Time does not heal all wounds. For the pro sports media and Greg Couch, it’s going to take a scapegoat. The Bears reported to camp Friday, their first time back to work since the NFC championship game against rival Green Bay, when the media had nothing better Brett Favre to write about.

Or maybe everyone was tired of hearing about Favre.

You can believe it any way you want. The truth isn’t going to matter anyway.

After the fact, after NFL players tweeted like crazy about what a quitter Cutler is, they soon remembered what Karma was and decided they would look pretty ridiculous if they were soon hurt, too. After true Bears fans had continued to stand behind their quarterback, the Bears said that Cutler had a tear, though not serious to require surgery, in the MCL in his knee, theoretically late in the first half. He was told he shouldn’t play but went out for one series in the second half, and then, with too much pain, realized he might hurt his team or significantly shorten his career. It was not, however, Cutler’s decision to play Todd Collins.

While this may or may not be true, it is easy for us in the media to concoct a story like the one told by the great Dilfer, We realize that we do not make any money if no one reads our articles. We had to protect our corporate boss’ investment. The thing is, Cutler looked great most of the season, right up until he was sacked each of the 50+ times due to poor offensive line play.

Everyone saw him sitting there in the second half, but it’s unclear when, and exactly how much he was helping his team.

Bears fans likely believe there is a little truth to both sides of the story, that Cutler is better than most quarterbacks in the league and that media knows what we are talking about. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. One game from the Super Bowl, against the most-hated opponent, and you’d think that would be enough for us to live vicariously through NFL player. A moment we’d give up our right arms for. Or our knee, even with a minor (minor because it happened to someone else) ligament tear.

This is not going to be an easy page to turn for the Bears.

Cutler might well have been hurt, but he’s also not one to bask in the glory of the public eye. And now that the Bears are getting receiver Roy Williams from Dallas, Cutler might have a target to throw to if he can get sufficient blocking up front.

In tough-guy Bears mentality, a grand Chicago image, someone would have to fight you to the ground to keep you out of a major game, even if you can’t properly execute throwing a football because you can’t plant or rotate on a torn MCL. To be a Bear is to be unquestionably tough, to play in the bitter cold, in the wind off Lake Michigan, to hit the other guy in the mouth, to get sacked more than 50 times and ONLY BLAME YOURSELF. If you lose, it is best not to throw your teammates under the bus, which Cutler did not.

Being a Bears fan also means you question your own quarterback. The team has had one crummy one after another. Cutler came in as the savior, though he left Denver in a feud with owners and coaches. He hadn’t won one playoff game before last year due to an insufficient defense.

He was terrible in Chicago his first year because of an inept offensive coordinator, and then a little better his second while learning a completely new, rather complicated offense based on timing. But there was suspicion, still, about how he would do in The Moment.

But we the media have not backed off, either because we learned the facts and want to keep from looking like incompetent liars or because we knew it was bad form to rip him for a game we never played ourselves. Cutler’s teammates have always taken his side publicly, and maybe they do privately, too.

But he continued to play after each time he had to spit out dirt after a sack. And you wonder if he is ever going to have respect for the media again.

My (Greg Couch, of course) big news this offseason was about my old high school romance, then date to the movies with my parents driving, then breakup, with Samantha Riggles, president of the key club and chess club.

Now, Riggles went on Twitter to refute gossip that even she dated me, and I was really hurt by her comments.

"I never said ANYTHING about dating Greg," she tweeted. "I’ve was always repulsed by him 100%. Stop trying to start (stuff). I seriously just threw up in my mouth a little bit."

Cutler has never had a decent offensive line with the Bears. He hasn’t had receivers, either. In his rookie year, they kept him in the pocket, even though his best work comes when he’s getting blocks. Then, he was introduced to the Mike Martz offense, which was supposed to suit him.

It did in practice, but his offensive line just couldn’t keep up.

The line is still going to be shaky, and the Bears traded Cutler’s obvious target when he is sack pressure, tight end Greg Olsen.

Cutler is not much of a talker, and comes off as aloof. We in the media do not understand this as you can’t win unless you boast about your self with nothing to back it up. Because of this, we feel he isn’t a winner. And when the team needed him to look the part of a leader, it was because he was too injured to play.

But the Bears have no choice but to believe in Cutler. He has spent a career living on amazing talent and potential. But now he’s 28, and the doubts in the media FAR outweigh everything else, especially logic. It’s his own fault that he didn’t join the cheerleaders after halftime that we the media didn’t believe him.

He has to earn back the trust. While we were sitting around enjoying hot dog and cross stitching, he was calling all his teammates in the offseason, as a true leader should.

But we still don’t know what it is like to take a hit from a 250 defensive end. We can only imagine what it is like to be in battle. Last chance for the media to bash Jay Cutler and the Bears before the season begins and all the speculation will end. Where is my warm cocoa and my copy of the first season of the Golden Girls?