given what I’ve been able to grit my teeth and get through in the past, yet the instant I put any weight on that leg after I got hurt, I was writhing on the ground in pain.
I’ll always applaud the toughness of players like Rivers who played through a torn ACL, but I will not for a second question the toughness or desire of a player who sits because of a knee injury. Those things are brutal.
As a lifelong Bears fan, I agree Cutler got a bad rap. He was the unfortunate recipient of a terrible, terrible GM (Jerry Angelo), a Defensive minded head coach who knew absolutely nothing about offense, every offensive coordinator under the sun to include some that almost got him killed, injury bad luck on the most watched stage of his career and his ability to do himself no favors with his on the field performance.
He is still the Bears all time leader in just about every passing category.
Good for Jay. I hope he is as good as Kyle Long says he is
Well, there goes J’ville’s playoff chances.
There’s still time for them to come to their senses and sign Kaep.
As the father of a type-1 diabetic, I always has a soft spot for Cutler. I wanted so bad to be able to hold him up as an example for my daughter.
“See Sweetheart? Having T1D doesn’t have to stop you in life. Look at Jay Cutler — he has T1D, and he…errr…never mind. Don’t look at Jay Cutler. I said stop looking at HEY! STOP LOOKING AT HIS NAKED ASS!”
Don’t look at that guy. All he did was become one of the 30 best players in the world at arguably the toughest position in all of sports. He only made $115M in an 11 year career, not including endorsements and landed a job on national TV making millions more.
His life is not the example of success, in any way.
If you want a ‘good’ video of Jay, try this commercial he did a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P57t64gpB3o
I initially thought the punchline was going to have to do with Kevin White being on the field.
what will happen when they develop a vaccine against diabetes