Jay Cutler: Chicago Bears QB Donates $15K To Little League Team

Jay Cutler is supporting a team of Little League baseball players in the wake of a devastating loss.

Cutler, the quarterback for the National Football League’s Chicago Bears, is donating money and autographed jerseys to the Jackie Robinson West All-Star baseball team. On Saturday, the team lost the Little League World Series championship to a team from Seoul, South Korea.

Now Cutler is offering up $15,000 in support of the team from Chicago. According to a Chicago Sun-Times blog, Cutler is donating the money through his foundation, with another $15,000 going to support youth with diabetes.

During Cutler’s third NFL season, he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, which required him to start taking insulin everyday. In the wake of the diagnosis Cutler started his foundation, explaining:

“I’d love to use my story to be able to inspire kids who get diabetes at four-, five- and six-years-old. If they think they can’t have dreams, and if they think they can’t do what they want to do in life, that’s entirely false”.

Cutler is not the only supporter that the Jackie Robinson West team has earned in the run up to the Little League World Series championships. This week, NBC News reported that a group of Major League Baseball Players paid to have the boys’ families travel to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for the finals.

The team from Chicago’s South Side was trying to make history, as the only all-African-American team to ever win the title.

As the Chicago Tribune points out, this is the third time an all-African-American team has come close to winning. However, teams in 1971, 1980, and 1981 have all fallen to teams from Taiwan.

Members of Jackie Robinson West team are scheduled to meet Cutler on September 1, after the Bears’ first regular game of the season.

In July, Cutler shared his anticipation for the upcoming NFL season:

“I’ve been talking to the guys the last couple weeks, and I think everyone [is] kind of itching to get back into it and see what we have. There’s a lot of excitement and buzz, and there’s a lot of work to do”.

As reported in The Inquisitr, Cutler has signed to play for the Bears for the next seven seasons. Bear’s coach Marc Trestman said Cutler’s contract shows the quarterback’s loyalty:

“[Jay Cutler] really cares about this organization and every day he’s a very, very observant person. He’s a very proactive person in terms of inserting himself in all areas of this building to help this organization get better.”

[Image source: Jay Cutler Foundation]