Cutler Reaction: In Organized Thoughts, Complete Sentences

It started with a series of text messages...

Cutler baby!

Holy hell the world is ending

I guess Virginia McCaskey just died

Let me be the first to say, Gay Cutler [Packer fan]

With that to introduce it... the Bears, the Chicago Bears, our Chicago Bears, finally -- finally, FINALLY -- have a real quarterback.

I almost feel like saying it out loud might risk the trade being voided.

The stories are still coming in. It's like "where were you during JFK?" only on a 100x smaller scale.

I was at Best Buy shopping for TVs and it came on!

We actually have a quarterback!

The most excited I've ever been seeing something on TV!

I don't even like football, and I'm excited for this!

In my younger and more naive years (less than a week ago), I wrote that I would be fine if the Bears traded their entire 2009 draft for Jay Cutler. I meant it. I also wrote I wouldn't care if the Bears traded any individual player for Jay Cutler. I meant that, too.

But now it's actually happened. It's real. Jerry Angelo did it.

To give this some sort of perspective, I can honestly say this is my happiest moment as a Bears fan. I'm not swept up in the moment -- this is a serious statement. And I was at the Mike Brown pick-six game against the Browns. I saw them upset the Warren Sapp Bucs in the absolute prime of that squad. I saw an insane 4th quarter rally against Ditka's Saints that led to Iron Mike slamming his headset against the ground. I was at the Packers OT game on MNF this year.

Hell, the Bears went to the Super Bowl.

But all of that was so hollow compared to this. The Super Bowl run was improbable and insane, but this is real, tangible.

"My No. 1 moment was the Hester return in the Super Bowl," my friend Ken told me. "This is number 2-40."

And for those of us born just a few years (in my case, months) after the '85 Bears made the city proud, this could be the first significant building block to a moment of that multitude for this generation of fans.

* * *

The Bears have solidified the most important position on the field. The position that they have never solidified in the entire span of our lives. For Jerry Angelo, this trade was a layup, a slam dunk, a home run, a no freaking brainer (I'll let Rickhouse break down the value of what he thinks we lost versus what we gained in this trade... I'm sure he'll hit on all that sometime tomorrow). I don't think people outside of Chicago -- specifically, fans of teams who have experienced real QBs in the past -- will ever truly understand how excited Bears fans are right now.

It's easy to make statements like "we'll see how he fits into the system" or "it'll be a gradual process," but you're not going to hear them from me. No matter what -- barring something catastrophic -- the Bears are going to have competence under center. And I still cannot believe it.

Jay Cutler may have an attitude issue. He may be diabetic. He may be a little doughy (fat, even). He looks like this:

But we love him already.

"Dude, I'm buying a Cutler jersey today"

Another thing to remember: the NFC North isn't exactly a gauntlet. Cutler on this team means likely being able to at least contend in any game the Bears play within the division. And that's the first step toward the post-season.

This will finally put an end to the always-dreaded graphic 'amount of starting QBs the Bears have had during the Favre (now Rodgers) era in Green Bay'.

Krenzel, Kramer, Quinn, Grossman, Orton, McNown, Miller, Burris -- and that's just off the top of my head. The madness stops here.

As the phonecalls and texts keep coming in, one thought keeps hitting me over and over again: this is why we love sports. This vibe, this feeling of real hope for the first time in a long time. It all reminds me of a passage from John Albert's "Wrecking Crew," a book about a softball team of recovering drug addicts:

"Afterward, we lined up and shook the other team's hands, and I think we just felt stunned by our victory. By then the sun was starting to set, it was a beautiful afternoon, and the world felt perfect. That's what happens when you win a game, and I think it's the reason most people care so much when there's really nothing much at stake. When you emerge victorious, you walk off the field and the world feels like a substantially better place no matter what else is happening in your life..."

And that's what this is. Our lives haven't actually changed significantly. But Jay Cutler is on the Bears, and, today, our world is a substantially better place.

Hopefully for the next ten years, too.