Wouldn't that be even more reason to not go back out? If it's a grade 1 tear no way he finishes that game without more damage. Then instead of 1 week or 1 month it's 6 months or longer. Or maybe he ends up tearing the ACL as well.

 

Freeman can say all he wants from the sidelines but until he is in that situation he needs to shut it. Like someone else said, week 1 next year lets tear his MCL and see if his money is where his mouth is.

 

 

Finish the game....win.....rest until the Super Bowl....play in the Super Bowl and then you have a whole offseason to heal.

 

Week 1.....fine.....take a seat for a week or two.

 

Conference Championship....."suck it up"...."take one for the team"....."put some tape on it"......"give me a brace"..........not "where's my coat". That is all I am saying.

 

 

He may never get this close to a Super Bowl again and the lasting Jay Cutler memory will be he couldn't finish the most important game of his career.

No two bodies are the same, nor are any two injuries exactly the same. Further, two bodies reaction to any two similar injuries will be different. The first rule of caring for an injury and for recovery is to listen to your body. An athlete's body is his livlihood. He should listen to his body and to his medical team.

Whatever the injury may be, proper physical therapy and cortisone shots can limit the pain. If you have ample time, you can strengthen the muscles around the injury with physical therapy to make up for a torn ACL, MCL, etc. Some players don't have an ACL at all, ala DeJaun Blair of the Spurs, but they've had ample time of their careers to make up for the lack of it through proper weight training, conditioning, and physical therapy. Its different when you actually tear something like an MCL on the spot and people expect you to play on it. Sure, about the only thing they can do at that point is try to give you a shot or too to dull the pain but even then you're playing with an injury that will affect your play, whether you're able to feel the pain or not. Even if they had numbed Cutler up enough to play through it, the injury is still there and thus the balance and stability in the pocket that a QB needs to have might not be there. While its unfortunate for Cutler and the Bears, they made the right decision.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5978461

 

Interesting. MJD is supposed to defend his tweet shortly. Be interested in seeing what is said.

I don't question the decision to bench Cutler because I'm not Jay Cutler and I have no idea how much pain he was in. I've witnessed a high school basketball player tear his ACL in the first half and score 22 points in the second half. (No trainer at the game). I've witnessed a sprained ankle sideline a kid for six weeks. It's not my body. It's like a gunshot wound. Some people can continue on as if nothing happened. Others don't get up off the ground. Just because one person survives, doesn't mean everyone should.

Freeman can say all he wants from the sidelines but until he is in that situation he needs to shut it. Like someone else said, week 1 next year lets tear his MCL and see if his money is where his mouth is.

 

Week 1 is irrelevant, and that's the whole point. He said, if it were the NFC Championship, he'd be playing until taken off on a stretcher.

 

There wouldn't be any "controversy" over this had it happened week 1 or week 10 for that matter. It's the fact that it was the biggest game of his lifetime and he showed no heart.

None of this would be an issue or debatable had he left the game on a stretcher like Freeman said it would take for him to not play.

Week 1 is irrelevant, and that's the whole point. He said, if it were the NFC Championship, he'd be playing until taken off on a stretcher.

 

There wouldn't be any "controversy" over this had it happened week 1 or week 10 for that matter. It's the fact that it was the biggest game of his lifetime and he showed no heart.

 

 

Exactly.:thumb:

This.

 

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2011/1/24/1952992/jay-cutler-injury-nfl-soap-opera

 

The article summarizes my feelings on the issue better than I ever could. I think the whole thing is dumb, dumb, dumb and I have no problem with Cutler's sideline behavior or whatever other projected "This is what I'd do if I were in the NFL" feelings that some people might have. As for other players: of course they'd be chomping at the bit to play every minute they could in a conference title game, their crappy team didn't make it.

 

Dear players not on the Steelers or Packers:

 

Please stop tweeting things and talking to the press so I can go back to not caring about you until September.

Can't remember. It was 2007 shouldn't be hard to find out.

 

MJD played with a torn MCL for 14 weeks this year.

 

Everyone's threshold of pain is different. I want my starting qb for my favorite team to play through the pain in the most important game of the year. That's just me though.

Rivers left the game in the 3rd quarter. He also had surgery no the knee the following week to get try and get it to the point he could play.

Week 1 is irrelevant, and that's the whole point. He said, if it were the NFC Championship, he'd be playing until taken off on a stretcher.

 

There wouldn't be any "controversy" over this had it happened week 1 or week 10 for that matter. It's the fact that it was the biggest game of his lifetime and he showed no heart.

 

None of this would be an issue or debatable had he left the game on a stretcher like Freeman said it would take for him to not play.

Again, that's easy for Freeman to say from his living room. I said let's tear it in week 1 because I figure in week 1 TB's season still means something.

Jim Rome just interviewed the Bears Safety Chirs Harris who said he missed 4 games with a torn MCL last season. I also have heard that Cutler tried to play and short hopped a throw because he couldn't effectively plant. Given the nature of the big game I'd say the instinct is to play through it, which is where I think the criticism comes in, but if you can only hurt your team I think you make the call to sit.

Cutler's PR problem is after he went out, he no longer looked remotely interested in the game. Even if he knew he couldn't go back in, he should have at least attempted to have a vested interest in the game. IMO, he looked like he could care less if they won or lost. I know he's not a big emotion guy one way or the other, but at least pretend to care.

 

Unfortunately, the PR problem is probably going to hang around from now on. Even the Nashville sports radio crew was dogging him.

When talking to other people, I don't mind them questioning how Cutler acted when he wasn't going in. I just don't/didn't like this "no heart" stuff.

 

ANYHOO, Dan Patrick mentioned on his show how Pippen never got over that label of being a baby when a play at the end of a 1994 playoff game wasn't meant for him and he refused to go in. This was Jordan's 1st retirement, though they would go on to win 3 more titles, I think Pippen will carry around that, not to mention that "migraine" he had before Game 7 against the Pistons in 1989.

 

Until Cutler wins, this will be something that will follow him the rest of his career.

Cutler's PR problem is after he went out, he no longer looked remotely interested in the game. Even if he knew he couldn't go back in, he should have at least attempted to have a vested interest in the game. IMO, he looked like he could care less if they won or lost. I know he's not a big emotion guy one way or the other, but at least pretend to care.

 

Unfortunately, the PR problem is probably going to hang around from now on. Even the Nashville sports radio crew was dogging him.

That is just Cutler's personality. I think he gives a crap about very little including this controversy. That mindset has a positive and negative effect.