Jay Cutler Suffers Torn MCL In NFC Championship Game

Does that change your perception on Jay Cutler? Or had you already forgotten about this a week ago?

At this point, it may be easier to come up with a list of teammates who haven’t defended Jay Cutler after he suffered an MCL injury in the Chicago Bears loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game. From Brian Urlacherto Chris Harris to head coach Lovie Smith, the Bears are in full-on damage control after a lot of folks bashed Cutler for coming out of the game.

The latest? QB Caleb Hanie who, after Todd Collins got hurt replacing Cutler, came into the game. Hanie talked with Dan Patrick and said Cutler was into the game -- even if his sideline demeanor suggested he wasn’t.

Smith also took time to defend Cutler’s toughness:

Smith said he was surprised by the criticism from fellow football players that popped up on Twitter during the game, and made it clear that the coaches and medical staff pulled Cutler from the game.

During Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears QB Jay Cutler suffered a knee injury which caused him to miss almost the entire second half. The reaction to Cutler sitting has been intense to say the last. Former players took to Twitter to criticize Cutler who is also hearing questions about his toughness from media and fans.

Now we know what the knee injury was that kept Cutler out -- a reported MCL tear. The Bears decision to sit him makes a little more sense now.

Jay Culter offered a “no comment” when asked about other players questioning his toughness following the Chicago Bears’ NFC Championship loss, but linebacker Brian Urlacher did the talking for him. Informed that players sitting at home were trashing Cutler on Twitter and questioning the injury that sidelined him, Urlacher fired back, calling them jealous while standing up for his quarterback. Cutler suffered an apparent knee injury during Sunday’s game and was forced to sit on the sidelines for the remainder of the game at the training staff’s behest.

Urlacher didn’t take to the criticism kindly, calling out the other players sitting at home with their seasons already over.

Jay Cutler’s injury in the NFC Championship Game could be worse than initially expected.

NBC Sports’ Evan Silva tweets that the Bears believe Cutler’s injury could be a torn MCL, and they’ll be running further tests on him on Monday.

Here’s the explanation Cutler gave to reported in the locker room for being removed from the game:

There are a couple of obvious interpretations here. Cutler could have been benched for injury reasons, as a quarterback without a working knee tends to be a fairly ineffective quarterback. But it’s also possible, especially with the “it would better suit the team” phrasing, that Cutler was benched both for being hurt and being ineffective.