Put yourself in Jay's shoes.

Lets discuss the scenario in story mode.

- Cutler gets hit, tears a portion of his MCL which is a ligament that supports your knee, prevents it from medial displacement. 

-What happens when you tear a ligament? inflammation. Your Knee is in a capsule that surrounds the joint. It fills up with blood and fluid. With the swelling and edema comes the pain.

- So Cutler throws a pick to Knox, he realizes he cant plant and thats the reason he underthrew that pass. Hes been playing with the pain and hasnt complained yet.

- Half time, they go check out his knee.. its swollen, now they have a choice, bench him or let him play. Cutler says, lemme give it another shot. Note that when players get an injury and want to play through it, they take a cortisone shot which sort of blocks the pain, Cutler cannot take a cortisone shot because he is a type 1 diabetic, and he could suffer severe hyperglycemia with it. So for people who question his toughness, he wants to give it a shot with all the pain he's feeling, he intends to play through it all, so its not pain thats altering his decision, and its not giving up because the score was 14-0 the whole time. 

-3rd quarter, he gives it a shot, he plays a drives, risks getting hit and tearing his MCL and ACL which is a risk of aggravating the sprain, he put his knee on the line this drive. He goes through the drive and realizes his knee is stiffer, more fluid, and he cant put weight on it, and anyone who's thrown a football knows if you cant put weight on your plant leg, you cant throw. Forget about mobility and the fact that he is a sitting duck with Capers' special blitz packages coming his way Raji, Matthews Woodson or Williams. He put all his trust in his O line that gave up an NFL high 52 sacks this season.  He doest perform, he realizes he cant throw, and hes basically hurting the team, theres no way he could play 2 more quarters in that state. The bears game plan around his mobility and around his ability to scramble, any logical coach would pull him at this point. So they do, they pull him.

-Todd Collins starts warming up (bad coaching decision), Cutler steps off the field. They tag him as questionable, hoping for a miracle that if needed he could come back for one more drive.

-While Collins is sucking it up, Cutler does some routine tests, like riding the bike etc, to see if its possible for him to make a return, but Collins gets injured, Tactical error, now the 3rd stringer has to come in. If the 3rd stringer comes in before the 4th quarter, Cutler cannot make a return. 

-Hanie plays better than Collins. Puts some life into the team. The fox camera crew takes about 4-5 10 second clips of Cutler bummed on the sideline (He injured his knee in what may be the most important game in his life), thats a minute out of about 100 minutes. For some reason people who cannot see whats going on the rest of the time assume Cutler sits there the whole time, even though Hanie himself says cutler coached him on the sidelines.

- Cutler sits and stands on the sidelines. The MCL prevents medial displacement, these activities do not favor your knee collapsing inward. As for walking up the stairs, the inflammation has probably calmed down by now, he could be wearing a brace, he could be on pain killers, or someone could be lying, it makes a hell of a story for the guy who wrote the article doesnt it. It doesnt matter, an MRI doesnt lie.

- After the game, reporter tell Cutler about the fans and fellow NFL players reactions. His eyes fill up with tears, he wishes he never got injured, he wishes he was able to plant, he wishes he could have carried his team to the superbowl, but injuries happen its a part of the game. People act like they want it more than him, this guy took 52 sacks and a concussion for this team and city, he stayed in the pocket for second longer just to make a throw knowing he would get hit. He's never complained once since he's been here, hes never criticized a teammate or a coach. You dont think he wants it? He's not doing it for the money. He could own this town if he wanted, with endorsement deals and basking in the limelight. But he's said it, hes not worthy of it just yet. Yea he's a p***y, a b**ch, and a baby.