Jay Cutler Eviscerated On Twitter And On NFL Network After Packers Bears

Chicago Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler's image is taking a massive beating in the wake of his leaving the NFC Championship Game with a knee injury in the 3rd Quarter. 

Cutler's being eviscerated on Twitter and on the NFL Network, which looped telecast game recap continues to communicate NFL player dissatisfaction with Cutler's decision to take himself out of the game.

The Twitter tweets are just plain blunt and mean:

Megakingordie BIG JAY
#cutler man couldn't handle the pressure if not the offensive coordinators are horrible cuz everytime I watch #cutler mans gettin sacked


jazzypoohstar Jasmine
The thing that got me bout #cutler knee injury in ok u injured but u standing up straight on sidelines wtf #fake #fail your team
12 minutes ago

And that last tweet is notable because it did look like Jay could move around, and the question is would it have been enough for him to play from the Shotgun the rest of the way? To millions, including NFL Network's Deion Sanders, it looked like he quit on his team and the City of Chicago.

As Deion so well put it, there's a difference between perception and reality and the perception is that Cutler just quit. The Jacksonville Jaquars Maurice Jones-Drew's tweets were particularly hard on Cutler:

Jones_Drew32 Maurice Jones-Drew
RT @DoObieGibson: Jay Cutler's injury status: Bruised Ego <--- man so critical yet true 10 hours ago 

Jones_Drew32 Maurice Jones-Drew Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now... When the going gets tough........QUIT.. 10 hours ago 

Jones_Drew32 Maurice Jones-Drew All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee... I played the whole season on one... 10 hours ago

Bears Defend Cutler

One group coming to Jay Cutler's defense are the Chicago Bears players. After the NFC Championship Brian Urlacher said "Nothing like jealous people at home watching. Players around the league you said right? Yeah, I love jealous people when they are watching our game on TV while their season is over...Jay was hurt. I don’t question his toughness, he’s tough as hell. He’s one of the toughest players 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."

Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith said "For us, Jay hurt his knee, he couldn’t go. He tried to go, that last series there of the first half, took a shot to the knee, tried to go, went in and worked on him a little bit at the half but he came out. He just couldn’t go, team, doctors and all, there was no decision really. He was injured."

Jay Cutler's NFL May Be Not-For-Long

While the words may die down, they will not go away. This game will haunt Jay for the rest of his life. Until he makes a gutsy performance, Jay Cutler will always be defined by his play and decisions made on Sunday January 23rd, 2011 during the NFC Championship Game. If Jay has any heart for the game, he's going to be called on to show it again and again.

Cutler's up against the enduring image of Brett Favre playing on bad knees yet running around the field like a little kid at play. Or Phil Rivers playing on a torn ACL in the 2008 AFC Championship Game.

That last fact is the most damning one for Jay. Cutler's image is in the tank; he's got to lift it out of there next season.