Jeff Hughes | October 12th, 2015

This is the moment Cutler released the game-winning touchdown.

Jay Cutler never asked for approval.

He never attempted to win over the Lovie lobby when arriving in Chicago as Jerry Angelo’s big ticket toy. He didn’t give a shit that Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs were the big men on campus. He wasn’t going to kiss the fingers where the two keep their imaginary championship rings.

Cutler has never served up the mindless platitudes others do (especially the fella up in Seattle) in a desperate attempt to be media and fan friendly while raking in endorsement money. Cutler doesn’t care what the media and fans think of him. If he wanted to be liked he could spew things like:

My thing is, and I’ve always been this way – to get to know as many people as I possibly can on a personal level, so that way, when you get on the football field, you’ve got your buddy right beside you, and you’re ready to go. – Russell Wilson

When he shoved an offensive lineman for lack of effort or cursed off an offensive coordinator hell bent on getting him killed, he was too emotional. (He’s a brat! That’s not a leader!) When he didn’t scream and yell and throw his helmet after every interception, he wasn’t emotional enough. (He doesn’t care! That’s not a leader!)

I sat in The Billy Goat Tavern with Reverend Dave last December and watched Dave be drank, gargled and spit out by a gentleman bussing tables because Dave had the nerve merely suggest he DID NOT HATE Cutler. The forty minutes that followed revealed to me that in Chicago’s bloodstream lived a disease. If this disease was gonorrhea, hating Cutler was the burning during urination.

The fan base wanted him off the team in March. The organization tried to trade him on draft day. The head coach called him by the wrong name in his introductory press conference. So of course, feeling neglected and under appreciated by his employers, Cutler has delivered the kind of wishy washy 2015 campaign many expected of him.

Oh, what? He didn’t? I mean, but everybody told me….!

All Jay Cutler has done through three and a half games is provide the Chicago Bears a meaningful season. He has given the defensive locker room something to hit for. He has given the media (both mainstream and not) something that sends them sprinting to their keyboards. He’s given the fans a team to be excited about each and every Sunday.

Oh, and he’s doing it all on one leg.

If you remove the half he didn’t play against Arizona and the full game he didn’t play in Seattle, you know what the Bears are? A winning team. With an offensive line changing every other day and a receiving corps going three wide at Northwestern Memorial, the reason has been the quarterback. Forget about the draft position, folks. The Bears are only a half game out of the NFC’s second wildcard.

As we enter Week Six, Cutler still doesn’t care what we think of him. And while fans don’t owe him their respect or their love, they do owe him one thing: a thank you. And for those who unabashedly hate him regardless of what he does on the field, a simple request: keep it to yourself.