Jay Cutler: The Other Tony Romo

As a long time Chicago Bears fan, I have grown up with the stories and seeing the film of some of the greatest players that ever stepped on the grid iron. I always get a kick out of seeing and hearing about just how elusive a runner Gale Sayers was in his short career in the NFL, or how the most iconic middle linebacker Dick Butkus would almost devour anyone who came within his sites, or how a man that was drafted from Jackson State University by the name of Walter Payton was able to run into the hearts of the city and bring home the Bears' only Super Bowl victory so far. Yes, there have been a number of great players throughout history that have been Chicago Bears. Even today, there are players that we may look back on and say that they were one of the great Chicago Bears. One man that already captured the title of "Greatest Returner of All Time" is the now former Bears and current Falcons punt/kick returner Devin Hester, who currently times Deion Sanders' all time return touchdowns record at 19. Another, although already retied, is former Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher, who gave the Bears' defense represented the mean and nasty presence that was once brought by the Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus. One of the rising young stars on the team currently is Alshon Jeffery, who was a second round steal in the draft for the Bears after he was seen by scouts as "too slow" and "inconsistent in catching ability", and yet shocked everyone with his amazing ability to find the ball in the air and come down with it and blaze past the competition. But there is one man that never escape the writers of the Sun Times, Daily Herald, and Chicago Tribune. That man is "star" quarterback of the Chicago Bears Jay Cutler.

Now, if you are a Bears fan like me, then that name just puts a bad taste in your mouth. Course it didn't always use to be like that. There was a time when we found out that we had traded two first and second round picks for the then great Denver Broncos' quarterback. It seemed like it was an amazing deal that we could not pass up, especially after our last couple of guys before Cutler were a mix between Rex Grossman, Brian Griese, and Kyle Orton. So of course, the people and myself were ready to see a star quarterback come in and take control of such a dismal offense. There's no doubt he passed the eye candy test as looking the part of a starting quarterback in the NFL. The real question was: How will he, Lovie, and the offensive coordinator be able to click? Well, they never really did. It got even worse when offensive coordinator Mike Martz entered the Bears' organization in 2010 and tried to take over everything. He was even seen as being the one responsible for the Bears trading the greatly-loved and versatile tight end Greg Olsen to Carolina in 2011. On the field, he seemed disinterested (still does) about what happens in the game, lacked a sense of leadership for the offense to pull toward (still does), and just continues to get injuries coming to him year after year after year. And the injuries is where many people have begun to draw the line as to whether or not they actually like Jay Cutler or will hate him until something changes. As for me, I just cannot stand the guy at all because of that attitude that he shows of "I do not care" and just not being able to stay healthy or get it done in crunch time. Yes, he reminds so much, and I hate to say it, of another Tony Romo.

My biggest beef with Jay Cutler probably was the moment in the 2010 NFC championship game against Green Bay Packers where Cutler decided to come out of the game because something was hurting with hand or fingers I think. All the sudden, we now have Caleb Hanie in the game and he starts to lead the Bears on a roll back to possibly win the game for a chance to get back to the Super Bowl, but came up short losing 21-14. All I kept thinking was that if Cutler would have just stuck it out and played through the pain like a real starting quarterback in one of the biggest games in his career, then maybe we would be going to the Super Bowl instead and then have our second trophy for our case. But it didn't happen, and it was just too easy to point the blame at Jay because of the fact that he just walked off and came out of the game like as if he was just tired or something. It was almost as if he had given us, the fans, the finger essentially. Which now leads to the overall reason that I have issues with Jay: the injuries just keep coming. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I do not remember a season yet since we have had Jay Cutler as our starting quarterback that he has not been hurt or injured with something and unable to play for a week or more. And to make it worse, they are simple sprains and bumps that other quarterbacks, like Ben Roethlisberger, who play through serious bumps and bruises all the time. But when Cutler isn't playing, his backups sure do like to rise to the occasion. No backup liked to shine in the limelight of success more than veteran QB Josh McCown, who this past 2013 season completed 66% of his passes, threw for just 1,829 yards while piling up 13 touchdowns with only one interception, and posted a QBR of 85.1 and rating of 109.0 all within just eight games as a starter. As for Cutler, he was able to complete 63% of his passes, threw for about 2,621 yards while scoring 19 touchdowns with his usual 12 interceptions, and posted a QBR of 66.2 and rating of 89.2 all over the spam of 11 games that he played in.

So how is it that Romo and Cutler are the same? It is best shown in two places of their careers: post season success and getting a big contract with nothing to back up why they received it. Now, those two things may not be enough for some of you to try and draw a comparison between the two men. But there is no denying that they both have poor postseason records and unnecessary large contracts with no way to back it up in their game. For Tony Romo, it has and will continue to be highlighted that he has yet to be the guy that the Cowboys can look toward to take them to the promise land. Romo's playoff record currently stands at 1-3. That's not what people want to see from their "star" quarterback. What really blew people's minds was when last year, owner and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys Jerry Jones, offered Romo a six year extension worth... ready?... $108 million! What's the word I'm looking for, oh yeah, What?! But it's true. Romo's large contract was just one of the many $100 million contracts being handed out to NFL quarterbacks. Then came this season, and the soon the Cowboys realized that they were over the cap space limit for this year, mostly thanks to the ridiculously large contract of Tony Romo. This caused Jones and the Cowboys to sit down with Romo and have to restructure his deal in order to make sure that they could have enough cap room for this year. Yet, they were still forced to let star linebacker/defensive end Demarcus Ware go in order to make more room for cap. Now the Bears' Jay Cutler has only played in two playoffs games and has a current record of 1-1. That isn't even anything when you realize that Cutler is a seven year veteran in the NFL and a five year veteran with the Chicago Bears. And what really shocked the entire NFL, football, and sports world was when the Bears gave Cutler a 7 year deal worth... wait for it... $126 million! Are you kidding me?! Where in this man's career is that kind of money even supported in any type of way, shape, or style? I mean seriously?! These two guys get deals with three figures while Russell Wilson has a better playoff record then both of them and also won the Super Bowl this year. Cutler demonstrates how Romo-like he truly is when the Chicago Bears announced yesterday that Cutler's deal had been restructured in order to clear up $4 million in cap space.

As I said before, I love Chicago and that they are starting to make moves that will ensure the Bears will be competitive for some years to come. I just have never been able to see Jay Cutler as a champion quarterback. The same goes for Tony Romo. At least they have both been able to do something amazing in one category: they both have dated some of the absolute hottest celebrity women.