So...when I say that I wish to step in and speak up for a Chicago Bear, you know that an injustice that cuts to the very root of our society has obviously occurred.
By now, if you have any interest in football at all, you've probably gotten wind of at least some portion of the Jay Cutler "Is he tough enough?" controversy. Cutler was hit in the leg and left the NFC Championship game against the Bear's mortal enemy Green Bay Packers and the speculation regarding the possible alternative reasons for his departure while all his limbs remained visibly attached and all his blood and vital organs still inside his skin, started before he was all the way to the sideline.
Am I a fan of Jay Cutler's? Well...I wasn't...he's a Chicago Bear for crying out loud.
However, I am a staunch supporter of the underdog...and this guy has been skewered by his peers, pundits, and fans for leaving a football game with what turned out to be a torn MCL (Medial Collateral Ligament). The Chicago Bear center actually said he observed how unstable Cutler's knee was when he was walking to the huddle during the one offensive possession he attempted in the second half of the game.
Twitter was alive with thoughtful input from professional NFL players almost immediately. Among the players (who's season had ended as only the top four teams were playing last weekend...everyone else was done or eliminated) offering opinions was Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman, Darnell Dockett, who postulated that Cutler better wait until he's showered, dressed and gone before he comes in the locker room after that game if he (Dockett) was on Cutler's team that day. Classy. Was he implying he would have somehow physically harmed Cutler?
Bears "fans" burned Cutler's jersey outside the stadium. Also classy.
Twitter was buzzing and most of the harshest and most arbitrary comments came from fellow NFL players. One ex-player who has been known for his constant, if not always insightful oration even during his playing career, Deion Sanders now has a platform on the NFL network. He's been using it to profess how he and others have played injured in important (and unimportant) games and how Jay Cutler "appears" to have "tapped out".
How "tough" is Jay Cutler? He has missed one game since becoming a starter in Denver his rookie year...and after playing the 2007 season and losing nearly 30 pounds with it undiagnosed, he discovered that he had type 1 diabetes which he's played with ever since. As John Madden points out, "...(that's) every day for 24 hours.
Zack Follett of the Detroit Lions can say that he's glad he has Matt Stafford as a quarterback over Jay Cutler...but then Stafford was out most of the season and Detroit retired at the end of the regular season again this year (in last place in the NFC North) while the Bears won the North Division and went on to play for the NFC Championship with Cutler at the helm.
Michael David Smith at NBC Sports Pro Football Talk writes of another journalist's interaction with Cutler in the locker room after the game when he turned away and bit his lip and had his eyes get a little glossy when he was told of the helpful feedback of his fellow NFL players... He notes that "Cutler has a long way to go to rebuild his reputation. And crying in the locker room isn't the way to do that."
I guess Twitter isn't the only thing that runs faster than our own intellect...blogging has become a bit hasty too.
Cutler's been sacked 138 times in his career and kept coming back...this year to the NFC Championships...gets injured...and a tear wells up not for any of that, but because his own have turned on him. How tough do you have to be to just "shake off" what must feel like betrayal?
The title of the post says it...we've reached the point where we communicate faster than we think, and instead of it being limited to personal contact with our spouse, we can now just add Twitter and prove to large portions of the global population that we're a buffoon in seconds. In the case of professional football players past and present, this opportunity is apparently too tempting to pass up. The instant availability of images and information we have created keeps us connected to world events like never before. The capabilities of smart phones and fast internet links means we can now respond even before the event in question has made it past our reptilian brain...and we respond before we even consider what we don't know. Human beings are far better at developing the technical systems to react faster than we are at developing the skills to react wisely.
Bottom line? Just because you now have the ability to share the first thing that comes into your head with the world doesn't mean that you should.
As a fan, I was hoping Jay Cutler would be on the losing side of the NFC Championship game...not of a ridiculous armchair trial of his peers.
TimK
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