For those of you who don’t know, Cutler, the starting quarterback of the Chicago Bears, sat out the second half of their game against the Packers this past Sunday after partially tearing his MCL. He then naturally had the cameras on him throughout the second half, while he sat with his normal ‘glum’ look on his face. He also had various NFL players making very stupid tweets about how he should have kept playing. Then commentary after commentary was written about his injury. And now he has me giving my thoughts. Ridiculous the day and age in which we live, I know.

But I do think there are a few important things we can learn from his situation. These two come to mind.

1) The humble heart will be very slow to judge.
2) The humble heart looking to serve others with his gifts will more often than not be judged more graciously.

My first point naturally is focused upon those making judgments upon Cutler and his injury. When you look at the NFL players who criticized him in particular, you see downright pride. You see men who are convinced that they can play through almost anything. They are so tough that nothing can keep them down. Or so they think. For we know that they are far from indestructible.

Not only that, but this point also focuses upon every other person offering their own critique at Cutler. Every writer, television commentator, office worker, and blogger. Do you really know what it is like to try to perform at the highest of levels with even the slightest of injuries? If not, you had better be very careful with what you say.

And by way of a defense for Cutler, as a professional athlete myself, I can say that no matter how big or small an injury may seem, when you are performing at the highest of levels (and in difficult conditions for that matter), any injury is a big injury. Not only that, but when you sustain an injury in the middle of a game and do not know the severity of it, well, that makes things even more difficult. So humble or not, we all should be very slow to judge. (In this respect, I think Scoop Jackson has some very good points.)

That being said, my second point focuses on Cutler, because it is my belief that however misguided and arrogant much of the criticisms may be, he has still brought much of it upon himself. Not because he hasn’t shown toughness, but more so, because his entire public demeanor has been rather cold. Rick Reilly’s column, written before any of this happened, is good evidence of this.

Now, I understand that different people have different personalities. And some are more comfortable in public than others. But no matter who you are or what your tendencies may be, as a professional athlete, you have to understand that your overall demeanor plays a big role in how people will respond to you in situations like these. And in Cutler’s situation, I definitely don’t think he has helped himself. His general attitude has seemed to have been, “I don’t care what anybody else really thinks.” And as Reilly alluded to in his column, that is not the kind of attitude that blesses anyone.

Because of this, I genuinely feel a bit sorry for Cutler. Not so much because he is being criticized right now, but because I believe he has missed out on a great life opportunity to serve others with the athletic gifts he has been given. Not simply by playing great football, but by playing that great football for more than just himself and his teammates. For I have to think that if he is more obviously bought into that perspective, he would not be in the midst of such a storm right now. Sure, he may still have to face some criticism, but probably not as much.

Much thanks to my buddy Kevin for sending me this article regarding the possibility of (and negative reaction from many towards) a Tim Tebow memoir. I believe LZ Granderson is right on. A quick look at some of the comments shows that not everyone agrees. However, what I find very interesting is that many who do not agree with him somehow seem to think that everyone is free to believe and say what they wish provided it has nothing to do with Christianity. Liberal or conservative, you have to see that such sentiments are straight up hypocrisy.

I continue to be a fan of Tebow’s. Each time I run across a story of him, I cannot help but pray that he remains true to the Lord, especially in the face of so much criticism.

After hearing too much commentary regarding the recent rule emphasis in the NFL, I think Rick Reilly comes out on top (for now) with his commentary at ESPN. As he mentions, most of these players don’t seem to care enough about what they are doing to others and to themselves.

What I find interesting is the fact that almost everyone agrees that the recent fines and greater emphasis will not fix the problem. So what is the solution? I suppose that can’t be agreed upon until everyone is clear about what the problem actually is.

Maria linked in the comments section a few days ago to Joe Paterno’s idea of removing face masks. That may be a start as it gets to the issue that today’s helmets and face masks actually enable players to take greater risks. But that would change the game a great deal. I think the general idea there is on point though and one few are speaking about.

Although helmets and face masks were introduced to protect players, they may be doing more harm than good, as the players rely on the helmet for protection that they should provide for themselves. Surely if they were using the old-school leather pads on their head, they would not be flying around as they do now. Though I didn’t play a lot of football during my younger years, I played enough to know that I played differently in pads than I did on the playground without them. In my experience at least, I got hurt less when wearing less.

All that being said, one question I have not heard, but that desperately needs to be asked is this: How much are we willing to sacrifice in order to enjoy football the way we do now?

Might not this question cut to the root of the real issue? I think so. All this helmet talk and whatever else is just skimming the surface. For we all should be able to see that most of the current discussion revolves around the fact that we don’t want football to change much (if at all). We enjoy it too much (myself included). We all know that changing the rules or removing helmets or whatever else are only issues to us because if these things change, the game changes. And we aren’t really sure if we are willing to make that sacrifice.

So how much are we willing to sacrifice? Or how much are we willing to watch men risk in order to play the game the way we have come to enjoy it? These are the questions we need to ask and comment upon. For they are the ones that cut right to the root of the real issue.

But might that be precisely why we are so slow to ask and answer them? I think so. Our answers may reveal more about us than we currently want to know.