Jay Cutler spent 12 years in the NFL. Eight of those were with the Bears, where he threw for 23,443 yards and 154 touchdowns; he also threw 107 interceptions and had a .500 career record. Even in the season when Cutler took the Bears to the NFC title game, he was still sacked a league-leading 52 times.
Because the Bears are the Bears, Cutler is also either the best or second-best quarterback in the franchise's history. He has by far the most career passing yards, nearly 10,000 more than the second-place quarterback. That would be Sid Luckman, whose career began before the United States entered World War II. Cutler's yardage advantage aside, Luckman gets my vote as the best quarterback in Bears history. He won five MVPs and four NFL titles. But who’s behind Cutler on that list, besides everyone else who has ever played quarterback for the team? Jim McMahon won a Super Bowl, but on a team known for its defense. Jim Harbaugh? Mitch Trubisky? Rex Grossman? Johnny Lujack, who was an All-Pro in 1950 but retired after just four seasons to go back to Notre Dame and coach?
That 1950 season was Luckman's last, and the Bears have not been blessed at quarterback since. Cutler, the man sacked 251 times with the team, is clear of the field by a wide margin.
And so via The Athletic comes this wonderful story about John Walaszek, who goes by Pack Nicholson online. Walaszek is collecting cards of his favorite Chicago Bears players over the years, which means among other things that he has a lot of Jay Cutler cards in his collection. Earlier this month, a Jay Cutler card went up for auction on eBay. It was his 2012 Panini Prizm Jay Cutler Superfractor Black Prizm card; only one was made, and Walaszek wanted it for his collection. What follows is not hard to explain, although the price he paid is somewhat more so. Walaszek spent $12,107, plus $4.74 shipping and handling, for the card.
Walaszek told The Athletic he used “a funding service in which I’ll be selling other cards I’ve collected over the years to pay for it,” and that his max on this particular Cutler was $12,600. The regular version of the card goes for about a buck, but sometimes the 1/1 Panini Prizim Superfractor is worth it I guess?
The best part of the story comes from Walaszek’s The Football Card Podcast. In the most recent episode, he explained why it was worth it to him. The episode opens with this quote: “All I can think about is football cards. Even when I was at Colts camp in the blistering heat, all I could think about was football cards. It was hard for me to even evaluate my squad because I was with them—in real time, in real life—but I was just picturing them on cardboard, going through all the players I don’t have Gold Prizms of, and want Gold Prizms of, and that was fun but also scary because I was like, ‘Do I just have to think about football cards all the time?’ And I think the answer is yes.”
Now here’s a surprise: This is not a quote from the man who bought a Jay Cutler card for $12,107. It is from the other person on the podcast, Brett McGrath, who just released a book titled Collecting for Keeps: Finding Meaning in a Hobby Built on Hype. The Cutler card was apparently the topic of conversation at an annual big convention both attended. Walaszek says the card was posted at 4:58 p.m. on Wednesday, July 30. It was a 10-day auction, so he had a lot of time to obsess about it while at The National. “I could not shut the fuck up about this card,” he says.
And here’s my new favorite collector quote ever:
“Trust me, I didn’t want to pay this much money for it. I don’t want to spend $12,107 on a Jay Cutler card. I wish it was 100 bucks. I wish I found it in a box at Goodwill along with the rest of the complete set. But that didn’t happen. What happened was this card showed up at auction and some other idiots also bid $12,000, so this is the price I’m obligated to pay. And I wish it wasn’t. I don’t want to do any of this. I don’t want to be a fan of a team that doesn’t win Super Bowls and has never had a great quarterback, but I’m a fan of the Chicago Bears. And how I express that fandom is collecting players who played for the Chicago Bears, and sadly Jay Cutler is the best QB I’ve watched play for the Chicago Bears. So this card is a necessary piece for what I’m building.”
I do believe this is a unique curse of sports fandom. If your favorite band starts making terrible records, you can still listen to their old albums. But Pack Nicholson is stuck. There’s no comeback album in the works for the Bears. What’s he gonna do, watch Sid Luckman highlights on YouTube?
You know what’s weird? Sid Luckman kind of looks like Jay Cutler.
