Before you join the inane antisocial media movement questioning Jay Cutler's toughness via Twitter, Facebook or your unfriendly neighborhood blogger, pause before you hit "Enter."
Before you unfairly label the injured Bears quarterback "Jay Quitler,'' or put that No. 6 jersey in the Goodwill pile for reasons you can't possibly understand, take a deep breath.
Before you question Cutler's heart, find out more about the injured left knee that sidelined him for most of the second half of Sunday's 21-14 NFC Championship game loss to the Packers.
"No player decision,'' Lovie Smith said of sitting Cutler. "For us, Jay hurt his knee, he couldn't go. He was injured.''
Nobody denies Cutler has earned the criticism heaped on him for immaturity off the field and inconsistency on it. But Cutler doesn't deserve America rushing to judge him a quitter after he left the game for good early in the third quarter.
Cutler wearing a parka against the Packers wasn't Cedric Benson sitting out the second half of Super Bowl XLI with a knee injury several teammates privately questioned. This is a quarterback who endured 57 sacks this season, a guy Bears fans worried was too tough for his own good one week earlier when he scored two rushing TDs against the Seahawks. This is a guy who plays pro football despite being afflicted with Type 1 diabetes.
Suddenly he's a wimp?
Sorry, this was simple irony: The healthiest team in the NFL losing its most important game ever at home due to an injury to its most important player. Cutler is many things. He is not soft.
I rarely agree with Olin Kreutz on anything other than what day it is. But Kreutz provided the perfect response to anybody suggesting otherwise — especially his NFL peers who ripped Cutler on the Internet.
"(Expletive) them, it's (expletive) stupid,'' Kreutz snapped. "I could see (his knee) wiggling when he was walking back in the huddle (late in the second quarter).''
On the second-to-the-last series before the half, Cutler felt a hit on the outside of his left knee. He finished the next two series but limped into the locker room with 32 seconds left. He was re-taped, rode the exercise bike to get a truer gauge and returned to play the first series of the third quarter.
"I was going to keep playing,'' Cutler said. "They made the decision (that) to give Todd (Collins) a shot would better suit the team.''
Cutler tried lobbying the Bears medical team. Asked if the knee lacked stability or mobility, Cutler answered, "Both.'' The pocket is no place for a quarterback that limited, especially against a Packers defense that aggressive.
"I knew it was probably better that I didn't (play),'' Cutler acknowledged. "I know my knee. I know my body.''
The mistake the Bears organization made was allowing any ambiguity about the injury and Cutler's status. The team made no announcement that Cutler officially was "out'' and the lack of specificity over the injury allowed hasty speculation to mount. Not that any of Cutler's teammates doubted him.
The only question Brian Urlacher had for Cutler was when he went over to ask if he would be ready for the Super Bowl.
"Jay was hurt," Urlacher said. "I don't question his toughness. He's tough as hell."
When they pull the account of this historic game out of the time capsule, this won't be the game Cutler quit on the Bears. It will be the game the 2010 Bears finally ran out of luck and Smith coached his way into the offseason.
Why was Collins ahead of "emergency quarterback" Caleb Hanie on the depth chart anyway? Collins shouldn't have been on the roster, let alone in a game to decide the Super Bowl. He only took six snaps but all were wasted as Hanie watched. Sure, Hanie threw an interception B.J. Raji returned for the decisive score, but he gave the Bears offense life. Collins gave it cyanide.
The decision to insert Hanie with 57 seconds left in the third quarter potentially made the bad decision to go with Collins worse. Per NFL rules, it meant that if Hanie had gotten hurt in the fourth quarter, the Bears would have been forced to finish the game with Matt Forte or Earl Bennett at quarterback. Ugh.
If Smith signs a contract extension soon, as expected, it will be because the front office chose to ignore his coaching effort against the Packers. Why did Smith punt instead of let Robbie Gould try a 49-yard field-goal attempt down 14-0 in the second quarter? Why run Bennett around left end — a wide receiver who isn't Devin Hester — on third-and-3 with 1:15 left on the potential game-tying drive? Why not use the final timeout to call a smarter play on fourth down?
On the way out of the Bears locker room, a dejected Mike Martz stopped long enough to tell a reporter, "I'm sorry.''
Indeed the Bears as a team had much to apologize for after getting outcoached and outplayed by their rivals with the Super Bowl on the line. But Cutler as a competitor clearly didn't.
