2014 ends in just 13 days! We have lots of year end “best of” listicles to get to, so we kick things off today with newly benched Chicago Bears quarterbacks Jay Cutler. He’ll sit Sunday, as Jimmy Clausen takes the reins versus the Detroit Lions. The NFL’s highest paid player has now been benched for a guy who is a real life continuation of what would happen to J.D. McCoy on Friday Night Lights after graduation from high school.
So here are the five most popular Jay Cutler stories on The Sports Bank, with unique visitor totals displayed.
1. Jay Cutler: costs, options for the Chicago Bears to part ways 16,284
Not surprising at all that the most popular story of the year is one that’s all about getting rid of him!
2. Jay Cutler “DON’T CARE!” story goes mainstream 12,488
This isn’t just a story, it’s my baby. It’s my signature bit. They’re even selling t-shirts based on this story now. One group even re-created it in a parody music video. I published the link above in April 2013, long before I told this story on stage at The Laugh Factory, and months before I told it live on WSCR 670 The Score. It got over 12,000 and counting in 2014 (over 200 and counting today) and it had about 12,000 in 2013 as well.
3. Jay Cutler ripped by former Bills Linebacker London Fletcher 9,848
As Fletcher pointed out back in September, Cutler doesn’t care. Read the transcript of his Jay Cutler evisceration, he DOESN’T CARE
4. What Chicago can do about Jay Cutler buyer’s remorse 5,088
5. AUDIO: Jay Cutler gives extremely terse and surly press conference 2,916
6. Witness to Jay Cutler DON’T CARE incident SPEAKS (exclusive) 2,913
Remember this story has been mentioned/linked on NFL.com, the NFL Network’s official web page.
Five or ten would have been a nice round number, but since Jay Cutler wears #6, we went with top six stories.
The Sports Bank achieved more than 5 million unique visitors in 2014!! That’s almost double the previous annual record. To celebrate, we’re recapping and linking all the most popular stories in upcoming listicles. Here’s what’s planned, and will be linked when published. Enjoy!
-Five most popular Arturo Vidal to Man United rumor stories of 2014
-Five most popular Juan Mata stories of 2014
-Five most popular Angel Di Maria stories of 2014 (Dec 18th)
-Five most popular Louis van Gaal stories of 2014
-Ten most popular Manchester United stories of 2014 (that didn’t qualify for the previous four MUFC qualities)
-Five most popular Jay Cutler stories of 2014
-Twenty most popular female sportscaster stories of 2014
-Five most popular Illini stories of 2014
-Five most popular Notre Dame stories of 2014
-Ten most popular NFL stories of 2014 (not including the Jay Cutler list)
-Ten most popular NBA stories of 2014
-Ten most popular news/pop culture stories of 2014
-Top 40 search terms of 2014
-Five most popular Cubs
-Five most popular Cubs
-Ten most popular overall
-Ten most popular Liverpool
-Ten most popular Chelsea
-Ten most popular Arsenal
-Ten most popular Tottenham
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2