There's been a lot of discussion about whether Jay Cutler wussed out in the NFC Championship Game, with names like Ray Nitschke and YA Tittle cited as tough guy examples. Well, without questioning Cutler's toughness, I'll just say that, for my money, The LA Rams' Jack Youngblood wins the award: He played in the NFC Championship and the 1980 Super Bowl with a broken leg.
From a personal standpoint, the toughest sports story I can tell is that of John Keough, one of my teammates on the Santa Barbara Condors. He took a tough hit from behind early in one game, went down hard, but got up and finished the game. Immediately thereafter he complained that his back was hurting and said he had to pee really bad. He walked over to the side of the field to pee and, sure enough, he peed blood. We rushed him to the hospital and within about a half an hour he was down one kidney. Two months later he was back on the field.
That's toughness.
My take on the "Cutler Controversy": Who cares. Hanie was better anyway. At least he gave them a chance.
ReplyDeleteComp Att Yds Pct Y/A Sack YdsL TD Int Rating
Caleb Hanie 13 20 153 65.0 7.7 0 0 1 2 65.2
Jay Cutler 6 14 80 42.5 5.7 2 15 0 1 31.8
Todd Collins 0 4 0 0.0 0.0 0 0 0 0 39.6