Jay Cutler is easily one of the most entertaining stories as NFL players go in recent memory. The guy had a long career sprinkled with moments of brilliance and moments of controversy. He was known for being standoffish at times but also a ceaselessly enjoyable interview. As time has gone on, Chicago Bears fans have learned to appreciate what the quarterback did in his time with the team. Not to mention the many stories about him that continue to surface.
One that might be among the more underrated came on his tremendous interview with the Pardon My Take podcast. There he told his good friend Barstool Big Cat something he’d never told anybody else during his career. The story of how he ended up getting recruited to Vanderbilt University. Most would think something like that would be boring for common football fans.
Not when Cutler is involved though.
“Have I never told you the story of how I ended up with Vandy? Oh gosh. So it’s basketball season and it’s early January. I get a call. I’m in school, they do the intercom thing. It’s like, ‘Jay Cutler, come to the office.’ I’m like, ‘What’s happening now?’ I get to the office they say, ‘Hey, the AD (Athletic Director) wants to talk to you.’ So I go down there and he’s like, ‘Vandy called. They want to talk to you so get on the phone with them.’
They’re like, ‘Hey, we just watched your tape and we’re just kind of cleaning up the rest of our recruiting. We like it but we don’t think you can play tight end in the SEC.’ I’m like, ‘Well that’s fine I don’t play tight end.’ They’re like, ‘Who is this?’ They didn’t even know. I told them my name. He’s like, ‘Alright, we see your tape. We’ll watch it and call you back in a little bit.’
I hang up the phone and I’m like, ‘They’re not calling. Can I go back to class now?’ Literally three hours later. Same thing. I talked to them, they’re like, ‘We love the tape. We want you to come to Vandy, we have a scholarship for you but we need to know by the end of the day.'”
Jay Cutler basically didn’t have a choice at that point
If that weren’t enough, it gets better. Cutler had no idea where Vanderbilt even was. When he looked it up on the very primitive internet he had at the time, it said Nashville and he didn’t even know where that was either. Still, none of that matter. When Cutler’s father Jack found out that the university was offering a scholarship to play there, he basically said, “You’re going to Vanderbilt.”
Cutler did more research and finally accepted the offer shortly after. His goal at the time though wasn’t about making it to the NFL. He just wanted to keep playing football. Not until after his sophomore year of college did he start to realize he could play professionally. Sure enough, he ended up the 11th overall pick of the 2006 draft and went on to have a 12-year career. Not a bad story.
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