Jay Cutler is joining the FOX broadcast team for the 2017 NFL season, but that does not mean he is officially slamming the door on his playing career.
In a statement announcing his newest venture, Cutler said he is not ready to call himself retired from football.
“I don’t know if retirement is the right word; I don’t feel that anyone ever really retires from the NFL,” he wrote, via Pro Football Talk. “You are either forced to leave, or you lose the desire to do what’s required to keep going. I’m in between those situations at this point in my life.”
Cutler also shared a quote that made it seem like he could change his mind if the right opportunity came along.
“I recently read a quote that struck a chord with me at the time,” he wrote. “It was attributed to Henry Rollins (but with the internet these days, you can never be too sure who really said it). ‘I did that, I gave everything I had to give to that. Now, if I returned to that it would be repetition – it might be fun repetition, but it wouldn’t be meaningful repetition.’”
While he appeared in just five games last season due to injury, Cutler only recently turned 34. There are several quarterbacks who have been successful into their mid-30s, so he could conceivably return at some point later this year or next season.
In reality, there was very little interest in Cutler on the free agent market. He may have even turned down one team in favor of taking a job in television, so you know he wasn’t desperate to keep playing. Should a significant injury inspire a contender to come calling, Cutler would almost certainly listen.
