When the Bears cut Jay Cutler after eight seasons, the organization (and much of the Chicago fan base) was ready to move on.
But Cutler revealed today that the feeling was a bit mutual.
Was the game still fun for him?
"I think you can talk about anybody in the league, no one likes to lose, no one likes going through those situations," Cutler said Monday, two weeks to the day after he ended his short retirement. "Those are tough. They wear you down. But that wasn't the sole reason ... I mean, they released me, so it was kind of end of the road at that point."
The Bears won exactly half of the games in which Cutler started _ they even reached the NFC Championship game after the 2010 season _ but went just 12-23 in his last 35 starts.
Plus, the injuries began to pile up. He needed labrum surgery last December after hurting his shoulder.
Still, Cutler insists that he doesn't "think [he] really ever lost" his enthusiasm for football.
"Just kind of channeled it in a different direction," he said. "I still wanted to be in football, still wanted to be around it, and I was going to have that opportunity through Fox. Once this new opportunity [arose], it seemed like an absolute fit for me."
He added: "I always missed [the game]. I think I've always said that there were going to be days I missed it and days I was content with my decision. There was never a week that went by that I didn't think about playing football. Did I make the right decision? Did I not make the right decision? That's kind of life. There's always situations that come up that you're not sure which direction to go. You just gotta pick one and roll with it. I was just lucky enough that something like this happened for me."
