Sports

Jay Cutler Officially Headed To The Broadcast Booth

Published on: May 5, 2017 at 1:39 PM
By Robert Jonathan

Jay Culter will broadcast NFL games next season in a deal reached with Fox Sports.

Reports had earlier emerged that Cutler auditioned for Fox Sports, and evidently, the tryout went well.

The former Chicago Bears quarterback has not officially retired from professional football, however, and there is some speculation that his Fox contract contains an out clause that could allow him to resume his playing career if a team needs a starting quarterback as a result of an injury or because of another development.

Cutler, 34, is expected to be part of a three-man broadcasting team, alongside Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis in the booth.

“Cutler’s knowledge of the NFC, after an eight-year stint in Chicago, would be an asset to the network because Fox broadcasts the NFC package of games,” ESPN noted .

The trio will work together for the first time in the preseason when the Bears take on the Tennessee Titans in Nashville.

Cutler holds many Bears’ franchise records but was only able to orchestrate one playoff appearance during his Chicago tenure. He is the Bears’ leader, for example, in completions, passing attempts, passing touchdowns, QB rating, and passing yards per game, and he has the most wins. However, he has also thrown 109 interceptions in 102 regular-season games with the Bears, including tossing a career-worst 25 picks in the 2009 season, the Inquisitr previously detailed .

Injured most of last season, Cutler was released by the Bears in March, and apparently, the underachieving QB was unable to secure a starting job with any other team.

“Cutler also never really endeared himself to Bears fans, many of whom full-throatedly called for his ouster for years,” the New York Times noted .

In a statement released on Twitter, Jay Cutler had this to say about his new career.

“I don’t know if retirement is the right word; I don’t feel that anyone ever retires from the NFL. You are either forced to leave, or you lose the desire to do what’s required to keep going. I’m in between those situations at this point in my life. Words can’t express how grateful I am to everyone who helped me along my journey…”

Drafted by the Denver Broncos (after a trade with the St. Louis Rams) in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft out of Vanderbilt, Cutler is married to reality TV star Kristin Cavallari. Cutler spent three seasons in Denver before being traded to Chicago.

Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo is also going into television after announcing his retirement. Romo has supplanted Phil Sims on CBS as lead analyst and will call NFL games with Jim Nance for the network’s A-Team.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Morrissey is taking a dim view of Jay Cutler’s new job with Fox Sports.

“Rarely has an idea seemed so ridiculous, so beyond the outer reaches of reality…But why would a network thrust Jay upon the public? That’s the bigger question. Why would it even occur to anyone that Cutler would be good in a broadcast booth? It’s possible I missed the part of his eight-year career in Chicago when he wasn’t muttering, giving one-word responses or offering a technically dense answer to a question about a simple screen pass, an answer that was unusable for any reporter who didn’t have Xs and Os tattooed across his forehead. But I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss happy, engaging, funny Jay.”

According to NFL.com , however, “Associated more with a general apathy, Cutler could provide a more honest and uncut assessment of the players and game…Could he blend his bone-dry sense of humor with analysis to create something we haven’t seen before?”

Do you think that Jay Cutler will succeed as an NFL broadcast analyst for Fox Sports?

[Featured Image by Rick Osentoski/AP Images]

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