Da Coach, Mike Ditka was recently the subject of an interview in the Sun-Times, and it seems he isn't the biggest fan of Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler.

"People talk about the combine, about body fat, 40 times, bench presses, how high you can jump," said Ditka. "That's great, but how do you measure heart?"

He went on to say that while leadership is hard to define, it comes down to "class," something he feels Newton has. Ditka also said the Bears might want to take a look at the QB position in the draft.

"If Cutler's not in the future, go after the best quarterback available," said Ditka.

"Leadership and character, you can't teach those."

I think that Cutler showed plenty of leadership and character throughout 2010. He got sacked more than any QB in the league and kept getting up and back into the huddle. He never once threw his porous O-line under the bus. But Cutler might never live down leaving the Green Bay game until he wins it all. And that hardly seems fair.

Taking a look at the up and down year of Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler in pics. We have some fun with Jay, take a look at him with Kristin Cavallari, and go through the season that was.

Peter King was on WEEI to talk all things football, and spoke about Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler. Here's what King had to say.

On leaving the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers:

"There's no question in my mind that Cutler was limited and was not going to be able to be himself and wasn't going to be totally right. No question about it. However, I think there are more than 10 starting quarterbacks in the NFL, including the one who plays in this town (Brady), who would not have come out of the game. They would have said, 'Tape it up as tight as you can, and put a knee brace on -- do something -- but I'm playing in this game. Am I saying he should have played? No. I'm not saying he should have played. What I'm saying is there are players who would have played with what Jay Cutler had."

On Cutler's toughness:

"You're asking me if I question his toughness. And the answer is yes, I question it. But I think it's natural to question it when you have players out there who are saying, in essence, that, 'I would have played with that.' And I think a lot of them would have."

On Cutler's personality:

"He's just not a guy who's very highly regarded or very well liked by other players in the league."

King is a well-respected football writer, and you can see why from these quotes. He thinks things through and allows for different viewpoints. But the quote about Brady is a bit specious. Brady is game, but recall that he too left an AFC Championship game in 2001. Then he did play in the Super Bowl just 2 weeks later.

Ex-Green Bay Packer Greg Koch had some invective for Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler, head coach Lovie Smith and former Bears QB Kyle Orton.

"Man, I just never thought that his tampon would fall out on national TV. ... If you're a professional athlete, you answer the bell until they tell you there's no way you can play. You can brace that thing.

Nobody would've kept Tom Brady off the field if he wanted to play. Nobody would've kept Peyton Manning off the field. Then you don't just sit on the sideline and ride a bike like a little girl. ... I've never seen anything like it. If that's the guy leading your team, you deserve a coach named Lovie.

This isn't a normal profession where you go, 'I've got the flu and I'm not coming in today. There are times you just gotta gut it up, shoot it up and play. It's the NFC Championship Game. ... If it comes out that he needs surgery, then maybe I need to take some of this back. But right now, I'm seeing it as a strained ligament and I've seen a lot of guys play with a lot worse."

If there's two guys who do not look like an NFL quarterback, if you just look at their mug, it's Jay Cutler and Kyle Orton, and they traded these two slobs for each other."

Koch was a durable, solid lineman for many years. But bringing up Brady is the worst possible example he could have chosen. Brady injured his knee in the 2001 AFC Championship game and had to leave. But there he was in the Super Bowl, leading the Pats to victory over the Rams. Was Brady a wuss for leaving the game? Did people question his toughness since he was able to play in the Super Bowl. No.

It's all just so stupid. If the guy could play -- and help the team -- he would. Koch, meanwhile, offended all sorts of people with his words. And you can listen to the Koch interview here.

Jay Cutler is not so much "untough" -- seriously, I heard someone call him that --  as he is a victim of the NFL's moron soap opera, writes SB Nation's Spencer Hall.

"..the track record for Cutler does not indicate that. I watched Cutler play one of the tougher games by a quarterback at the college level I'd ever seen, a 49-42 loss by his Commodores to Florida in the Swamp in 2005. The game was a distillation of Cutler's entire career at Vanderbilt: abuse, zero blocking by his offensive line, throws off his back foot that somehow rocketed into receivers' hands over and over again, and ultimately a near-miss at glory by an undermanned team.

Cutler had the scowl and general bitchfacedness going back then, but you can't see that under the helmet. All you could see was the durability of a player who watched a good number of his completions from underneath a linebacker or defensive lineman, and the effect he had had on his teams. There was no "sparkle," no "charm," no dreaded "playing like a kid out there." He threw the ball hard. it went the right places. Vanderbilt competed in more games than they deserved to as a result of Cutler doing his job well. It's amazing how simple this equation is when you factor out the NFL's farting miasma of machismo and PR stunting."

You have to read the rest of the column for the full effect, but it's an amazing piece that clearly deciphers the "code" behind being a tough guy and playing through injuries and why Cutler didn't get a pass on Sunday when other players would have.

Well this didn't take long.

Who would have thought that the voice of reason in the Jay Cutler injury fiasco would be...Chad Ochocinco?

The man with the massive Twitter following has publicly given his support to the Chicago Bears QB.

This could look bad for many of the NFL players that have ragged on Cutler considering that sources are already saying Cutler tore his MCL yesterday in the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers.

Sean Jensen of the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that a source close to the "situation" says that Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler did indeed tear the MCL in his left knee during the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers.

Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was scheduled to undergo an MRI this morning to determine the extent of a torn MCL believed to be in his left knee, according to a source close to the situation.

Neither Cutler nor coach Lovie Smith explained when the injury occurred in the second quarter, but Cutler headed to the locker room for halftime ahead of his teammates, and he tested the stability of his knee in the opening series ot the third quarter. At that point, Smith said the team made the decision to remove him from the game.

An MCL tear is consistent with what Cutler noted after the game, that he was hit on the outside of his knee.

If in fact Cutler does have an MCL tear, would that change all the critics mind about his level of toughness?

Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler has not only been killed by announcers, players and fans on Twitter, people are expressing their sentiments through the wonders of mock photos.

h/t: imgur

As soon as Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler left the game, an enormous barrage of tweets were posted just hammering him. They came from announcers, NFL players and fans. Only Joe Buck might have got more negative tweets than Cutler. A sample of the derision (BAD LANGUAGE INCLUDED):

While most everyone was ripping Jay Cutler on Twitter for leaving the game against the Packers, after the game Brian Urlacher and Lovie Smith came to the Chicago Bears QB's defense.

Lovie Smith:
"Jay of course was disappointed he couldn't go. He hurt his knee, and he was out. That's all I know to tell you. ... Let's go to some other questions."

Brian Urlacher:

"Jay was hurt. I don't question his toughness. He's tough as hell. He's one of the toughest guys on our football team. He doesn't bitch. He doesn't complain when he gets hit. He goes out there and plays his ass off every Sunday. He practices every single day. So, no, we don't question his toughness."

h/t: ESPNChicago.com and ChicagoBreakingSports.com

Yes, it's come to this. Chicago Bears fans (at least this group of them) have stooped so low as to burn a Jay Cutler jersey after the NFC Championship loss to the Green Bay Packers. Sigh.

They took Jay Cutler's Denver Broncos jersey and replaced his name with "Cry Baby". They took his Broncos jersey and set it on fire. Bitter Broncos fans took his jersey and flushed it down the toilet. There was no shortage of outrage at his departure, no name they wouldn't call him.

Then Josh McDaniels went 6-0 to start the 2009 season with Kyle Orton as his starting QB. Cutler threw a lot of interceptions. That made Broncos fans puff out their chests even more.

But now, Broncos fans are realizing that Jay Cutler is having the last laugh. From NFL.com's Broncos Blog:

Everyone can laugh, but only a select few get the last laugh.

Do you hear the chuckle coming from Chicago? There's a man by the name of Jay Cutler who is whooping it up with Bears fans. That's because the Bears are headed to the NFC Championship this weekend, one win removed from a Super Bowl appearance.

Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos are huddled around their television sets thinking about how their team had one more loss than the Bears had wins.

Josh McDaniels is gone and Orton has been replaced by Tim Tebow. Things change fast, maybe even the hearts of Broncos fans. Over at Predominantly Orange, another Broncos blog, they ran a poll asking if Broncos fans would like to see Jay Cutler and the Bears beat the Packers this weekend. As I type this post, 79% of the respondents voted "Yes". That's pretty remarkable considering what most Broncos fans thought about Cutler just a short time ago.

Maybe they are realizing that McDaniels shouldn't have alienated Cutler and perhaps Brandon Marshall, or that Pat Bowlen should have never fired Mike Shanahan in the first place. You have to give them their props. Would Chicago fans be able to make such an about face? I'm not sure.

Yet another like-minded soul who sees through the media's BS. Here is the fake (yet oh so real) interview between ESPN's Rick Reilly and Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler. The stuff about Tom Brady is spot on. Enjoy!

Some residents of Santa Claus, Indiana got together and made this video for Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler.
 
Nice touch, Santa Claus. GO BEARS!!

It looks as if the Green Bay Packers might miss Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears because according to this Green Bay paper, the Pack are on their way to...

"Chicaco" sounds like some type of Chicago taco restaurant. And could they find 2 more miserable pictures of Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers? Doubtful.

h/t: Sportress of Blogitude

Michael Strahan, better known as the fake sack record holder and also as that guy that is on your TV waaaaaaaaay too much, was on the T.Ocho show (apparently that's still on?!) and took the time to criticize Jay Cutler. Perhaps Mike forgot that it is 2010 and not 2009.

Someone needs to tell Strahan that the Bears don't throw it downfield as much as he thinks. And seriously -- why is this guy continually all over my TV? What's the appeal? I don't get it.

Michael Silver of Yahoo writes about the similarities between Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler and his Green Bay Packers counterpart Aaron Rodgers.

More than most NFL players - and, realistically, most American citizens of the 21st century - Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers understand what it's like to have their personalities publicly dissected. The quarterbacks who'll face off in Sunday's NFC championship game at Soldier Field have felt the sting of presumptive perceptions during their young careers, and at times the evidence cited against them has been downright dubious. It's no wonder that the scorching-hot passers for the Packers and Bears are friends who, despite being in the middle of a longstanding rivalry, cheer for one another's good fortune. And it's nice that they have one another's backs, given that each player will take the field on Sunday feeling as though "He Hate Me" could be stitched onto the rear of his jersey.

As far as I know, Rodgers has only received it for his snub of the cancer patient at the airport, for which he was mostly exonerated. Cutler gets it for his facial expressions and body language, and even the way he talks. Read the rest of Silver's article here.

Would you like to be Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler's guest at the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers. "Oh, me? I'm here with Jay."

Jay Cutler is raffling off 2 tix to the game. Tickets are just $2 each, but you have to purchase a minimum of five. And you have to do it by Thursday. Click the link above to enter. Here's what you'll win...

Entry Deadline:  11:00 AM EST Thursday, January 20, 2011

Drawing Date:    Thursday, January 20, 2011

Grand Prize:

Relive the glory of the Chicago Bears victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday with these awesome highlights of Jay Cutler and the offense doing work. Oh, and never mind that you got really nervous after that last Seahawks touchdown. If you really want to get all freaked out just start thinking about the game against the Packers.

Jay Cutler to Kellen Davis 39-yd. TD Pass


Jay Cutler to Greg Olsen 58-yd TD Pass


Jay Cutler 9-yd TD Run
 
Jay Cutler 6-yd TD Run
 

Rick Reilly's article on Jay Cutler begins like this: "For a man from Santa Claus, Ind., Jay Cutler is one of the least jolly people you've ever met." You probably could have stopped right there, if not for the atrocity of that play on words, than for the utter ridiculousness at writing such a thing.

There was Reilly, just hours earlier on local ESPN radio, bemoaning the fact that he couldn't get much face time with the Chicago Bears QB. But in those tender, fleeting moments that he did spend with Cutler, apparently Reilly and his super powers of detection were able to come to such a conclusion. Interesting.

So since Cutler doesn't especially care to help the media with their jobs -- it sucks when work is hard, right? -- he is obviously the biggest lout ever. At least to hear Reilly tell it.

Quick: take three of your less than spectacular moments. Let Rick Reilly corroborate the stories. Boom! He'll come back with a judgment about your being.

Reilly asks: "So why is Cutler as popular as gout? Is it because he never makes eye contact?

Is it his seeming inability to answer a question without using "y'know"? (He once used it 57 times in a five-minute interview with the NFL Network.) Is it his penchant for making things difficult?"

Maybe it's because people like Rick Reilly continue to perpetrate this type column on the masses. Peyton Manning is the biggest jerk ever when it comes to dealing with teammates and calling them out. But he's A-OK because he gives the media the face time they so richly deserve. He's funny in commercials! He must be a great guy!

Does Cutler have a punch-me face, and at times a pissy attitude? Yep. Does that make him a joyless jerk? Hardly. Cutler isn't out kicking dogs, or killing them for that matter. Yet across the country people want to heap it on him. Why? Partly because of people like Rick Reilly.

The veil over Reilly is so thin. Had Cutler given him some one-on-one time, this column would be substantially different. It would have focused more on the quality traits he briefly touched on: his struggle with diabetes, his charitable work and how Cutler has taken a beating all season but kept getting up and never once threw his O-line under the bus.

Instead, Reilly took the easy route and continued to pile it on Cutler. How weak and unoriginal.

Check out this hilarious and well-done mock movie poster, celebrating the playoff arrival of Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler.

Before I get ranting, understand that I understand that the people that actually make signs to take to sporting events are typically devoid of quality hobbies, and need spell check for most conjunctions. Unless it's original and totally clever, most signs are a waste of time, and serve no purpose except to block some decent fan's sight line and let the world know that you don't know all that much about sports. Yeah, I said it was going to be a rant.

Case in point: this Packers fan's attempt to mock Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler.

Chicago Bears superman Devin Hester sets the all-time NFL record for touchdown returns. And he does it on the same night the Bears win the division, and when the Corey Wootton smashes Brett Favre out of the game. What a night, what a game!

We've searched the internet, dug through newspaper archives, sneaked into your closets and came out with the cream of the crop of Da Coach in pictures. All your favs are here: Da Finger, Da Coif, Da Sweater Vest and many more. Did we miss an awesome photo of the coach? Please send us a link in the comments and we will add it to the collection.

New England Patriots defensive back Jarrad Page talks about the Chicago Bears offense and Jay Cutler in this recent interview.


Page sounds very respectful and also cautious about Cutler and the Bears' weapons on offense. The Pats have won 4 in a row and the Bears have won 5 in a row. If the season ended today the Bears would have a first round bye in the playoffs -- how crazy is that? Would it also be crazy if Jay Cutler outduels Tom Brady? But all you really need to know is that if they win tomorrow they are definitely in the postseason. And if they win tomorrow, it's truly acceptable to start thinking about a Super Bowl appearance.

The Denver Post reports that the Broncos have fired head coach Josh McDaniels.

So what do you think now? Did he hit him in the head or not?

Some interesting points made by Fox Sports analysts Brian Billick and Tim Ryan in this video regarding the success of Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears. Quick memo to Ryan though: zoom out a bit. Really, explore the space.