Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler (6) walks off the field at halftime against the Green Bay Packers during the NFL NFC Championship football game in Chicago, January 23, 2011. REUTERS/Mike Segar (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)
Poor Aaron Rodgers.
First, Brett Favre steals his thunder. Next, his own shoddy offensive line limited him a few years ago. Then, he finally gets the moment everyone in Green Bay has been waiting for — a Super Bowl shot — and Jay Cutler and his sideline hoodie steal the spotlight.
NFL players lined up to take non verbal shots from the twitter zone Monday. Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones Drew’s tweet garnered the most attention as he called Jay Cutler a quitter, like former Florida coach Urban Meyer.
Ouch.
But players aren’t just disrespecting Jay Cutler with the criticism. They’re dogging Aaron Rodgers’ moment and in a larger sense spitting on the NFL Players Union fighting on their behalf for better health benefits, contracts etc against the big, bad billionaires club of NFL owners.
Players want better quality health care for themselves and their families. They want better protection from long-term injuries that can adversely impact the quality of their lives after the game. They want better commitment and integrity from NFL organizations in terms of honoring their play with sound contracts. They don’t want to play 18 NFL games without the above issues being addressed. And so on and so forth.
Power comes from solidarity. If NFL players can’t show Jay Cutler enough respect to hold their personal views in private, then how can they expect to be taken seriously in the bigger struggles by NFL owners?
I don’t have a problem with players squabbling over the severity of Jay Cutler’s knee injury. Questioning the man’s heart seems a bit much, but again, opinions are allowed.
But with the backdrop of a 2011 NFL lockout, those views could have been best served in private or at least said to Jay Cutler’s face.
