The thing with Cutler, and anyone who has watched him in the past has seen this. When adversity comes, he appears to lose all confidence and fold instead of fighting through it.
Granted, everyone has a different pain threshold. Rviers played with a torn ACL, McNabb played with a broken bone in his ankle and so on. Maybe they have a higher tolerance for pain than Cutler. But if a knee or ankle is causing major discomfort, you are definitely going to be limping. Cutler clearly was not.
That being said, I find the spin Lovie Smith has used defending Cutler is pretty amusing. Smith insists all the detractors are not taking into account what Cutler has been through during the season. All the sacks and getting hit and so on. It doesn't matter what Cutler went through 4 or 8 or 12 weeks ago. He didn't enter the game with a pre-existing injury. What happened in the past should have no bearing on his ability to play in the conference title game and it surely doesn't prove how tough he is considering he is paid very handsomely to play through adversity.
What it does come off as is Smith saying his QB had been beat up all season and he finally pulled a Roberto Duran and cried, "NO MAS."
Now onto Brian Urlacher, who seemed to be one of the more upset Bears. On the late night Bears studio show he was asked about the people ripping on Cutler. Urlacher asked who exactly was ripping. The host said, for one, the fans. To which Urlacher angrily replied, "Who cares what the fans think?" Just an off the wall guess on my part but you would definitely care if Bears fan decided not to come to any more games so the organization can pay your salary. He ended the segment by saying anyone ripping Cutler knows nothing about football and that he hopes the Steelers kill the Packers.
Now, some may remember this and some may not. When Cutler was traded to the Bears, it was the same Urlacher who called Cutler a wimp during a conversation with Bobby Wade. Naturally, he denied it but then felt compelled to apoligize to Cutler for not making the remark. This begs the question, why would Urlacher aplogize for a comment he didn't make? And it also makes you think. Two years ago Cutler was supposedly a wimp but now he's the toughest guy on the team?
Two things that can't be denied in all of this are perception and reallty.
The perception has been that Cutler is soft. The reality is that he bailed on his team in a title game......because of a sprain that hardly made him limp.
And remember>>>>>:chisux: