i guess we can lock this up then...

BTW, i'm hearing Phillip Rivers' comparison. Completely different scenarios. Rivers practiced during the week with an MCL tear and then left the game because of it. It wasn't an in-game injury. Both guys played with it and eventually came out of the game.

Rivers played the whole game against New England

Grade 2 tear. Normally a 3-6 week injury.

warehouse, you'll love this one.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... er-critic/

Boomer Esiason questions Cutler critics
Posted by Mike Florio on January 24, 2011, 2:27 PM EST

Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, now with CBS and WFAN and Westwood One and probably a few other media outlets I’m missing, brought the heat like one of his Southpaw fireballs during a Monday appearance on PFT Live.

As to the issue of the criticism that Bears quarterback Jay Cutler has experienced after leaving the game in the second quarter and not returning, Boomer was blunt.

Among other things, Boomer questioned criticism from guys like Deion Sanders.

“I have a real problem with that,” Esiason said. “Deion was a guy that did not like to mix it up, did not like to make tackles. And has basically told other defensive backs, ‘Listen, you don’t get paid to make tackles, you get paid to break up passes.’”

Boomer also pointed to the disconnect between concerns regarding player health and criticism of a player who is being told by his medical staff not to play.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Boomer said.

Rivers played the whole game against New England

Rivers played the whole game against New England

It's official: MCL tear.

tear or sprain?

The man who many consider Philip Rivers’ nemesis is having his legacy shaped by a postseason knee injury, same as Rivers did three years ago.

However, much like their personalities, there is a polar difference in the situations.

Rivers earned widespread respect from teammates, fans and media for playing the AFC Championship game without an anterior cruciate ligament and six days after surgery to remove most of his meniscus. Cutler, the Chicago Bears quarterback, is being widely derided for not playing through a sprained medial collateral ligament suffered in Sunday’s NFC Championship game.

Rivers said on Monday that he feels for Cutler, a player he has no hard feelings against even as many people like to recall the days when Cutler was in Denver and was vocal about his disdain of Rivers.

“It’s unfortunate,” Rivers said of what happened Sunday in Chicago. “You never want to see someone not at their best … We definitely went through that (in 2007) when we were trying to make a run. From that standpoint, I have (empathy) for him.”

Almost always candid, and with the history to back up his words, Rivers did say that he probably would have continued playing Sunday.

“Me personally, I’d have to have been taken off in a cart,” Rivers said. “That doesn’t mean I’d be right. If they knew he couldn’t throw the ball good, he wasn’t helping anybody ... I’ll never say what he should have done. I can’t even say what I would have done in the same position. I do know I’m not coming out unless I can’t do anything, and maybe that’s how it was (for Cutler).”

Rivers noted that Cutler suffered the injury near the end of the second quarter and played a series to start the third quarter.

“It seems like he tried to go," Rivers said.

Rivers, who left a 2007 game at Tennessee with a sprained MCL but returned after two series to lead a fourth-quarter comeback, is one who can speak from more experience than most. But he cautioned that “every injury is different. They might be classified the same, but it affects people differently.”

Rivers tore his meniscus and also his ACL in the third quarter of the Chargers’ divisional round game at Indianapolis after the 2007 season and did not return. Backup Billy Volek led a game-winning drive. Rivers had surgery to remove the meniscus and played the following Sunday in New England without the ACL.

Rivers also pointed out there are differences between the MCL and ACL and the ligaments’ functions in movement.

A voracious football fan who watches numerous games each week and reads about other teams and players, Rivers said he read that Cutler had previously missed just one game.

“He’s played in 100-something games,” Rivers said. “It’s obviously not like he hasn’t been hit. It’s not like he comes out of a lot of games or misses games. The guy's track record says he plays unless he has a concussion, so it must be bad. Only he knows … Regardless, I really do feel for the guy, not being able to play in the Championship game.”

Would Tim Tebow have left that game? And if he had, would he have pouted on the sidelines and not helped his teammates afterwards? Be upset about having to leave the game Sunday night and into the next week; reserve the hours immediately following the injury to being the best teammate you can and help the third-string QB or the coaches or the trainer or somebody.

heres the bottom line: if this were ANY other player than Jay Cutler, none of them would say a fucking word

This is the only point worth mentioning about the whole situation.

People west of the Cascades must still be bitter over Super Bowl XL.

Between Roethlisberger and Vick, I think it's more likely that Vick has learned his lesson, though.