Hello, Chicago Bears Fans! For this 30-day challenge, we are exploring the absolutely worst hot take on the Chicago Bears. There are so many great candidates. The “Caleb is a bust” after his first season. The obsession over Caleb’s completion percentage, trying to take away from his amazing second season spent with Ben Johnson.
But for me, the worst hot take, in my time as a fan of the Chicago Bears, has to be the “Jay Cutler is soft” hot takes from the 2010 NFC Championship game when Cutler was forced
to leave the game due to an injury to his MCL, and the Bears would go on to lose the game with their backup QB starting the second half.
Let’s take you back. It is 2011 (the game was played in January), and the Chicago Bears are facing off against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game for the trophy named after Papa Bear George Halas and the right to go to the Super Bowl. The stakes could not be higher. Prior to that game, the Bears had only met the Packers in the post-season once, in 1941. The Bears had traded two first-round picks to the Denver Broncos for Jay Cutler, and Cutler brought his gunslinger approach to the quarterback position to the Windy City. The Packers would be staked to an early 14-0 lead, with Aaron Rodgers running the ball in from the one-yard line, and a James Starks four-yard touchdown run.
However, despite Green Bay’s early offensive success, the game was a defensive grind, with each of the teams combining for 17 punts and five interceptions. A major component of this was the fact that Jay Cutler was injured on a deep pass to Johnny Knox that was intercepted by Sam Shields. He would attempt to play in the third quarter but managed only one series before he left, never to return to the game. The Bears initially put in backup quarterback Todd Collins, who would prove ineffective. The Bears then went to Caleb Haine, who got the Bears on the board with a touchdown. But he made a crucial mistake that essentially cost the Bears the game, throwing an interception to B.J. Raji, who returned it for a touchdown, putting the Packers up 21-7. While the Bears would tack on another TD, the game ended on another Sam Shields interception with the Bears down 21-14 and the ball on the Packers 29-yard line.
The crushing loss was one thing, and certainly, there was a lot to unpack from the game. But immediately, analysts and some former players began calling out Jay Cutler for being “soft” for not returning to the game in the second half. Many NFL players took to Twitter (now X) to publicly question his toughness. Maurice Jones-Drew said “Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now… When the going gets tough……..QUIT” and “all I’m saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee .. I played the whole season on one.”
Two Hall of Fame players, Derrick Brooks and Deion Sanders, weighed in. Brooks said, “FOX HAVEN’T SHOWED ANY TRAINERS LOOKING AT CUTLER, UMMM.”
While Deion Sanders tweeted, “I better see dr andrews operate live on Cutler and Collins tonight after the game on NFL Network. Truth.” And “Folks i never question a players injury but i do question a players heart. Truth.”
Darnell Dockett tweeted that Jay Cutler shouldn’t be allowed to dress in the locker room with the rest of the team after the game, with the hashtag “FACT” punctuating his point.
Matt Schaefer accused Jay Cutler of quitting during the NFC championship game, even after an MRI revealed that Cutler had torn his MCL in the game (which is likely why he had proved ineffective while he was on the field). “In my eyes, it is not only a matter of questioning Cutler’s toughness, but also his competitiveness.”
All of it was utterly ridiculous. Cutler’s injury was significant and serious – a Grade II MCL tear in his left knee that left him immobile and unable to plant and throw – really important things for your starting quarterback in a championship game. In fact, it was the coaches who elected to remove Cutler from the game, given how ineffective he was trying to play through the injury. What’s more, while I think Cutler was sometimes rightly criticized for his sideline demeanor – he was tough as hell. In fact, sometimes his play was absolutely reckless on the field – taking big hits in the pocket and outside it as a runner.
Stephania Bell’s more sober take on Cutler’s injury underlines just how insane the overreaction to Cutler exiting the game was:
Injury to the MCL can render the knee unstable, particularly for lateral mobility, but can also make it difficult to plant full weight through the leg. A quarterback needs to have the confidence to step up in the pocket and the strength to deliver the ball over that lead leg. He also needs to have the ability to scramble to avoid contact and protect himself. Smith addressed that issue in his news conference when he spoke of the medical decision to remove Cutler in the second half of Sunday’s game. “You never want a player on the field if he can’t protect himself or perform his duties,” Smith said. He added that if the Bears had won Sunday, Cutler “would have been questionable” for the Super Bowl.
It remains, in my mind, the absolutely worst hot take about a Chicago Bears player in Bears history. A storm of criticism that was utterly baseless and completely disconnected from the reality of Cutler’s injury and the kind of football player he had proven himself to be.
But what do you think is the worst Bears hot take ever? Tell us in the comments below!
