RGIII's knee must be more important than anyone else's

I wonder what Jay Cutler is thinking right now.

In case you missed it, Robert Griffin III hurt his knee pretty badly Sunday in the Washington Redskins' loss to the Seattle Seahawks. I didn't actually see the injury when it happened, but I realized something was going on when my Twitter blew up, largely to say Redskins coach Mike Shanahan should, at a minimum, be fired for leaving a hobbling Griffin in the game. (Dave Zirin's Twitter is a good example, and he also calls Redskins owner Dan Snyder to task for the condition of the field.)

But I want to know what Cutler is thinking because it was a little over a year ago when he did come out of a Chicago Bears playoff game with what turned out to be a torn MCL ... and was ripped for it. I must admit that I wasn't impressed at the time, and only have the barest of excuse that I didn't realize how hurt he was at the time.

And what's Philip Rivers' take on the whole thing? He played in a playoff game for the San Diego Chargers in 2008 with an ACL injury and after surgery the previous Monday that he kept a secret. I don't recall people saying Chargers coach Norv Turner should have been fired for possibly ruining his young quarterback's career.

Now I'd like to think that the concern over RGIII's injury is due to a greater understanding of what football players put themselves through to entertain us, part of an evolution that accelerated rapidly after Junior Seau's suicide and has continued to pick up steam ever since, and the realization that there are instances when players need to be protected from themselves by coaches or medical staff.

But it's when I start thinking that way that my good friend Cy Nical, who basically assumes the worst in everyone and everything, shows up to ask if the concern over RGIII is due to his being an extraordinary talent and an engaging, magnetic, popular personality as opposed to Cutler and Rivers, who people don't really like that much.

I hope Cy's wrong, but he's right more often than I (or perhaps even he) would like to admit.