Tweet Tweet

Whether you have a twitter account or not, love it, hate it or don't really care about it, you were given a heavy dose of it's power over the weekend. I have a twitter account and I follow a bunch of pro athletes. When Jay Cutler came out of the NFC championship game with an apparent grade two MCL strain, which we didn't learn about until Monday, I was screaming at the TV "get back in the damn game you freakin' pussy!" Clearly I was not alone b/c the twitter universe was on high alert. Countless former and current NFL'ers were calling Cutler out and questioning his toughness 140 characters at a time. Usually, we hear these athletes flapping gums after the game, once the coaches have discussed the reasoning for Cutler's removal from the game, after we get an injury update from the docs and after the player has a chance to defend himself. With twitter, pro athletes are given the chance to rip players to shreds within the moment of an injury, benching or right after a great play. It's the first time in the history of the NFL that pro athletes have been given the freedom to interact with fans during the game. On some level it's like watching the game with your favorite players and it gives us an opportunity to hear and see what these guys are thinking while watching games. Here is where I have a problem. When you give pro athletes a medium like twitter you create a situation that is highly controversial. This goes both ways. Some people probably love the idea of Derrick Brooks or Deion Turf Toe Sanders chiming in during a game and other people probably feel like these guys need to shut their freakin' pie holes.

I'm all for pro athletes rocking the twitter universe, but let's be honest. Questioning a man's toughness is practically saying that he has no balls and that's where I have an issue. Criticize Cutler for his reads, his lack of accuracy and his inability to make plays in big games. Criticize an athletes performance on the field all day long and I can handle that, but questioning the toughness of another athlete just isn't cool in my book. I'm not a Cutler guy, I think he's mediocre at best, but the guy played in the SEC and was sacked more than any other QB in the league this year and all he did was keep scraping himself off the grass to get back under center. He probably had every right to call his offensive line out in the media, but he didn't. He kept his mouth shut, he kept playing and tried to lead his team to victory. If he wasn't tough, would his teammates have his back? I'll let you decide that for yourself.