Cutler bashing may never end

All week long I have defended Jay Cutler, no easy task as there's so much about him to criticize.

And all week long I've been getting the same question: How can you be so sure he was seriously injured?

So let's try this again.

The Bears said he was hurt. Cutler said he was hurt. His teammates said he was hurt.

I watched him try to throw the football Sunday and he couldn't fire it 10 yards accurately because he couldn't plant on a bad knee.

No, I don't know how bad it was from a pain or stability standpoint and I don't care.

Yes, it's true that others with MCL tears have taped it up and played with no discernible difference, but there have been others who couldn't move at all and had to sit for weeks or months.

See, everyone has a different pain tolerance and everyone has a different knee that feels different and responds in a different way based on age, occupation and individual biophysics.

There is just no way to know what's going on in someone else's body.

I do know that Cutler took a beating this year like few I've ever seen, and the man got up after every single hit and never once missed a play unless he was told he couldn't play.

There are examples in every sport with athletes of every kind who have performed flawlessly with similar injuries, and examples in every sport with athletes of every kind who have been shut down for months.

I know Otis Wilson, one of toughest men ever, missed a month with a torn MCL.

The next summer Wilson jogged off the field with another knee injury and didn't find out until the next day that he'd torn a ligament that essentially ended his career.

OK? He jogged off the field.

I saw Tiger Woods accused of faking it for sympathy and drama when he won the 2008 U.S. Open, only to learn 24 hours later that he'd been playing with a torn ACL and broken leg.

And when it comes to these matters, I never stray far from the Mike Harkey story.

For nearly a year I had heard whispers that the Cubs thought Harkey was soft.

But the 6-foot-5, 230-pound hurler had complained of stiffness in his shoulder in September 1990, and in April 1991 he left 2 starts early.

And when doctors went in they found his labrum shredded and shrapnel everywhere.

Harkey, now a Yankees bullpen coach, hasn't forgotten any of it.

In town with the Yanks last summer, he said he remembers a terrible and lonely time in his life when no one believed him.

He said he started to question himself and his injury, and worst of all, he started to wonder if he was really hurt.

Turns out, Harkey was really, really hurt.

Despite his 40 years in pro baseball, Cubs GM Jim Frey admitted he should have never questioned a player who said he was injured, and a disconsolate Frey said it was a mistake he would never make again.

But it's something we see and hear all the time in pro sports, and it's a dangerous road to travel down when you put voice to thoughts about an athlete's lack of toughness.

Obviously, there are guys who refuse to play hurt, players who can't handle pain, and those who simply feign injury because they've quit on a team and on a season.

Jay Cutler doesn't fit into any of those categories, and there is much evidence to support that determination.

He may be too often a bad quarterback and too often many things that fans, media, teammates and opponents don't like.

Thing is, you don't have to like him, but you can respect his toughness. He's not a quitter and he didn't abandon his team in the NFC title game.

Yet, these many days removed from the game, Cutler is still facing the same scrutiny with all the same people asking all the same questions.

He committed the sin of going to dinner Sunday and walking up stairs, and Thursday he went for a walk with his girlfriend in L.A.

And Otis Wilson once jogged off the field possessing an injury that ruined one of the most perfect and athletic bodies in NFL history.

This story has careened out of control and shows no signs of ever going away.

Unfortunately, those who threw those daggers at Cutler, and continue to do so, have permanently damaged his reputation and maybe even his career.

The shame of it is that it's just so unfair.