Jay Cutler:The Lasting Impression

12 thoughts on “Jay Cutler:The Lasting Impression”

1. Good Morning from Omaha,

   Its looks like you have been trying to pin the tail on the bronco

   and it appears there are no good guys in this whole scenario, and that is

   too bad.

   Pat has given up his leverage to get a whole lot for a pro bowl quarterback by just throwing up his

   hands and not even trying.

   Mickie D appears to be a mini belichceck and a ego driven a-hole, but its never been

   written that coaches have to be much of anything else as long as they win and he

   hasn’t even started yet.

   And Jay now has an image around the league that he has quit on his team and is a

   petulant baby.

   And the fans are going to take one on the chin and really have no chance to punch back.

   It is almost like the drama that engulfed Kansas City with Herm and Carl Peterson. All the fans

   could do was complain about the lack of winning etc. the games were still “sold out” and on t.v..

   As the afternoon guy on WHB said owning an NFL franchise is a license to print money.

   Good luck to all the Bronco fans as you endure this mess that didn’t need to be made.

   Gene

2. Good morning Drew – again, you have hit the nail on the head. Say what you want about how this all started (And McD did handle this badly), the bottom line is Cutler needs to realize that he’s in the Big Leagues now. And sometimes, when there is a coaching change, there is a staffing change. No one is irreplaceable.

   And so here we are, on the lookout for a new QB, with Cutler acting like TO and saying “phone calls? I never received any phone calls?” Which sounds a lot like my 9 year old standing in front of the broken dish saying “I don’t know how it broke!”

   Love your daily cartoons, they bring laughter to rain soaked Oregon.

3. Eeesh. The New Broncos are too much like the New Coke. The owner may have rebranded his franchise right out of a life long fan. I can take losing seasons, a trade here or there, and I was even willing to consider the coaching change as part of the deal on this one. I might even be inclined to see more of the “Jay is too whiny” view point, but I think the New Broncos set the tone with the release of Mike Leach. Every decision since has been awful.

   Sad thing is that I may consider jumping ship to the Lions.

4. I heard somewhere today that McD is still holding out hopes of getting M. Cassel…how true is that?

   I was hoping Jay C. would get sent to the blackhole that is Detroit, but I heard that he is being courted by the Redskins.

   I guess I don’t really care as long as the Broncos come out at least as good as they were. Is that possible.

   I still maintain that I’m upset at both sides. Is Bowlen as incompetent as he appears?

   I don’t think I have it in me to root for another team.

5. Drew,

   The whole Cutler controversy and some of the comments are making me think what it is to be a fan of a modern sports team.

   The team is made up by the players, the coaches and staff, the owner, and the community in which the team resides.

   The modern football business model of free agency, drafting, and trading sees at least 1/3rd of a team change every year. The Broncos are great examples of being willing to trade even their top players. Thus there is no guarantee a favorite player will be there year after year.

   Is it the coaches? Maybe. Shannahan, Cower, and Fisher were, and in Fisher’s case still is, coaches with long tenures with a team. However modern football sees a coach come in for one to three years and the be fired or move to another team.

   The owner defines the organization. It is his (or the company’s) asset and may be structured as he/she/it sees fit. Ultimately, the owner hires the short-term coaches who retain the short-term players, which result in a lucky winning season now and again, but generally a mediocre result year after year.

   So what is left? The community.

   Take it another way, I am not a fan of the Broncos because of Jay Cutler. He’s soon to be gone. If I am a fan of Jay, my loyalty would transfer to the next team. If I was a fan because of Shannahan, I would not care about the Broncos in the coming years. If I am a fan because of Bowlen, then I have to say I like the team because of the chaos he brought the organization.

   So why do I like the Broncos if it is not the player, coach, or owner? I like (ok, love) the Broncos because they represent my community, Denver, and Colorado as a whole. Regardless of the player/coach/owner the team represents us, the community.

   What has played out in the last six weeks is a travesty because these three have brought shame and derision upon all of us through their actions.

   To this end: Jay, Josh, and Pat, shame on all of you for the embarrassment you brought on your community. I will still love the Broncos just as before, but my support will not have anything to do with any of you!

6. Shannon,

   I haven’t heard anything new about McDaniel’s interest in obtaining Matt Cassell, though I must say it wouldn’t surprise me. He coveted him in the beginning of this mess. I think the bottom line for me is, no matter what McDaniel’s does now, it’s not going to save him from the situation he has created. He’s already lost the team which in pro sports is the absolute kiss of death. It’s going to be an ugly few years to be a Broncos fan.

7. Mike makes some excellent points. Jerry Seinfeld took the idea of rooting for sports teams through his comic filters and produced the idea that we are ultimately rooting for a shirt if we can love the guy when he’s on our team and hate him when he goes to another.

   As one of the Diaspora, I don’t necessarily have the community factor. I live in Cincinnati, and while my sense of community rallies me into pulling for the Bengals on occasion, I have been one of those irrational orange and blue bleeders since I could remember. As a kid, being a Bronco fan crept into my identity (family was all from Denver) and became my badge of individuality. I was a Bronco fan in Cowboy country, in Steeler country, in Saints country, in Bengal country, in 49er country. . . But one outgrows the child-like hero-worship of sports figures.

   Ultimately, sports fanaticism can be childish and dangerous in and of itself. Our team becomes a convenient vessel for our identities in which we can hide our own insecurities and ignore our own failures choosing instead to blame our anger on “overpaid goof offs” when they lose and claim our part of the “glory” when they win. If I am unquestioningly tied to one team

   So I pull for players? For coaches? . . .I also thought about the Eddie Royals, The Ryan Cladys, The Brandon Stokelys, the D. J. Williams, and the Champ Baileys that I would not be rooting for should I go sour on the Broncos. And, believe me, it’s not just the Jay Cutler situation that has me irked. It’s a series of decisions by the owner and the coach starting with releasing Mike Leach, going through the flip flop on the Goodman’s, dangling Tony Scheffler, and signing three mediocre running backs. While I expect 1/3 of a roster to turn over and know that there will be changes, when too much gets turned over too quickly, I ask myself: what am I pulling for? A player? A coach? A community?

   In the end, I find myself pulling for a way of doing things. I continued to pull for the Broncos because, despite some flaws, they seemed to have a good way of doing business of preparing to do what they do with excellence, for treating players like adults instead of pawns (as much as is possible in this business), for respecting and engaging their bread and butter — the fans. Likewise, in basketball, I found myself rooting for the Spurs some years ago. The idea of Tim Duncan, a 4-year senior, former swimmer who played the game with integrity was attractive to me. Greg Poppavich and Spurs ownership had that same integrity and fan-friendliness of the Broncos.

   Now, instead what I’m seeing from the Broncos is insecurity at its worst. Flagrant disregard of the team, its players, its ethic, and its fans. From the owner and from the coach. And, yes, from the now departing quarterback (though in his defense, I do agree with the columnist who said that if we are expecting the 25-year-old qb to be by far the bigger man than the coach and the owner, we’ve go the formula backwards).

   We’ll see. Being a fan is an emotional thing. But the Steelers look better and better to me by the day. Not just because they win, but because they seem to know how to run a sports team where everybody wins.

8. When’s the Kyle Orton cartoon coming? 🙂

9. Jay Cut-loose! We got everything but the kitchen sink on this trade. 5 picks in the first 3 rounds. This will help us out in the long run.

10. David,

    Thank you for the kind words.

    You have an excellent point about cheering for a team that has a way of doing things where everyone wins. In a time where the individual is so highly prized even in a team environment, the purist version of teamwork is very appealing. Its hard to say much less find much negative about what is happening in the Steelers. The momentum they have from positive efforts is contagious. You hope they win as one of the “good guys.”

    Hopefully the Broncos can figure it out again.

11. This is exactly what I’m dreaming about. This IS community. Great comments everybody.

12. This sucks!!! Nothing I can do about it, but it still sucks. I’ve watched it happen to other NFL teams, but I never thought it could happen to the Broncos. The problem is that egos got in the way of negotiations and teamwork. I want to be mad at an individual, but there is plenty of blame to go around. You have an owner who’s dug a canal-sized line in the sand supporting the coach and can’t erase it; a coach who is looking to make his mark on this franchise by not backing down, and a quarterback who hasn’t quite matured yet. Throw in an agent who is the devil incarnate, and this is a recipe for disaster. Who suffers? Sure isn’t any of the above mentioned! It’s the fans. One last thought……I’ve got a Griese, Plummer, Cutler and Elway jerseys hanging in my closet. One out of four isn’t bad! I’m never buying another Broncos jersey unless my name is on the back of it….at least they can’t trade me! Broncos fan for life!