It's too bad Jay Cutler only tore his medial
collateral knee ligament in the NFC Championship
game on Sunday. A broken kneecap might have
been better; heck, a broken leg would have been
better than that. Can someone please grab
Cutler's knee and turn it 180 degrees?
Because really, that's the only way Cutler should
have come out of Sunday's game against the
Packers. As we all know, unless you're dead,
you'd better be playing. Otherwise, you aren't a
real NFL man.
"I have to be crawling and can't get up, to come
off the field,'' Derrick Brooks tweeted Sunday, in
the heat of the moment. "Meds are available.''
Absolutely. Jay, throw back a few Advil and get
your broken self back out there. There is a game
to be won. That stuff you pulled in the second
half against Green Bay was unacceptable. You are
a tin man. As Brooks, the former Tampa Bay
linebacker, noted, "There is no medicine for a guy
with no guts and heart.'' Man up, Cutler.
GALLERY: NFL players who rushed to rip
Cutler
Well ...
I don't know Jay Cutler from Jay Gatsby. His
public face is either scowling or standoffish. He's
an easy guy to rip. Plus, pain is implied in the
contract. In the NFL, if you're not hurt today, you
will be tomorrow. If you're not hurting, you're
not trying. Unless you're a kicker.
But the bashing Cutler took Sunday was dumb.
The comments reflect a Cro-Magnon culture that
hasn't progressed with the same speed as the
science that surrounds it. In fact, it hasn't
progressed at all.
"As a guy [who has had] 20 knee surgeries,
you'd have to drag me out on a stretcher to leave
a championship game,'' tweeted former Pro Bowl
lineman Mark Schlereth, now an ESPN
commentator. Purple hearts for you, Mark. Ever
think that's a reason you had 20 operations? Let's
see you play with your grandkids a few decades
from now.
On the radio Monday, ESPN's Mike Golic
suggested the ankle injury that KO'd Pittsburgh
center Maurkice Pouncey was more believable
than Cutler's knee pop, because Pouncey
emerged on crutches from the Steelers' locker
room. There you go, Cutler. Next time, try a full
body cast.
The medicine has advanced. The understanding
has progressed. Concussions aren't simply a case
of a player getting his bell rung. The evidence,
hard and anecdotal, is out there. Whether it's a
former lineman concussed into dementia, or a
former quarterback whose knees are so wrecked
he can't escape an easy chair without help from a
forklift, it's obvious what recklessness can do to a
man's body.
Too bad the culture hasn't caught up with the
science.
Overheated macho still rules in football. Got a
bruise the size of Vermont on your thigh? Rub
some dirt on it, tough guy. Got a bad muscle
pull? Get "shot up,'' in players' parlance, and get
back out there. Suck it up.
Cutler could have taken a Novocaine injection at
halftime, if anyone had wanted to risk his career
that way. But to shoot a guy up -- to numb an
injury involving a ligament -- is foolish and
unsafe. "There's real danger in continuing to
play,'' says Dr. Timothy Kremchek, an orthopedic
surgeon and the team doctor for the Cincinnati
Reds.
"[Cutler] could be doing permanent, career-
ending damage to himself and not even know it,''
Kremchek said.
Pain can be a good thing. It tells a person to stop
what he's doing and get some help. Unless
you're in the NFL, where men are men and the
best way to prove it is to have 20 knee surgeries.
John Thornton, a former defensive tackle for the
Bengals and Titans, said, "It's kind of hard to
question a guy's courage when it comes to
injuries. Everybody's tolerance level is different.''
JIM TROTTER: Don't question Cutler's
toughness
Thornton tore his rotator cuff in the middle of his
rookie year in Tennessee. His second season, he
tore it again and chipped a bone in the same
shoulder. He played through it. Thornton felt
obligated to earn the money he was making. He
also felt peer pressure: "We had Steve McNair on
that team, and he was tougher than anybody,''
Thornton explained Monday. "If he wasn't
missing games or taking plays off, nobody was.''
In Cincinnati, Thornton injured his clavicle in his
third game as a Bengal. He was a high-priced,
free-agent acquisition and again felt pressure to
play. "I couldn't practice,'' Thornton recalled.
"They injected me before every game. I couldn't
even put my right hand on the ground. It was
peer pressure. I felt like I couldn't let my coaches
and teammates down.''
Attitudes change in a contract year, Thornton
says. Players are more protective of themselves.
No team is going to sign a player who is hurt, so
players are more likely to sit with an injury than
risk their next contract by taking one for the team.
"It's like driving with no insurance,'' Thornton
said. "At that point, it's a business decision. If
you're in your walk year and get hurt, the team
isn't obligated to pay you. Neither is anybody
else.''
Yet even the cool-headed Thornton looked at
Cutler's injury and said, "It makes [the knee]
unstable. But you can play on it.''
Sure, why not? You're a quarterback and you
can't run. You can't push off, meaning you can't
get any power on your throws. Your fastball is
suddenly junk. Very likely, your presence in the
huddle is hurting your team more than it's
helping.
But you are a man. An NFL man. You suck it up,
shoot it up and take one for the team. You won't
come off that field unless you crawl off.
Sometimes, evolution takes longer than it should.
Paul Daugherty is a columnist with The Cincinnati
Enquirer.
Source: Http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/paul_daugherty/01/24/jay.cutler/
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