It's real simple: Players play!

Ah, yes, the age-old debate over whether to play players or not play players.

By age-old I mean as old as since this current generation of wimps took control of sports.

One sentiment around here all week was, “Oh, no, the Bears have to play in Green Bay, what if one of them gets an owie and is lost for the postseason?”

Stop it, please.

This issue should be settled by one of sports' most important principles: Players play!

The silliness isn't limited to the Bears and to football. All sorts of teams in all sorts of leagues have become inclined to shield players from their jobs.

So let's get a couple of things straight right off the top concerning the Bears. Head coach Lovie Smith should play his players Sunday and we shouldn't blame him if, say, quarterback Jay Cutler is injured and misses the playoffs.

Nobody is at fault for doing the right thing, and playing healthy players is the right thing to do.

By the able-bodied players playing to win the game, the Bears would demonstrate that they aren't afraid of anything from injury to the weather to the freakin' Green Bay Packers.

Too many coaches prefer the scaredy-cat approach of looking for reasons to not play players.

If a pitcher has acne he goes on the disabled list. If a power forward sneezes he misses a month. If a coach can rest his quarterback he sends him on a Caribbean cruise.

Seriously, whatever happened to sticking out chests, staring down risks and playing players for no other reason than a game is scheduled?

Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania was correct last week when talking about the wussification of America. Sorry, folks, but we are softer than ever.

Personally, guilty as charged: I prefer room temperature in domes to frigid outdoor stadiums and remote card-door openers to keys after getting back to the parking lot.

But that wimpy mentality should apply only to fans and sports writers, not to tight ends. It's our sports-worshiping right to man-up vicariously through linebackers who are paid to endure all conditions.

That's why “Players play!” should still be a sacred commandment of sports.

Yet too many NFL coaches — in the league that allegedly personifies old-school, red- blooded, American machismo — now prefer to preserve players for later.

Sometimes it works and the team reaches the Super Bowl. Sometimes it loses the first playoff game. It doesn't seem to matter, so why not just play players and let the bone chips fall where they may?

Remember, some worried about Blackhawks playing in the Olympics last year, but they still won the Stanley Cup. Isn't that the way sports should be?

Michael Jordan thought so. He had a clause in his contract that if a ball was dribbled anytime anywhere in the world, he was free to steal it, dunk it and rub it in somebody's face.

Players play!

Look, a Bear might be injured Sunday. It might cost him the playoffs. It might cost his team the chance at the Super Bowl.

That's football, life and the dangers of doing the right thing.

So let's all sign a petition: “I hereby pledge not to blame Lovie Smith if a Bear, especially Jay Cutler, is injured badly enough Sunday to miss the playoffs.”

Criticizing a coach for playing players is unfair because, you know, players play!

mimrem@dailyherald.com