The Cutler BBQ: a Prelude of things to come (1 Viewer)

[Hipple Long Ware & Peete]

pretty interesting...

Unprecedented social media attack dooms CutlerBy Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! SportsSocial media can be cruel, especially when a pack of teenage girls gang up on a peer and spread insults based on speculation, assumption and gossip. Most of it, of course, is fueled by the need to build their reputations.So here was Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler(notes) on Sunday with a sprained MCL in his left knee, tears welling in both his eyes according to SI.com. He was trying to deal with an onslaught of questions about his injury, manhood, heart and worth as a player. His crime? Sitting out most of the second half of the Bears’ NFC championship game loss to the Green Bay Packers; something some of his fellow NFL players found despicable.Cutler could not have anticipated the firestorm that would ensue.(Jeff Hanisch/US Presswire)This was, perhaps, the NFL’s first player-on-player social media attack.Related CoverageQuit the criticismNo sympathy from fanMore From Dan WetzelBlue-blooded Pack, Steelers in dream matchup Jan 24, 2011Spray gives sports deer-in-headlights look Jan 20, 2011Whether Cutler should’ve played on that knee is a debate that will rage forever on Lake Michigan. In my opinion Cutler did nothing wrong. I’m not in the position, or of the mindset, to question anyone’s toughness, let alone a professional football player though.Other NFL players could be, perhaps, and that’s where this knee injury went from story to tsunami in 140 characters or less.“All I’m saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee … I played the whole season on one,” tweeted Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew(notes).“Cmon cutler u have to come back. This is the NFC championship if u didn’t know!” Arizona safety Kerry Rhodes(notes) tweeted.Deion Sanders noted “in the playoffs u must drag me off the field.” Arizona’s Darnell Dockett(notes) said Cutler didn’t deserve to shower until the rest of the team left the locker room.It was heated. It was interesting. It was, you could say, insightful.Never before, have we had such raw and direct access to the real-time thoughts of NFL players. After decades of listening to athletes claim fans and media are too rough, it turns out we’ve got nothing on them in the venom department. Accurate or not, what they did to Jay Cutler was straight up cold.Cutler is not even worthy of being in the locker room with the team? Really?Don’t blame the old mainstream media this time – this was a player-fueled hit.The twirling twitter feeds of Sunday afternoon changed the story dramatically. You can lament that in our instant gratification world things like facts, perspective and patience have died. That’s true.It isn’t going away though. You might as well accept it. This is the start of the new normal. Until the next new normal, which isn’t likely to slow down or soften the commentary.Even two years ago, Cutler and the Bears would’ve at least had until the postgame media session to explain the injury and circumstances around the benching. Questions would’ve been asked, some fans still would’ve been angry and perhaps a columnist would’ve ripped away. It wouldn’t have gone down like this though. Time and facts would’ve lessened the heat of the moment.Sunday, Cutler was getting assailed within seconds of being taken out of the game – his aloof facial expressions, apparent disinterest in the game and history of not connecting with fans didn’t help any, of course.The NFL isn’t prepared for this stuff. Teams pride themselves on secrecy. Ex-players-turned-analysts almost always fall back on tales of the “rub-some-dirt-on-it” days. The league still clings to its archaic and unreliable system of defining injuries: doubtful, questionable, probable, etc.It was announced in the press box (which was then relayed out by media) that Cutler was “questionable” (whatever that means). That left a couple of obvious queries: who’s asking and who’s answering the “question.”Winston Churchill’s line is “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on.” In this case, it was the sentiment that Jay Cutler was a quitter that whipped around the globe instantly. The official medical prognosis could wait.Inside Solider Field fans read and passed on twitter comments from the NFL players via their smart phones. With each minute, the rhetoric grew increasingly heated. I was sent word of a new twitter account “@JayCutlersHeart” had been created, one of many springing up to mock the player. I immediately re-tweeted it out to my followers; participating in the game of one-upmanship.Cutler got beat up by the Pack prior to the public’s attack.(Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)Most challenging for Cutler is this: whether he should’ve played is neither truth nor lie, it is opinion. That’s more difficult to battle. By the postgame, Cutler was no longer able to explain himself with the facts – few seemed to care about the Bears saying it was a doctor’s decision or teammates speaking up for their QB. It was no longer about what happened, but why did it happen. Cutler was in defense mode and wasn’t prepared for it – offering a meek “no comment” to the criticism.The questions by reporters were more aggressive than they would’ve been pre-twitter because journalists could lean on the opinion of NFL players to frame things. No sports reporter is going to toe-to-toe in a debate with Brian Urlacher(notes) on the toughness of a player unless he can cite Jones-Drew, Sanders and the others.“Players around the league you said, right?” Urlacher said when asked about the Cutler criticism. “Yeah, love jealous people when they’re watching our game on TV while their season is over.”Fair point but that’s where we’ve landed. Twitter has allowed a voice to emerge from the couches – be it the average Joe or the NFL pro. Everyone is empowered. It’s unfettered, it’s immediate and in it’s brevity it offers very little opportunity for perspective.You’re gutless or you’re not. You’re a quitter or you’re not. Black. White. Sent.One thing you learn as a writer is that some of your best lines are the ones you delete. That doesn’t always work in social media.There is an undeniable badge of honor that comes from playing in the NFL. What’s surprising is that there doesn’t appear to be a universal appreciation for, or respect among, the participants though.Jones-Drew and the others weren’t willing to hold their thoughts and give a fellow player the benefit of the doubt, let alone a couple hours for an explanation or medical report.They just drilled him – the seventh grade overtaking the National Football League.

 

[Hipple Long Ware & Peete]

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Jones-Drew says he didn’t intend shot at CutlerMark Long, The Associated Press1 hour, 27 minutes agoEmailPrintPro Bowl running back Maurice Jones-Drew(notes) says he never meant to take a shot at Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler(notes) or question his toughness.The Jacksonville Jaguars star told The Associated Press on Monday that his tweet comparing Cutler to former Florida coach Urban Meyer was merely a joke — one that clearly backfired.Jones-Drew said he was rooting for Cutler and the Bears in Sunday's NFC championship game, and when Cutler left in the third quarter, Jones-Drew thought it was the perfect time to poke fun at the Gators."Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now… When the going gets tough……..QUIT," Jones-Drew posted on his Twitter page.Jones-Drew has received death threats and plenty of ill will from Bears' fans. The Bears also defended Cutler, who was diagnosed with sprained MCL on Monday.Jones-Drew was caught off guard by the backlash."I never attacked him, called him soft or a sore loser," Jones-Drew in a telephone interview Monday. "I never questioned his toughness. I think people took my joke out of context. I was taking at shot at Florida fans."Jones-Drew acknowledged that Cutler's injury — the Bears said he sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee — was serious enough to leave the game. But when Jones-Drew sent the tweet, he was unaware that anything was wrong with the quarterback."All I thought about was being in that position, being in that game," Jones-Drew said. "I've never been in a title game, so my first thought was why wouldn't you want to play in that situation."Bears fans turned it on Jones-Drew, with many pointing out that he missed the final two games of the season even though the Jaguars were in the AFC post-season hunt. Others said they hope he blows out his knee this season.Jones-Drew played all season with torn meniscus in his left knee, saying there were days when he would wake up and not be able to walk. He learned the severity of the injury during training camp — he basically had bone scraping against bone — but tried to keep it hidden because he didn't want opponents taking shots at his knee.The injury became more painful after his sixth consecutive 100-yard game, but he still tried to play at Indianapolis on Dec. 19 — a game in which Jacksonville could have clinched the AFC South. After that, and with the team no longer in control of its destiny, Jones-Drew shut it down.Cutler's defenders didn't seem to care on Twitter."I don't have a problem with people coming back at me," Jones-Drew said. "That interaction makes it fun. But some people took it too far by threatening my life. … I'm not going to stop tweeting. I've never attacked anyone and never will."Jones-Drew watched the game "as a fan with friends" and wanted Cutler to play well since he drafted him in a post-season fantasy football league. He later tweeted that "All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee… I played the whole season on one…""I threw out this joke and the backlash came in," Jones-Drew said. "I tried to make it right, but it backfired."The Bears are still miffed by the tweets. Receiver Earl Bennett(notes), Cutler's teammate at Vanderbilt, called the criticism "very unprofessional." Defensive tackle Anthony Adams(notes) labelled it "garbage" and "unfair.""I expect them to stick up for Cutler," Jones-Drew said. "That's your teammate, that's how this league works. I hope they realize I don't have any hard feelings toward Cutler. I never questioned his toughness. It's not a matter of toughness. You have to be tough to play this game."I don't think anyone was questioning his toughness. Some guys were questioning his body language on the sideline at the end of the game. I wasn't even doing that. I was making a joke for the Florida fans and people took it out of context."

 

[Dr. Gobbler]

Congratulations! You are the 1 millionth person to post a Cutler thread!

 

[Truman]

MJD is a #####. Man up and admit it when you question someone else's heart. MJD was too ##### himself to even finish the season when his team was in the playoff hunt.

Deion Sanders is a #####. Too scared to even tackle anyone when he played and he's questioning a guy who tears a knee ligament? Maybe if he took a ##### approach like primetime he could have stayed out there without putting his body on the line.

 

[Jason Wood]

I do agree that social media and the general ubiquity of the web is changing things, and not for the better. At the risk of sounding like an old man ranting about how things used to be , it's become frightening to me how quickly people jump to conclusions, and how vehement and absolute they feel they have to be in order to be heard. It's become this never-ending cycle of self-reinforcement and a lack of objectivity.

 

[two_dollars]

Good thread. Ever see the movie "idiocracy"? That is where we're headed.

 

[omahabrad]

These players on twitter are making themselves look worse than the picture they painted of Cutler. MJD especially, posting what he did then turning around and to say that isn't what he meant. But in truth it was what he meant by his first post. MJD should have just apologized and left it at that. Lost some respect for the guy in the last 2 years, I think his fame is starting to go to his head.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Urlacher had it right. A bunch of sore losers watching at home wishing they were still playing.

Sitting there like a bunch of teenage girls tweeting their little hearts out.

 

[Todem]

I do agree that social media and the general ubiquity of the web is changing things, and not for the better. At the risk of sounding like an old man ranting about how things used to be , it's become frightening to me how quickly people jump to conclusions, and how vehement and absolute they feel they have to be in order to be heard. It's become this never-ending cycle of self-reinforcement and a lack of objectivity.

Agreed. And I was guilty of this myself with Cutler. But the social media is getting out of hand and out of touch with reality more and more.I don't have a twiter account nor will I ever have a twiter account. It is garbage. I don;t give a crap about what people think everyday, every waking moment.Facebook as turned into this drivel as well. When I first started using it in 2008 it was a way to reach out and find some long lost friends. It has snowballed into a mass marketing self marketing frenzy.It's awful.

 

[rzrback77]

A sad state of affairs this particular use of social media. Perhaps, something like this will bring about some reflection on the impact that multiple voices produce.

I doubt it though, because when analyzed, the targeted affect is to elevate one's self image at the degrading of another and people have always been about self.

The media itself only heightens the information spread and level and speed of the verbal attack.

 

[Hipple Long Ware & Peete]

I think a lot of it has to do with the 'real time' nature of it. Never before (unless someone was a TV commentator/color guy) would we have access to what anyone thought in real time. Now that everyone has a 'twitter' (and by extension is followed by many people/retweeted etc) no one gets to really think about what they publish/tweet. It used to be that before anyone in the media would get to these guys, they had time to think about what they would say (or in some cases sober up-calm down from a rush of emotion) or even have their agent with them on the set to act as a filter for their ideas. Add to that that they are often acting/reacting from a place of incomplete information (e.g. cutlers knee injury/it's severity etc) and it's a recipe for disaster.

This is why many coaches (pro and college) have banned players from having Twitter accounts. Because once something is published in the heat of the moment (especially wit this being the first year of the Twitterverse, relatively) it is out there for good and hard to take back. Like MJD's case. Sorry the 'you misunderstood me' excuse of the past doesn't work as well when we have a transcript of exactly what you said. I wonder if any pro sports leagues/ncaa governing bodies are going to make rules/institute guidelines on how these mediums are to be used.

It certainly makes for better banter/media-forum fodder.

But although I do have a twitter account (for receiving real time updates-info etc) it is why I have maybe posted once to it, if that. Also stay tuned for the slew of defamation/libel cases that are going to start heading to the courts in the next few years to see how they view this new media and it's potentially damaging effect.

stay tuned, but this is going to be kind of crazy. For. e.g. I for one am curious to see how this all shakes out with the NFL draft.

 

[Hipple Long Ware & Peete]

Congratulations! You are the 1 millionth person to post a Cutler thread!

Congratulations. You once again add nothing to any real discussion, yet think you are hilarious!50 to 1 says this guy is not a dr. unless Sally Struthers signed the degree.

 

[Sack-Religious]

I'm likely not the first person to say this, but Cutler was really in a no-win situation. If his knee wouldn't allow him to plant and get the proper weight transfer to get the necessary power into his throws, everyone would have been ripping him for choking or not taking himself out for the betterment of the team. God forbid he would have thrown another pick as a result of it.

One would think that a current or former player, who presumably has been too hurt to play on at least one occasion in their life, would give a fellow player the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a medical decision to sit.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Good thread topic Hipple, we are all headed for a different age and I'm not sure for the better, not by a long shot.

 

[Da Guru]

Hard to believe that NFL players are acting like a bunch of high school girls with their tweets. Have to think that some with uinder the influence when tweeting.

And why is MJD tweeting anything? Drew begged off a big game and did not even dress to play.

 

[yoman]

MJD is a #####. Man up and admit it when you question someone else's heart. MJD was too ##### himself to even finish the season when his team was in the playoff hunt.Deion Sanders is a #####. Too scared to even tackle anyone when he played and he's questioning a guy who tears a knee ligament? Maybe if he took a ##### approach like primetime he could have stayed out there without putting his body on the line.

I pretty much thought the exact thing as you about MJD and Sanders. I remember Sanders as a great cover cb and as you said one that wouldn't tackle and probably would sit out the NFC Championship game if he had a paper cut. I listened to Mike & Mike this morning and they seemed to be trying excuse the new instant media and said whether you like it or not it is here to stay. I am fine with that but it is irresponsible for players and the media to make comments without having all the facts. If former/current players feel a need to tweet something then they should qualify their statements.