Month: January 2011

Chad Johnson’s Application for a Name Change and Other Points of View

Bears

“Every player has Lovie’s back. After last season we all got together and talked about how we are going to screw up a great thing if we don’t turn our team around. He treats us like men and he is the kind of coach you want to play for. We are very lucky to have him.”

“‘I just got off the phone with (coach Lovie Smith) and he made the comment, ‘Kevin, you’re not coming back, you’re coming home,’ ‘ O’Dea said. ‘Any time someone makes a comment like that to you, that’s pretty special.'”

  • Biggs also reviews the interesting story of wide receiver Devin Aromashodu as he heads towards restricted free agency.  I’ve talked to fans who are irrate that Aromashodu didn’t make it on to the field more this year.  We probably won’t find out for sure what the Bears problems with him have been unless or until he leaves but there surely is a problem.  It could be as simple as a lack of ability on special teams but I’ve a feeling there’s more to it than that.
  • Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers on people questioning the toughness of Bears quarterback Jay Cutler:

“I was real disappointed, to be honest with you.  I’ve known Jay for a few years now and know what kind of competitor he is. I thought it was disrespectful, some of the stuff said about him.”

Yes, I would say that total disrespect for Cutler as a person and a player sums it up well.

“Urlacher insists that the Julius Peppers hit on Aaron Rodgers was clean. What is your take? Will there be a fine? Jim Johnson, Skandia, Mich.

“Peppers hit Rodgers’ helmet with his helmet. You can’t do that. He might not have intended to do that, and he might not have even been able to avoid doing that, but he did it. I think he is going to be fined.”

  • Pity this little girl.  Not because the Bears lost.  Little girls need their daddy and how can she have any opportunity to grow up normal with so little respect for hers?  Via The Sports Pickle.

Elsewhere

  • Carson Palmer might want out but to no one’s surprise, the Bengals have no intention of trading him.  Its idle speculation but I was stuck by the timing of Palmer’s statements.  He made them almost immediately after the Bengals decided to keep Lewis.  One wonders if Chad Johnson isn’t the only one who has a problem with the head coach.
  • Florio also reports that ground work is being laid at the Senior Bowl before assistant coaches meet at the NFL Scouting Combine to discuss forming a union.
  • Florio also correctly points out that not all players will begin missing pay checks in September if there is no collective bargaining agreement.  Those due roster bonuses or who would ordinarily be getting signing bonuses in March as part of free agency will be vocal about making a deal as soon as possible.
  • Michael David Smith, also at profootballtalk.com, takes us through the Steelers goal line stand as they played the Jets last Sunday with the NFL Network show Playbook.  The Jets tipped at least one play.
  • Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay Press Gazette reports that the Packers have decided to take their Super Bowl picture with everyone in it instead of leaving out those who are on injured reserve.  Good move which would have only been better had the correct decision been made in the first place.
  • Tim Twentyman at The Detroit News says that though the Lions biggest need is at cornerback they aren’t likely to get an elite one in the draft.
  • Twentyman also says out that the Lions are in a very stable position with the coaching staff and their core players intact heading into a period of labor uncertainty.

As Pompei pointed out today, the NFC North is shaping up to be one tough division next season.  Whether the Bears win or not, we’re going to see some good football.

“The Steelers’ usage of Troy Polamalu is very interesting — and perhaps very telling. In Pittsburgh’s two playoff games, Polamalu’s and Ryan Clark‘s roles have often flip-flopped, with Polamalu often in deep coverage in the middle of the field instead of tormenting the offense by attacking the line of scrimmage and being used in his usual variety of ways. That tells me that he just isn’t healthy and in a way, he can be hidden in the deep middle of the field, where there is far less contact. The extra rest before the Super Bowl could do him very well.”

One Final Thought

Rick Telander at the Chicago Sun-Times on Cutler:

    “Socially, Cutler has major issues, ones that have come home to roost.”

    “People say Cutler is arrogant, cocky, immature. I wonder.
    But whatever ails him now, it’s all in his head.”

Wondering if Jeremy Bates Has Regrets

Dan Pompei at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

“What do you think about the Bears trying to hire Jeremy Bates as [Bears quarterback Jay] Cutler‘s QB coach now that he was let go by Seattle? Mark, Chicago

“In theory, it sounds good. But I don’t think it would work. It’s more important that the quarterbacks coach matches up with the offensive coordinator than that he matches up with the quarterback. Bates comes from a different offensive background than Mike Martz, and they might not be a good fit together.”

It’s a shame that Bates finds himself out in the cold after deciding to follow Pete Carroll to Seattle instead of considering the offensive coordinator position in Chicago.  Carroll didn’t seem to hesitate to dump Bates when what he thought was a better guy in the form of Darrell Bevell appeared on the market.

It’s a tough business but, though Lovie Smith has been known to dump a lot more than an assistant or two over the years, its fair to wonder if he wouldn’t have been more loyal to Bates than Carroll was after only one year and a playoff appearance.  My guess is that he would have had to have done much worse with the Bears than he did with Seattle for that to have happened (see Terry Shea).

Zack Follett Rips Matthew Stafford, Blames Satan and Other Points of View

Bears

  • Bears special teams assistant Chris Tabor has been hired as special teams coordinator for the Browns (via Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune).
  • Mark Potash at the Chicago Sun-Times addresses a great point with Bears linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa:

“And how about the most overlooked, and disturbing, statistic of the game — the Packers rushed for 119 yards on their first 26 carries (4.6 yards per carry), with six rushes for 10 or more yards. How did that happen in the biggest game of the season?

‘’‘Great coaching,’ Bears linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa said. ‘When you’re familiar with an opponent, you know how to attack them after a while. They knew what we were going to do. We come downhill and play hard defensively. So when we were doing that they were throwing the ball over our heads.

‘‘’So then we’re like, ‘We can’t come downhill as fast because then they’re going to throw it over our heads.’ But then they were running it. That’s why I give credit to [Green Bay quarterback] Aaron Rodgers and the coaching because they knew us. They did a good job of attacking us and keeping us off-balance.'”

“They’re missing a third linebacker because Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs are the only players at the position still under contract with the exception of Hunter Hillenmeyer, who is on injured reserve and has an uncertain future given his history of concussions”

The Bears would be fools not to bring Hanie back – and not to give him more snaps in practice so that he’ll be better prepared for what he’s faced with.  The Tribune‘s Vaughn McClure reports Bears general manager Jerry Angelo‘s thoughts:

“He showed poise.  You want to look for that at the quarterback’s position. We know he’s got talent. He was thrown into the fire, literally. And I thought he did a good job and it was good to see. The only way you really evaluate a quarterback is to see him in the line of fire. So, his stock went up in our eyes, at least mine anyhow.”

“Those who propped up Devin Hester as a No.  1 wide receiver before the season learned how off base they were. Johnny Knox would be a terrific complementary receiver. He’s not the guy a quarterbacks looks to on third-and-6 and says, ‘I’m throwing it to him and they’re not going to stop me.'”

Most Bear fans would agree, though where you put it on the priority list might be a bone of contention.

“The explanation the Bears used for their poor effort at Green Bay in Week 17, or one of the explanations anyway, was that [offensive coordinator Mike] Martz had maintained the same hot reads from the Week 3 game. The Packers were on to their adjustments quickly and it created problems for Cutler. So what’s the deal this time? It looked like Martz feared the zone blitzes from Dom Capers and the Bears were really put on the defensive. There were no answers by the Bears and tight end Greg Olsen was ignored until the fourth quarter. [Bears head coach Lovie] Smith‘s coaching decisions and the Cutler knee issue are going to dominate the headlines. But Martz was outclassed here and the Collins/Hanie thing is not a good way to go out following a season in which the offense ranked 30th.”

“I just never thought that his tampon would fall out on national TV. … To sit on the sideline and ride a bike like a little girl?”

  • The Sports Pickle has obtained the transcript of Cutler’s visit to the doctor.
  • Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com says that the Bears PR department should take a hit over the Cutler fiasco.  I have further Cutler thoughts below.  (Sorry.)
  • Charles Tillman provides some interesting comments in this video shot by Fred Mitchell at the Chicago Tribune:

  • Biggs and Tribune columnist David Haugh discuss what’s ahead in the offseason for the Bears:

Elsewhere

“’It’s kinda sad to think ..  Just goes you injured yourself you not part,’ Barnett wrote.

“’We got hurt playing for the team. Its not like we got injury bs’in around,’ Finley wrote.  ‘And its a team rule! Shame . . . I never trip abt anything, but the way IR players are getting treated not cool… I guess its what have u done for me lately!’”

“Holmgren learned from former San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh that one of the keys to Super Bowl success was to prepare for the game at home because it’s easier to get work done there than the Super Bowl site.

“So McCarthy, like Holmgren did during the Packers’ consecutive Super Bowl appearances in the 1990s, gave his players Monday and Tuesday to take care of any and all arrangements for tickets and accommodations for family members, and then he planned to get to work on the Steelers.”

“’When we get on the plane Monday, we’ll be ready to play the game,’ McCarthy said. ‘This will be a normal week for us.’”

  • Detroit Lions linebacker Zack Follett referred to quarterback Matthew Stafford as a “china doll” during a radio interview in Fresno, Calif.  Seemingly like everyone else in the NFL world, he was also critical of Cutler saying amongst other things that “kind of just knew that they were going to lose, hung his hat up and said, ‘All right, maybe next season.'”  ESPN’s NFC North blogger Kevin Seifert comments:

“I’m guessing most Lions players know Follett and understand his uniquely wired brain. So ultimately, Follett’s comments about Cutler could have more staying power.”

“It’s one thing for an AFC player who might never face Cutler or the Bears to take a shot. But Cunningham and the Lions play the Bears twice a year. I’m guessing these series of comments will rise to the top of the motivational file the Bears are almost certainly keeping right now.”

Follett explains his comments in this video by blaming Satan.  (I’m not kidding.)

  • Chad Ochocinco talks about his issues with the Bengals  as well as those of quarterback Carson Palmer.  Amongst other things he says he needs to “fight” with coach Marvin Lewis and that he’s changing his name back to “Johnson”:

  • These kinds of things never happen in football.  Good for the players but not nearly as much fun for the fans.  Via The Sports Pickle:


One Final Thought

[Sigh] More Jay Cutler talk.  I promise it will end soon.  This round comes from Steve Rosenbloom at the Chicago Tribune:

“So, NFL players ripped Cutler. That’s what happens when a bunch of big goofs have more Twitter accounts than playoff games. That’s also what happens when a bunch of big goofs are Neanderthal stupid.”

“But the point is, Cutler doesn’t care about his image, so why should you?”

It will come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog regularly that I think Rosenbloom is off point here. As a Bears fan I can say that his image amongst other fans and media, that I don’t care as much about. But these comments didn’t come from the media and they didn’t come from fans. They came from his peers. I can’t believe its just dislike – plenty of them dislike each other but they wouldn’t do this.

I think what we have here is a total lack of respect. I was watching Trent Dilfer comment and I think he bottom lined it. Cutler is seen as a guy who doesn’t do the hard things he needs to do to take full advantage of his physical ability, over come adversity and be a great quarterback. He lost at Vanderbilt. He lost in Denver. When things got tough there with Josh McDaniels, he bailed.

Here is a snippet from Mike Wilbon‘s ESPN column Monday that makes my point:

“A former quarterback who wears a Super Bowl ring, who has studied Cutler’s entire career in the NFL, told me before he left the field Sunday, ‘The sad thing is that if he embraced working on the monotonous details of quarterbacking he could be great.'”

That’s the bottom line. I’ve been trying to make the case for years that this is more than a minor problem because the way Cutler handles his life off the football field (e.g. with the media) is an indication of how he’s handling it as a part of football. It all came to a head Sunday when his peers- not me or you – couldn’t wait to jump on him.

Total lack of respect amongst his peers. As a Bears fan that is bugs me a great deal because I think its an indication of what kind of QB Cutler is and what kind he’s likely to become.

Al Davis Is Not a Calvin Johnson Fan

Tom Kowalski at mlive.com quotes Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis as he defended the organization’s decision to take JaMarcus Russell instead of Detroit Lion receiver Calvin Johnson four years ago:

“There was some talk of Calvin Johnson. But you can take a look at Calvin up at Detroit. How many games did they win this year, Detroit, do you know? Six? Yeah. But up until now, Calvin hadn’t done anything for them. He had been eulogized, but he hadn’t made a lot of indelible impression on the won and lost. Listen, someone asked the question, it’s there. The JaMarcus thing hurt.”

Given Russell’s lack of success, some may see this as a comment which is off base.  But I can’t get the image of Johnson blowing the Lions’ first 2010 game against the Bears out of my mind.  For those who were hiding under a rock, Johnson stupidly dropped a touchdown pass as he went to the ground instead of getting up with the ball in his hands and showing the ball to the referee as receivers all over the league are trained to do.

This is the kind of mistake that veteran NFL receivers on winning teams do not make.  Davis might have a point.

Manning May Have Seen His Last Game as a Bear

It should be a surprise to no one who is paying attention that Danieal Manning is likely to hit the free agent market.  Manning, who actually failed to show up for workouts before singing his tender last offseason, has a rather inflated idea of what he should be getting.  Vaughn McClure at the Chicago Tribune reports:

“The team extended a three-year offer in December, but it evidently fell short of Manning’s expectations.

“‘It just wasn’t an offer I thought I deserved,’ Manning said. ‘But when they gave me the offer, I didn’t want to worry about it. I just wanted to play the season out and hopefully win the Super Bowl. That was my focus.”’

Kudos to him for that.  And in fairness he did have a solid season, rarely making mistakes that have plagued him in the past.  He’s also a pretty good kick returner.

But the Bears, who have always been good at finding strong safeties, really needed the athletic Manning to come through at free safety.  When it became evident that this wasn’t going to happen, they traded for Chris Harris and played him out of position.  With any luck, Major Wright will be taking that role in the future and Harris can move over to strong safety where he belongs.  That leaves Manning without a position.

The Bears would undoubtedly like to keep Manning in the role he’s in.  That is, as one of three safeties all of whom provide decent depth and stabilize the position as a group.  In that respect, Manning is a valuable contributor.

Having said that,  he manages to find a significantly better offer, more power to him.  But I think he might be disappointed in the free agent market.  As McClure points out, things are likely to be a bit flat as long as the labor uncertainty persists.  In addition, though Manning may find a team who values him a little more highly, I doubt any offer will be all that better than what the Bears have already put on the table.  By the time he finds that out, it may be too late to return.

Bottom line, I think we fans may have seen the last of him in Chicago.

I Really Didn’t Want to Do Another Cutler Post But…

..I had to.  There’s just too much here to bury it in the Points of View.  And there’s a major point to be made in the end for those of you who hand in there long enough.

First, David Haugh‘s column in the Chicago Tribune this morning addressing Jay Cutler‘s sprained MCL and the unfair reaction amongst current and former players reflects my own feelings in at least this aspect:

“I can’t believe I’m defending a guy who played so poorly in the first half Sunday and can act so unprofessionally, but Cutler doesn’t deserve the labels [as a quitter] being attached.”

General manager Jerry Angelo also got into the Cutler by taking this unfair shot at the media via Vaughn McClure and Deborah Shelton at the Tribune:

“Angelo was asked why people constantly point the finger at Cutler. “I can’t answer that,” he said. “I don’t create perceptions. You create perceptions.”

That’s true amongst fans.  But its not the fans that are Cutler’s biggest problem. Neil Hayes at the Chicago Sun-Times would seem to agree:

“The backlash over his leaving the Bears’ 21-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers after the first series of the third quarter isn’t so much an indictment of the media, which has mostly only reported what his peers have written on their Twitter accounts, or the evils of social networking.”

Exactly.  Its his fellow players, the people who know him or have talked to others who know him, that are taking the shots that count.  ESPN‘s NFC North bloggerKevin Seifert speculates as to why:

“If there were simply one or two players speaking out, maybe you could write them off as extremists. But the cross-section that we’ve already heard from suggests Cutler’s departure struck a true nerve not just among fans but among his peers as well. Part of me wonders if it was more an indictment of Cutler’s standing with his peers than it was a serious questioning of his toughness. If you don’t like someone, you’re going to be much less likely to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

This goes way beyond dislike.  Players dislike each other all the time.  This is a total lack of respect.  As I pointed out yesterday in total agreement with Michael Wilbon, in that respect Cutler made his own bed.

Trent Dilfer at ESPN gets the last word on Cutler and I think he bottom lines the root cause for the reaction to the injury amongst current and former players.  Every Bear fan should watch this video.  I think he’s hit the major point square on the head.  If you are not disturbed by this as a Bear fan, you should be:

Bear Vs. Bear and Other Points of View

Bears

“In short, all of the problems this team has experienced at different points of the season showed up in one game — and it just happened to be the most important game of the season.”

  • I will quibble with only one of Pompei’s grades.  He gave the linebackers a 9 of 10 and I did think they made big plays in this game.  But I also strongly suspect that poor linebacker play was behind many of the huge holes that we saw in the running game in the first half.  I probably would have down graded them a bit more.
  • Pompei was tough on Tim Jennings and rightfully so:

“For the second time in three weeks, the Packers went right at Jennings.

“Rodgers threw in Jennings’ direction 13 times and exploited him whether Jennings was playing zone or man. Only four of the 13 passes did not result in gains for the Packers.”

I agree with all of the people who believe that the Bears need to look towards improving the team at the line of scrimmage.  But the Bears also need help at cornerback.  Its a need that too few people are mentioning.

  • Not surprisingly, the Bears would like to extend Lovie Smith‘s contract rather than let him go into the 2011 season as a lame duck.  Brad Biggs at the Tribune hits the nail on the head:

“The question now is how many years will be in a new deal.”

“Why is it that the Packers draft Bryan Bulaga in the first round of the NFL draft (No. 23 overall) and he starts in the NFC Championship Game and shuts down Israel Idonije. While Chris Williams, the Bears’ No. 1 pick in 2008 (14th) overall, is playing his third position and was at the very least one-fifth of a poor effort against the Packers’ defensive front Sunday?”

“How can you have a quarterback [Todd Collins] like that in the NFC Championship Game? The Packers started Matt Flynn against the Patriots on the road and nearly won. How do they do that?”

“If Frank Omiyale is the Bears’ starting left tackle next season, the Bears are in trouble. You don’t have to see the film or know what protections were called to know that the Bears should expect better than that at left tackle to win a championship. There’s room for good-but-not-great on all NFL teams, but not at key positions like that. Not when you’ve got good-but-not-great — and that’s being charitable — all the way down the line.”

For those who don’t know, the “key positions like that” are left tackle, defensive end, and quarterback.  The Bears didn’t draft any of the starts at those positions.

“He engineered two successful surprises: Opening the game with three cornerbacks and one safety, and then making a rare line call that resulted in nose tackle B.J. Raji‘s interception return for a touchdown. The alignment in the secondary left cornerback Charles Woodson as a hybrid safety/cornerback, and defensive end Ryan Pickett said, ‘It gave us a chance to cover and it gave us a chance to play the run at the same time. We had big guys to match up on the run and we had the guys to match up with their receivers on the outside.’ If nothing else, it was the kind of back-straightening curve ball Capers is known for. Meanwhile, Capers accurately presumed the Bears would target tailback Matt Forte on a third-and-5 pass at their 15-yard line midway through the fourth quarter. As a result, he made a rarely-used call for Raji to ‘spy’ on Forte. While rookie nickelback Sam Shields blitzed, Raji backed off the line and surprised quarterback Caleb Hanie. ‘We were taking away the quick routes,’ Raji said. ‘He looked for the check down, and I was there.'”

  • ESPN compares the speed of Bear Devin Hester to that of…  a bear:


Elsewhere

“(NFLPA executive director) DeMaurice Smith aspires to be a politician and is milking the labor situation for short-term fame to blow up his name and help earn a spot in office, with no regard for future of the NFL. The longer his name is in the headlines, the better for his career. It’s unfortunate — a lockout is not as much about the players and owners as it is Smith’s ego.”

  • This report from The New York Times via ESPN would seem to support that conclusion:

“I wasn’t sure about (Panthers new head coach) Ron Rivera hiring Sean McDermott — guys who get fired usually get let go for good reason. But what you have to remember, this is going to be Rivera’s defense. He’s going to call the plays and run it. It’s a lot like Rivera when he came to Chicago. Lovie Smith was there and expected to run (the defense). There’s not as much risk as you think. What Ron needed was someone who could break it down and do the dirty work and that’s where McDermott will be great for him. I think they’ll be a great team. And I like the (Rob) Chudzinski hire (as offensive coordinator). You have to remember — San Diego had the best offense and defense in the league, and they were missing a lot of parts this season. (OLT) Marcus McNeill was out. (WR) Vincent Jackson was out. They were missing a lot of receivers. The defensive line was beat up. They coached the heck out of those guys. Carolina pulled from the right tree.”

One Final Thought

ESPN’s Kenny Mayne starts trash talking since Rex Ryan wouldn’t:

The Bears Offseason Begins and Other Points of View

Bears

“Cornerback Tim Jennings said they were more aggressive defensively in the second half, playing more man-to-man and trying to put more pressure on Rodgers in order to make him move in the pocket and get rid of the ball more quickly. [Linebacker Brian] Urlacher had a more simple explanation.

‘‘’We just hunkered down,’ he said of what changed in the second half. ‘Guys got off the line. We got takeaways, we got pressure on them and played how we play.’’’

  • Even after such a brutal loss, linebacker Brian Urlacher‘s mind was still on playing general manager.  Via Vaughn McClure at the Chicago Tribune:

“‘We’ve got to get Olin signed up,’ Urlacher said, referring to 13th-year center Olin Kreutz. ‘If we get him back, we should have a chance to be good again.'”

  • More Urlacher via McClure with a comment that only confirms that Urlacher doesn’t understand the way the new NFL works:

“‘Julius Peppers wouldn’t say much about the helmet-to-helmet hit on Packers quarterback [Green Bay quarterback] Aaron Rodgers that resulted in a 15-yard penalty, but Urlacher spoke up. ‘It was a good hit. (Pepper is) 6-7. What is he supposed to do?'”

It was not a good hit.  It was a penalty.  The fact that Peppers is so tall only means that he has to try harder to lower his target.  To my eye he didn’t try at all.  Urlacher needs to stop complaining and get used to it.

“As it turned out, Cutler was less efficient than not only Rodgers, but also Caleb Hanie, who is supposed to be a professional clipboard holder.

“‘I kind of wish we had Jay in there the whole game the way things were going,’ Packers linebacker Clay Matthews said.”

“After the crowd around him dispersed, Cutler turned and faced his locker. His eyes grew watery as he took his time buttoning his purple jacket.

“Cutler’s car was parked inside the tunnel and he walked to it slowly, his left leg as stiff as his upper lip.”

“Almost instantly, Cutler was criticized across the Internet (for coming out of the game). Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew said on his Twitter account he played the entire season on a bad knee, and Cardinals safety Kerry Rhodes also chimed in.

“‘Who? Where’s he at right now?’ Urlacher said about Jones-Drew. ‘Home. It’s easy to talk (crap) about someone when you’re sitting on your couch watching their game. That’s what I am saying. I don’t understand it. I don’t get it.'”

Neither do I.  Though I do have some thoughts on it here.

“Either through the draft or free agency, it is likely the Bears will try to bolster their offensive line. They could use another pass rusher as well.”

Though the Bears apparently like what they have, there will be much talk amongst the fans about the need for a sizable wide receiver as well.  But we’ve got all kinds of time for that.  All kinds of time.

Elsewhere

“I don’t even feel like the bridesmaid.  We’re more like the flower girl, I guess. We can’t get past that last hurdle. It hurts.”

“We almost pulled out another one, but again, our goal for next year, I got news for you … it won’t change and it will never change.  We are going to chase that Super Bowl. We are going to chase it until we get it. And we’ll chase it after that again.

“But that’s it.  If you want to criticize us, then go ahead, but you have no right.”

One Final Thought

Rogers knows how the Packers got to where they are this season.  Via Michael Hunt at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“Character.  Look at our roster and a number of players who were not with us or were not counted on to play a big role. The biggest difference between last year and this year is our character and that we believe in each other.”

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Cutler the Most Hated Player in the NFL? Wonder No More.

I’ve been in a running argument with Bears fans around the city and around the Internet about Jay Cutler‘s qualities as a Bears quarterback.  I was one of the few people who defended Rick Reilly when he said of Cutler:

“If he’s not The Most Hated Man in the NFL, he’s in the running.”

Whether its justified or not, let there be no question anymore about the validity of that statement.  Current and former NFL players couldn’t even wait until the game was over to absolutely savage Cutler.  Via Michael Wilbon at ESPN:

“Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Derrick Brooks, a future Hall of Famer, tweeted, ‘I have to be crawling and can’t get up to come off the field. Josh Freeman would not come out. Meds are available … ‘ A few minutes later when the Bears sent their third-stringer, Caleb Hanie, in to the game and Cutler was therefore ineligible to return, Brooks tweeted, ‘There is no medicine for a guy with no guts and heart.’

“Another future Hall of Famer, Deion Sanders, said, ‘I never question a player’s injury, but I do question a player’s heart.’

“Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman Darnell Dockett tweeted, ‘If I’m on the Chicago team Jay Cutler has to wait ’til me and the team shower [and] get dressed and leave before he comes in the locker room.'”

“Mark Schlereth, the former lineman and current ESPN analyst, said via Twitter, ‘As a guy [who has had] 20 knee surgeries you’d have to drag me out on stretcher to leave a championship game.'”

“And Maurice Jones-Drew tweeted, ‘All I’m saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee … I played the whole season on one.'”

Trent Dilfer, also at ESPN, was more diplomatic but basically said the same thing:

Wilbon explains the reaction:

“But we don’t hear those Peyton Manning-like stories about Cutler, how he comes early to practice and stays late and works systematically and demonically at getting better. What we hear, even from teammates in both Denver and Chicago, is that Cutler is an arrogant, pouting player who rates himself quite highly. It’s a characterization that is believed totally throughout the league, through almost any pro football circle you wander into. And because it’s believed wholly that Cutler is a guy with a big arm, an overrated sense of himself and little if any heart, precious few people in Cutler’s own fraternity had any sympathy for him during the game.

“It will be interesting, from what we know of Cutler, to see if he even notices.

“A former quarterback who wears a Super Bowl ring, who has studied Cutler’s entire career in the NFL, told me before he left the field Sunday, ‘The sad thing is that if he embraced working on the monotonous details of quarterbacking he could be great.'”

Wilbon confirms what I’ve been saying over and over again.  That Cutler’s attitude is more than a minor problem.  It is a symptom of a disease that will constantly hold him back.  From dealing with the media to doing ex-players that made the game what it is today the courtesy of listening to them to putting in that little bit of extra work needed to be great, Cutler simply doesn’t do what he doesn’t want to do.

To Cutler’s credit, his more vocal teammates amongst the Bears did defend him after the game.  And I totally agree with them that the reaction to the injury was unfair.

But that doesn’t make it meaningless.  Few people doubt Cutler’s physical ability.  Its the rest of him that may well always hold him back.

Nothing to Apologize For

David Haugh at the Chicago Tribune quotes Mike Martz outside the locker room after the game:

“I’m sorry.”

Most will correctly point out that Martz got out schemed by Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers.  He certainly made his share of mistakes.

But in my book neither Martz nor offensive line coach Mike Tice need apologize for anything when it comes to the job of coaching.  They both did the best they could with second rate personnel where the game of football is actually played, at the line of scrimmage.  The whole season from the bye week on was a damned miracle.