Bears Blitz

Published by Scott Ottersen on December 15, 2009
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

At this point, all speculation is welcome.

Mine has no foundation. 

No scientific evidence. 

No doctor’s expertise.

But, I have noticed something Cutler does that I have the same tendency to do, and if he is in the same situation I am in, then he may have comfort issues while playing.

If you watch him closely throughout the game, you will notice that he does this weird twitch with his right shoulder. He will do it coming out of the huddle, while standing on the sideline, and I have even seen him do it in an on-the-field interview.

It almost looks as if he has an involuntary spasm going on with his throwing shoulder.  Obviously, any sort of discomfort a quarterback feels in his throwing shoulder may cause him to lose velocity, accuracy, or just throw a downright bad ball.

I have the same sort of issues with my body, and have not had this diagnosed. The last time I asked a doctor about it, his response was, “You do that because you do it.”  And, no, I’m not joking. Seven years of medical school rewarded him with expertise like that.

So, I guess I am the one left to discuss this about Jay Cutler. I can say that it is not painful as much as it is uncomfortable. A tense feeling comes over your body and just makes you feel that you need to move that joint, muscle, or bone before you can go onto doing anything else.

It’s a type of OCD almost, except that we feel a little twinge of “pain.”  Not pain in the sense that it hurts, but just that it feels like something is bothering us.

And I can tell this is what is going on with Jay, because he isn’t just doing it on the field. If it were a playing issue, he wouldn’t be doing it while he was about to sit down on the bench to “watch” the defense play, or while he’s running into the locker room at halftime.

I can tell he has the same discomfort in his shoulder that I have in parts of my body. I have no explanation as to why this happens, and definitely don’t have any advice in how to help it.  This may be something that can be looked into by the Chicago Bears staff however, seeing as how sports trainers and doctors may know a little more about these sorts of issues than the local hack I saw a few years back.

Of course, I could be wrong, and there could be an actual issue with his shoulder. He could have had some minor damage done to it that could be fixed by surgery or rest, but neither he, nor the team, has come out and said anything about it.

But watch him carefully during the game on Sunday and you will notice that he does this quite often. Most of the time he does it as he is approaching the center to get underneath and receive the snap. That is another cause of reason for me to believe he is going through the same discomfort I am.

Lastly, I do not want this to come off as an excuse for his play. There are quarterbacks out there playing with legitimate injuries and still not throwing 22 interceptions.  If he would come out and disclose this issue though, the team might be able to do something about it.

Half of the time, sports are a mental game as much as they are a physical one.  Even if doctors just prescribed him a drug that would take his mind off his OCD-like behavior, he could gain confidence that could allow him to throw the ball to the guys in Bears jerseys rather than the opponents.

This year has been a disaster partly because of the play of Jay Cutler.  I am just trying to find a way to give us Bears fans some hope for next year.

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