“The Cutler Factor” canceled – before it even goes on the air

The former Bears QB signs deal with the Miami Dolphins – ending his broadcast career before it begins.

Keeping in the Fox tradition of shows being canceled before they hit the air – Rewind, Manchester Prep, The Grubbs, Our Little Genius, and Murder Police, now comes word The Cutler Factor has been canceled before airing a single episode.

As you know, former Bears quarterback Jay Cutler “retired” from football in May and signed a deal with Fox Sports to join the #2 broadcast booth alongside Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis. It lead yours truly to compare the hire to Bill O’Reilly’s now-defunct The O’Reilly Factor, canceled after he was forced out due to sexual harassment obligations.

However, on Thursday Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill injured his knee on a non-contact play, requiring him to miss the bulk of the regular season.

On Sunday, Cutler decided to come out of “retirement” and signed an one-year deal to become the new starting quarterback for the team in a one-year, $10 million deal according to ESPN. The reason he came out of “retirement” because he felt he had a shot of continuing his football career and he gets to work with coach Adam Gase, who was with him in 2015 during his most production season of his career.  Cutler was released from the Bears in March.

So much for the No Fumble Zone.

The news of Cutler skipping out on Fox is the latest embarrassment for the broadcast network and owner 21st Century Fox – yours truly laid out some of those reasons in The Cutler Factor article back in May with the biggest blunder letting American Idol go to ABC after a “final season” in 2016 did better than Fox executives thought. Fox Sports must have known Cutler never signed his retirement papers and kept his options open. Now they are left scrambling with weeks to go before the season starts.

On a more serious note, many people on social media claimed Cutler only got the job over similarly unemployed quarterback Colin Kaepernick because of his stance (or kneel) during the National Anthem last year, raising cries of Kaepernick being blackballed.

As for Cutler, many questioned whether or not he would be a good analyst given his often poor play on the field and his off-putting persona off the field. Now we’ll never know given it is unlikely Cutler would get hired as analyst at Fox or anywhere else after his career ends since he skipped out on them.

Then again, given the stupidity of management running the major networks these days, Cutler might have a post-career home after all, aspiring to become the next Tim McCarver.

And if his new Dolphins gig doesn’t work out and can’t get an analyst job, he can always get a position as a judge or even a co-host on American Idol. Without Simon Cowell, the show is in need for jerks and lord knows head jerk Ryan Seacrest can’t fill the bill alone.