It's not a characterization that sits well with Score host Laurence Holmes, who covered Cutler during his Bears tenure from 2009-'16 and who expanded on his thoughts at length in his podcast LoHo Daily. Cutler retired after playing for the Dolphins in the 2017 season.
"Where I’d like to defend him – and where I was happy to see other people defend him – is in the understanding of what the life of a football player is like and what the post-career life of a football player is like, especially a quarterback," Holmes said.
"When I had heard and read that Kristin said one of the reasons their marriage disintegrated is because basically Jay is lazy – and I know it allowed people to throw their heads back and roar with laughter because that’s one of the things people associate with Jay, that because sometimes he wasn’t engaged in what we think is football protocol, that we was a lazy guy – that was not my experience. There are things to not like about Jay as a football player, as a leader, as a quarterback.
"For over a decade, Jay Cutler as a quarterback in the NFL took a beating. Every NFL player does. Quarterbacks, they take a brutal beating.
"So then after getting the snot beaten out of him for the majority of his adult life, when he’s done – considering that he has enough money to not work – to not be ambitious, isn’t that the goal?
"In my world, if the guy wants to take a gap year or gap years, I'm in full support of that. And the reason why is it's not as if he isn't providing for his family. It's a different argument if it's a guy who played football and doesn't have any money left.
"He deserves a little time to have his body and his mind heal up."
Listen to Holmes' full podcast and thoughts below.