Former QB, Jay Cutler, Faces Backlash For Posting Photo Of Trophy Sable During South Africa Hunting Trip

There are two paths for retired NFL quarterbacks: they either become broadcasters, or they go on niche hunting trips.

For Jay Cutler, the former NFL and Vanderbilt quarterback, he’s chosen the hunting route. The 42-year-old’s football playing days are very much in the rearview mirror, and it seems as though he’s now getting his adrenaline fix with big game hunting. His latest venture took place in South Africa with an organization called Tyityaba Hunting Safaris.

South Africa is home to many of the world’s most famous animals. Elephants, lions, rhinos, and leopards are native to the area, and that’s just scratching the surface of the country’s incredible wildlife population. Another animal that calls South Africa home is the sable, which is a) a long-horned, barrel-chested antelope and b) the trophy animal that Jay Cutler brought down during his trip.

Here’s the picture that the former NFL-er posted that has a number of people up in arms, and the caption that read:

“Kicked off the Africa hunt with a beauty. Sable down.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jay Cutler (@ifjayhadinstagram)

Some argue that big game hunting actually has benefits to the area, like providing revenue to conservation efforts, and even helping control certain populations. In many cases, the hunt provides a lot of food to local villages in the area, meat they would otherwise have no access to. Nevertheless, a lot of people argue that the act of hunting big game can be unethical, especially if it’s done through “canned hunting” where animals are hunted down in a confined space. This kind of hunting is also only accessible to pretty wealthy people, and since you can’t legally bring the meat home to the States, some seem take exception to that as well.

It’s unclear what Jay was doing here, as the outfitter offers both “high fence” hunting as well as access to 80,000 acres of free range hunting in eastern South Africa. Sable is generally regarded as pretty good table fare, and many hunters would love the opportunity to hunt Africa, ethically and legally of course, but at the end of the day, any time a high profile person goes hunting, whether it’s deer hunting at home or this, they’re gonna get a ton of hate. Some people just don’t like hunting… never have, never will, and no amount of educating them on positives of hunting is going to change that.

Most of Jay Cutler’s comment section swung more towards the negative side:

“I went to Africa on a safari and saw the most incredible wildlife and never once thought about murdering them.”

“This is nothing to brag about.”

“Wow, Jay. You killed a wild animal in a place it’s rarely hunted and it had zero idea you were a threat. Super impressive buddy.”

“What a cruel ‘hobby’ Jay. Shame on you for killing this beautiful animal. It breaks my heart.”

“But why? Why can’t you just enjoy them in the wild? Why do you have to kill them?”

“Total scumbag. Worst QB I’ve ever watched in my life, too

“I can see why Kristin left him.”

Those last two comment were very personal.

And I’m sure at this point, Jay Cutler knows better than to dive down into the comments section below his posts. There aren’t a lot of people that are friendly to him on the internet, and that was especially true last year when he got arrested for a DUI near Nashville, Tennessee. Who has it better than Jay Cutler? Well… there’s a good chance that a lot of people do, at least when it comes to how he’s treated online. When you compare him to the likes of Tom Brady, who is having a very fruitful and lucrative post-NFL-career, one could say that Cutler has been on the struggle bus.

But in the real world, outside of social media commentary, he’s a retired NFL quarterback with a LOT of money and he is currently hunting across the world…. so he’s got that going for him. Some would argue that Smokin’ Jay is out living his best life… social media be damned.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jay Cutler (@ifjayhadinstagram)

The post Former QB, Jay Cutler, Faces Backlash For Posting Photo Of Trophy Sable During South Africa Hunting Trip first appeared on Whiskey Riff.