NASHVILLE, Tenn. _ Eight miles south of downtown Nashville, away from the bustling bars on Broadway, away from the Vanderbilt campus and just past the famed Bluebird Cafe, Route 431 turns pastoral.
Verdant fields, rolling hills _ and gated estates _ take over the view. Here you'll find an estate called Bancroft, which has a private road protected by its own set of gates, each with a golden B on the black spokes. It is the beginning of an 8.56-acre estate that belongs to Jay Cutler and Kristin Cavallari.
"This is where the legend of Jay Cutler started. He is loved here. Why not come home where it all started?" said Jovan Haye, a retired NFL defensive lineman who was a co-captain with Cutler at Vanderbilt. "He's been in Denver, to Chicago. Nashville is not one of those places. You can go about your business in Nashville.
"Nothing against Chicago fans, but they're a little too hard-core. He should be able to enjoy a beer and not get hounded."
In Chicago, the Bears are moving forward with the man they believe is their quarterback of the future, Mitch Trubisky. Cutler, who still hopes to play in the NFL next season, is going back to his past. He has made enough money to live anywhere he chooses, but he and his family are planting roots in Nashville.
Or in Cutler's case, replanting roots.
Cavallari told People Magazine they were planning to move into their home in Nashville on Tuesday.
"We always knew this day was coming," Cavallari said. "And I am really looking forward to being in one place, setting up shop, getting my kids in school there. ... Knowing that we're going to be there for a very long time, if not forever, is a very exciting thing for me."
It makes sense that Cutler would return to Nashville. It's a city that admired him during his playing days at Vanderbilt from 2002 to '05. You can't say that about Denver or Chicago, two cities that turned against Cutler during his pro career.
Nashville is also a showbiz hub with its vibrant music industry, and it provides Cavallari with opportunities to advance her career. But perhaps most important, Nashville offers the irascible, "don't care" Cutler with perhaps his most desired quality: It will leave him the heck alone.
"The thing about Nashville is that it's indifferent to everybody," said Kelli Straub, a Nashville resident who works as a designer at an architecture firm. "Nobody cares who you are. ... Nashville is really good at leaving people alone."
