Jay Cutler

I think it is just easy to dislike someone who doesn't know how to treat other people with respect.

I think there are plenty of athletes who don't love publicity, but suck it up and treat others with some degree of professional respect, and not personal disdain.

Cutler's petulant child act, at this point, strikes me as quite immature, and especially so because it happens in what is supposed to be a professional setting.

Bottom line: You just don't treat people the way he treats people.

 

Tons of guys are bad interviews. It's the contempt that he seems to have for everyone, whether it's the media, John Elway, John Lynch, whoever... He seems to have no respect for anyone.

 

Here's the anti-Reilly view, from a Daily Herald writer who asks, 'Who's the jerk?':

http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/5075

 

What a steaming pile of shit that blog was.

 

Can't say I buy this "unmet physical potential" explanation. Cutler actually compares quite favorably to the QB prospects who've had as high or higher expectations. He was the third QB chosen (behind Vince Young and Matt Leinart) with the 11th pick in the 06 draft. Unlike SO many of the QBs who've been drafted higher than him in recent years (Jamarcus Russell, Alex Smith, David Carr, Joey Harrington, Byron Leftwich, Akili Smith, Tim Couch, Young, Leinart, etc.), Cutler certainly can't be called a bust, in fact he's been one of the League's better starting QBs over the preponderance of his career. Anyone believe the Bears would be sitting at 11-5 right now without him?

And I simply can't say I see "a ton of physical talent" when I look at Cutler. Yes he has an amazing cannon arm, but he certainly does not have the chiseled 6'5" prototype NFL QB body, nor was he blessed with running speed. Instead he's a Type 1 Diabetic with a naturally doughy unathletic looking physique (at least by pro athlete standards).

 

He's had a respectable career. A couple OK/good years in Denver. He was awful in 2009, but pretty respectable in 2010.

He's a hell of a lot better than Vince Young or Matt Leinart or Alex Smith or Jamarcus Russell among others...

 

It completely and dishonestly distorts a lot of what Reilly wrote. I think there is a case to be made here for the pro-Cutler camp (or at least, the neutral Cutler camp) but this was not a strong rebuttal.

I'm sort of torn on Reilly's column. I think Cutler is a weirdo, and I agree Mizzou that we see far more hagiography columns than we do rip jobs, but I also feel like Cutler is a bit of an easy target.

 

I'll grant that I'm a fanboi and that I don't see as much AFC football as I should, but in terms of pure ability to make throws, Cutler stacks up with anybody. There's not a single throw a professional quarterback is asked to make that he can't make perfectly. So it's maddening when he also tries to make throws that nobody asked him to make.

 

That blog read like something that the writer would print out and show Cutler so maybe Cutler will acknowledge him the next time he's lurking at his locker.

Cutler is an easy target, but Reilly's column had quotes and anecdotes so it wasn't just a rip job.

 

Yes, quotes and anecdotes from when he was with Denver. Which was two years ago. His teammates seem to like him fine. And the people who cover the Bears regularly seem to think he's fine. But Reilly got an anecdote of how he pissed off John Lynch three years ago. Color me impressed.

That column reads like Reilly had his mind made up going in and Cutler choosing to not genuflect at the altar of Reilly just made the column that much easier to write.

But yeah, the Daily Herald blog entry did suck.

 

Hitler could be the QB in most NFL locker rooms and if the season was still going on, all of the teammates would say the exact same thing on the record.

Great guy, great teammate...

 

Good to see you keeping an open mind about this, Mizzou. Didn't the Lynch and Elway anecdotes that have so impressed folks here occurr early his rookie year? Is it not possible he's matured a bit in ensuing half-decade? And I'd note the sin in both anecdotes was distraction/failure to pay attention, nothing overtly or intentionally disrespectful was said.

And here's a crazy ass theory just to throw out there, perhaps some of these Cutler personality flaws are due to an undiagnosed innate social dysfunction that gets mistaken for arrogance and disrespect. Interesting how the traits that consistently get mentioned (failure to look in people's eyes, distraction, social disconnect) align with symptoms of mild aspergers/autism and other diagnosable conditions. Or maybe he's just naturally really frickin shy, I don't know. Just a thought to chew on.