CHICAGO _ So it turns out the Bears aren't the only team falling over itself to pick up a quarterback who has some Chicago football fans scratching their heads: Fox Sports has signed Jay Cutler as an NFL analyst for the coming season.
Cutler, cut by the Bears in March, has never done this sort of work but is slotted alongside rising Fox star Kevin Burkhardt, experienced player-turned-analyst Charles Davis and sideline reporter Pam Oliver on the network's No. 2 crew.
"We're very excited about the potential he brings to the booth and are looking forward to hearing his analysis," John Entz, Fox Sports executive producer and president of production, said in the announcement.
Hey, everyone likes surprises. Right?
Chicago is a city that recognizes, celebrates and clings to sports figures with charismatic star quality.
It's no accident Michael Jordan, Mike Ditka and Harry Caray continue to have thriving restaurants here cashing in on their names, images and popularity after their glory days. There's no soup for Cutler, the Bears' all-time leading passer but likely to be remembered as the husband of TV personality, actress and designer Kristin Cavallari who got a post-Bears job at Fox.
Cutler could prove the second coming of John Madden or Frank Gifford as a football announcer, but that will require qualities not readily on public display during his eight-year run behind center for the Bears.
Compare Cutler with Tony Romo, also going straight from the field to TV this year, leaving the Cowboys for CBS' No. 1 NFL broadcast team. Both quarterbacks have experienced a full range of emotions during their careers, but which conjures the image of a winning smile and which a sullen pout?
A sports columnist at one of Chicago's daily newspapers not typically given to harsh pronouncements referred to Cutler a few months ago as "a strong-armed athlete with zero soul, zero charisma."
A columnist at the other big Chicago daily, again on the subject of charisma, wrote, "Cutler forgot to get in line the day that was passed out."
To be fair, those observations came after years of Cutler taking the brunt of criticism for the Bears' offensive shortcomings, a pummeling that would make introverts of plenty of people.
Going back to 2009, a suburban sports columnist shared his first impressions a few days before Cutler's first start as a Bear after the trade from the Broncos: "The Bears' quarterback doesn't seem to have a very sunny disposition. His smiles and humor appear forced."
All along, many Bears fans widely presumed Cutler was more charming than he tended to come across, if only because, well, how he could he not be?
Whether he can project that on television is the cliffhanger going into next season.
Burkhardt, who said his first Fox national telecast with Cutler will be the Bears' exhibition against the Titans on Aug. 27, told SiriusXM's Adam Schein on Friday that Cutler's audition preparation and performance impressed him.
"My gut, when we got done, I was like, wow, he can do this, and that's not always the case with those," Burkhardt said. "And then, yeah, boom, the Fox guys liked him and here we are.
"So I'm really excited. I'm sure a lot of people said, 'Wow, Jay Cutler, I didn't see that coming.' But I'm telling you, he's going to surprise a lot of people. He's smart. He's engaging. And I really believe that ... there is a good, dry, sarcastic humor there that's going to make its way onto the air. It's going to surprise people."
As pregame and postgame host of Fox's postseason baseball coverage last year, Burkhardt coaxed the best out of former Yankees star Alex Rodriguez. After an inauspicious start, by the time the Cubs reached the World Series, Rodriguez came across as insightful and personable.
"A-Rod is a good comparison in certain ways," Burkhardt said. "I'm not saying they're the same person or anything like that. But what was the perception of A-Rod when we hired him? ... He wasn't a well-loved guy in the media. ... But he came on, he was ultra-smart and good on the air, and, yes, he made fun of himself.
"People were like, wow. I think Jay will (succeed too). Trust me, I saw the smarts and a lot of the things he brought to the table there, and he has that humor. I've seen it in text messages. So now it's a matter of my job to bring it out on the air, which we will."
Issuing a statement of nearly 250 words released by Fox, Cutler put his playing days behind him with thanks to his family, a reference to something he thinks Henry Rollins said and no specific mention of the teams or fans for whom he played. He did thank "everyone along the way" for making his dreams come true, conceding, "if I listed each person individually, this would quickly turn into an essay."
Cutler said he did not know if "retirement" was the best way to characterize his retreat from playing.
"I don't feel that anyone ever really retires from the NFL," he said. "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."
Whether he's ambivalent or not, this sort of network TV gig is as soft a landing as could be hoped for.
And in Cutler's favor, there are few people whose dispositions wouldn't improve immediately by no longer getting flattened by defensive linemen and linebackers, often in bone-chilling weather, by moving to the safe, sheltered remove of a broadcast booth as the second-guesser rather than the second-guessee.
People complain about announcers all the time, but they still usually watch the games they want to watch even if they have to turn the sound down.
As fate would have it, Cutler is taking the position that opened when John Lynch left Fox to become the general manager of the San Francisco 49ers, on whose behalf he pulled off the draft-day Jedi mind trick that compelled the Bears' Ryan Pace to hand the Niners two third-round picks and a fourth-rounder so the Bears could take quarterback Mitch Trubisky 15 minutes earlier.
Getting Trubisky presumably sealed the Bears' long-term plans to replace Cutler after also signing veteran Mike Glennon to a three-year, $45 million contract.
The second-guessing began immediately, as with Fox's hiring of Cutler, but the true measure of these moves will require time to be proved. Everyone likes surprises.
