Football mind-set remains so simplistic

A week after the week before, let’s hold our noses and explore what we learned from the knee-dling of Bears quarterback Jay Cutler.

Nothing, really.

However, much of what we already knew was confirmed.

Like, first of all, Cutler is a real football player to us but only a virtual human being.

Second, many of us live our lives vicariously through professional athletes.

Third, the macho code of the NFL is as goofy as some of Cutler’s worst red-zone passes.

So there you have it.

No. 1, Cutler has been treated like a cartoon figure, with no regard for his physical, mental or emotional wellness.

The dumbest words of the past few weeks came before the playoffs in the form of a question to Cutler.

During a media briefing at Halas Hall, espn.com’s Rick Reilly asked Cutler how many of the journalists in the Halas Hall workroom knew him.

Why was that a dumb question? Because not even Reilly knows the athletes he spends considerable time with. He might get longer glimpses than most of us get, but he doesn’t really know these guys.

So if he doesn’t and we don’t, you as fans certainly don’t. All of us merely get to form superficial perceptions of, say, a Jay Cutler.

So we treat the athlete abstractly. It’s easier to berate from a distance somebody we don’t know than to berate up close a muscular neighbor or co-worker.

Even Cutler’s fellow NFL players were guilty of this. They went on anti-social networks to rant things about him that his own teammates, the ones who know him best, wouldn’t or couldn’t say.

Cutler was treated like a fictional character in a newspaper comic strip, TV sitcom or film drama rather than, you know, a real person.

Now, No. 2, fans of professional sports like to think that professional athletes are their surrogates.

A common public notion was that Cutler should have played the entire second half of the Packers game like we would have if we were fortunate to have the opportunity.

Each of us likes to think we’re courageous enough to endure the pain of what turned out to be a Grade II sprained knee ligament.

John Wayne would have played, so we could have and Jay Cutler should have … right?

Never mind that most of us stay home from the office with the sniffles or the assembly line with an outbreak of acne.

Cutler is paid millions of dollars to play quarterback for the Chicago Bears, a job we say we would fill for free.

Yeah, sure we would because we’re all tough guys sitting in the family room with our feet up.

Finally, No. 3, just as football fans think they’re like football players, football players think they’re like Marines.

This football code, as tweeted by NFL Tweeters about Cutler, is that they would sacrifice a leg to win a playoff game.

Maybe some would, but those guys are nuts.

Peer pressure encourages football players to jeopardize their long-term health in the name of victory.

Gentlemen, you’re playing games. Just football games. Nothing more. Likewise, reckless abandon is nothing more than reckless.

You can use war references all you want and simulate combat in your minds, but the stakes still are just sports stakes, not national defense.

Anyway, the Jay Cutler saga only confirmed that the football mind-set on so many levels is as simplistic as 1-2-3.