Does ESPN Hate Jay Cutler?

Now, before I begin writing this, I am very very very pro Cutler. He was my favorite non-Bear last season and I have enjoyed him in college. But does ESPN hate Jay Cutler?

In the 2-3 weeks since camp has started ESPN has way overblown two of his quotes.

First quote:

Denver is a 6 while Chicago is a 9.

Now this can seem to be like he’s putting Denver down, and if you read just that one line quote it does sound like a bitter player dising his old team. ESPN stirred up a frenzy with this and discussed for hours on a Thursday and Friday calling Cutler immature. This also got the city of Denver all worked up about it, now complaining about Cutler. Hell even the Sports Guy commented about it in a podcast. But his comments where based on what he heard from ESPN, who again just took this one line of quote and over analyzed it to kingdom come. The thing that shocks me, is that Cutler said this quote on Chicago’s ESPN Radio 1000. It occurred on their mid-day show Waddle and Silvy which I am a regular listener. It was a Monday and they were live at camp and were lucky enough to have Cutler join them. I listened to the entire interview and thought nothing spectacular was said just some good laughs and some Jay Cutler love. Thursday the ESPN storm clouds start forming and they start coming down on Cutler for his quote (So much for timely reporting). The problem was, they just used that quote, had they listened to the whole thing, or even the 1 minute leading up to that quote they would have realized he wasn’t putting down Denver. The entire conversation leading up to this quote was about Bears training camp and the atmosphere around training camp. Everyone and there sister could tell you that Bears fans are in a frenzy around Cutler and were super excited to see camp start. They broke their attendance record for camp. So while discussing what the camp atmosphere was like, Cutler said his 6 and 9 quote. Having never been to Denver’s camp, but I’m guessing in the time since Cutler has been there, there was never a camp like this one for obvious reasons. These types of camps only come with big signings or Championship seasons. So yeah, I bet 2009 Bears training camp has outshined all his other camps. He’s not trying to put Denver down, he was trying to express how crazy Chicagoans are going for him. I bet you anyone in Denver could have told you that Chicagoans are going crazier in camp this season then they ever have.

Second Quote:

Devin Hester is a go get it WR not a go up and get it WR.

Cutler got ESPN in a flurry about this too. The talking heads started making comments about how he threw his WR under the bus or what a terrible leader he is. What? Really? Maybe Cutler could have worded it better, but that’s a big assumption. Cutler was trying to say something along the lines of, in Denver I had guys like Marshall who, when I needed to force a throw, I could throw it up, and he would out jump everyone and catch it. Now that I’m here in Chicago, I shouldn’t throw it high cuase Hester won’t do that, I should throw it as far as I can cause Hester is the only one who has a chance to catch it. Cutler was putting the blame on himself and saying he needs to get used to his players and here’s how he’s going to get better. Not, Hester needs to do a better job of jumping, or GM needs to get me better WRs or throwing anyone under the bus. No, he was breaking down a play for the media, and the talking heads decided to dissect every last piece of it.



Now I might be lumping ESPN too much with Mark Sclerth. Why does Mark Schlerth hate Jay Cutler? (It pains me to rip into a fellow o-lineman who is usually so insightful). But since day 1 Mark has been tearing into this deal. He said the Bears are worse from the trade they made? HOW? We gave away 2 #1 picks a #2 and Orton. So with our 2009 draft pick we drafted Jay Cutler. So now it looks like we gave away a #1 and a #2. Two unproven players who have a 50% chance of never being good. Who doesn’t make this trade. But Stink had his feelings hurt that anyone would ever want to leave Denver (where if you ever listened to him, he played with one of the greatests QBs of all time so he is the expert on great QBs now not O-line play, if you have a great QB you never have to worry about it as an o-lineman, o did he mention he played with one of the greatest QBs? I honestly think he has that on his Business card).

So Ok, I understand, maybe the two players turn out and Cutler is just average whatever the deal might not work out, but he continues to attack Cutler on the stupidest things. Just get over it and move on buddy seriously.

So I guess I’ll leave it at that so I don’t upset ESPN too much and they threaten to remove the chip from my brain.