Hey Media, Where's the Balance On Cutler Coverage?

When there is “group think,” no one is thinking.

It is commonly known that writers are in the tank for some franchises—see Len Pasquarelli’s coverage of the Redskins, for example. Shameful. Columnists guard the flow of information from key sources to make sure they get scoops once in a while in order to keep their jobs.

The way of the world, I’m afraid. 

The Denver organization must have Corelone-type tentacles though, because the coverage of the Cutler affair has been decidedly one-sided.

Group think is the only rationale to be taken from the Jay Cutler saga. Yeah, it’s high profile. All we need is Sue Ellen Ewing riding off with owner Pat Bowen to get more drama from the story. It is a big-time deal, and everyone has a take. But does every opinion have to be alike? Apparently so, but why?

The media has been all pro-Bronco, anti-Cutler in this one for no real reason. In my mind, in fact, it should be quite the opposite.

This is why—Denver tried to trade Cutler to start the ball rolling downhill. And after the trade talk started, all bets were off, and the Broncos deserve what they got in the aftermath. Cutler did not pick the fight, but he’s certainly going to end it.

Put yourself in Cutler’s place. Hotshot QB. Young. Brash. And damn good. Given management everything they could hope for in a number eleven overall pick…and they try to deal you at the whims of a rookie head coach. That has to sting a bit.

But writers around the country continue to paint Cutler as a whining baby simply unable to get over a diss that happens everyday in The League.

Cutler started for four years at Vanderbilt and never complained about getting thumped week after week in the SEC or the lack of talent around him. He never moaned about his matador defense in Denver. Or having to rely on his seventh(!) string running back last season.

He never complained when he was sick with an unknown illness and lost 20 pounds only to find out later that he had played an entire season with untreated diabetes!

Yeah, Peter King, what a wuss.

The fact is that I can’t remember the guy complaining about anything until now. Until the Broncos shopped him, and now he wants out. And when you want out bad enough, you complain.  

From this angle, it’s the first-year coach that acted like an adolescent here. McDaniels has not stopped whining since the whole thing began that he can’t get a face-to-face with Cutler, as if a sit-down could un-ring a bell.

So where is McDaniels heightened scrutiny from the media? Since he has been hired he has reportedly been duplicitous in his dealings with Cutler's camp and offered nothing but double-speak to explain his actions.

Further, those actions were undertaken without his thinking about the potential impact on his team--malpractice for any qualified leader.

McDaniels is on record as having said that Denver was initially approached by other teams about Cutler. As one (why only one?) columnist so adroitly pointed out, “Really, McDaniels? Get calls on the possibility of trading your young, Pro-Bowl QB all the time, do you?” (I’m paraphrasing.)

Instead, the media gang tackles Jay Cutler while giving the keystone cops that lead us to this point a hallway pass. There have been some murmurs as to the competency of the new regime in Denver but not nearly what's called for here.

As to the actions of the agent involved, Bus Cook...for people that represent other people as a means of making a living, the number one job is: do the client’s work. Or more to the point: “Git ‘er done.” If the client wants out, it is Cook’s job to make sure that happens.

As long as Jay Cutler is happy with Cook's work, he has fulfilled his only job description. End of story.