Poker, Football, and everything sports

When I woke up this morning and opened up espn.com, I was praying, for Jay Cutler's sake, that the top headline would say: "MRI revelas torn ligament on Cutler's knee". But it didn't. In fact, short of "MRI reveals no damage", it said the worst possible thing. "Cutler has MCL sprain". The difference in the two is fans saying "We're sorry Jay, no one could have played on a torn MCL" to "Are you kidding me!! I sprain!! Come on you pussy!"

Now I have never sprained a ligament in my knee before. I've sprained my ankle a bunch of times, but never my knee. I'm also not a football player though, and when you look across the playoff bracket at Ben Roethlisberger, who has played this season alone with a broken nose, broken foot, and hurt leg in EVERY game, you have to wonder if Cutler couldn't have played.

But then I thought about it, and I realized that many people are missing the point. Cutler is a good quarterback, but lets be real. With the exception of maybe Mark Sanchez, no one in the league can go as seamlessly from having a 4 TD 0 INT game to a 1 TD 4 INT game as Cutler. And lets look at the score from yesterday. With Cutler in there at the half, the Bears were down 14-0. So they had to ask themselves: does Cutler at 50% give us a better chance then Todd Collins at 100%. Well that answer was clearly yes as Collins looked more nervous out there then the boom goes the dynamite kid. But then they asked if he gives them a better chance then 3rd string QB Caleb Hanie, and two touchdowns later, that answer was clearly no.

So now the Bears and Cutler will have to answer to the critics and fans jawing at them for the next 9 months. I was thinking about it today, and I think that the Bears would benefit greatly from having a mobile quarterback out there. Let me explain why.

When you think about it, the bears offense, at least at skill positions, mirrors anotehr NFC team that has had much success in recent years: The Philidelphia eagles. Think about it:

Devin Hester:Desean Jackson- Clearly Jackson is a much more polished wide out, but the two still represent the blinding speed and big play capability.

Johnny Knox:Jeremy Maclin- Two very similar players who both make huge plays in the same way.

Earl Bennett:Jason Avant- Bennett is bigger, and Avant is faster, but both are a solid slot option.

Greg Olsen:Brent Celek- Olsen is bigger and faster then Celek.

The reason the Eagles have much success is they have a QB that can get out of the pocket and let his receivers make plays on the scramble drill, where as Cutler very often can't do that. If they can get a faster guy out there, I think it would suit them much better.

Point of all this is, while Cutler might have pussied out, somehow, someway, Hanie gave them a better chance to win. Period. End of story.



Lastly, I saw this live yesterday and almost died laughing. Enjoy.