Chicago Bears: These quarterbacks have made us who we are

Due to Cutler’s injury problems, mostly caused by his offensive line acting like the Little Big Horn’s ridge to any defensive line’s Crazy Horse, or because coaches thought they could do better, there were a raft of dinguses who took snaps for the Bears when Cutler didn’t.

Todd Collins was his first backup. Here’s the thing: The Cutler Experience might have gone differently if, after he got hurt in the NFC Championship game, the Bears didn’t have to insert a disinterested flamingo as a backup. A real backup and the Bears very well might have won that game and gone to the Super Bowl.

Instead they had Collins, who had as much passion being on the field as a depressed cat, and the cat would have had a bigger arm. It was only like a quarter and a half of him being so bad the Bears decided to go to a guy, in an NFC Championship game mind you, who had never thrown a pass in the NFL.

Somehow, even though Caleb Hanie could run like four plays, they got within a last drive of the Packers that game when everyone realized Todd Collins wouldn’t lead a scoring drive if the game went on for 14 years.

The following season, when the Bears might have been better, Cutler was lost for the year with a broken thumb. They turned the next four games over to Hanie. The Bears lost all four and I’m not sure they scored a touchdown in them, at least not on purpose, which destroyed the season. That’s what led to the first Bears incarnation of Josh McCown.

I’m not going down the McCown avenue, either. All I’ll say is Bears fans still think his name is “McGowan,” and the fact that they’re still trying to pronounce it makes my heart bleed.

Jason Campbell was brought in as insurance that a season wouldn’t be ruined by a Cutler injury again. It didn’t work, but thankfully he didn’t have to play much.