Freedom Bowl : A Career He’d Like to Recall : Through All the Pain, BYU Receiver Cutler Has Enjoyed Playing

For Chuck Cutler, Brigham Young University’s record-breaking, bone-breaking wide receiver, the end is near. Thursday night’s Freedom Bowl encounter against Colorado looms as the final football game of his life, a prospect he contemplated after a recent practice session.

And as he contemplated, Cutler peeled adhesive tape from a once-broken thumb, arched his once-broken back and nodded his once-concussed head.

“I kinda hope it is,” Cutler said with a laugh. “I mean, football’s been a great experience for me. I love the game. But there just comes a time when you’ve had enough.”

And when are you sure when that time has come?

Cutler has had a few clues:

-- In November of 1986, in a game against Air Force, Cutler sustained such a blow to his head that he didn’t know what hit him. Or where he was. Or that he had just proposed to his fiancee.

Cutler forgot all of that, along with everything else that had occurred during the 2 weeks preceding the concussion. To this day, the amnesia persists and Cutler still has to consult game films to confirm that he indeed did play in that Air Force game.

-- In October of 1987, Cutler fractured both thumbs in a game against Hawaii and later broke another bone in his right hand. During the past 2 years, he has had five operations on his hands and needs two more after the Freedom Bowl. He has played this season with six screws and a metal plate in his right hand--and still caught 64 passes.

-- In November, while reaching up for another pass, Cutler was speared in the back by two San Diego State defenders. The result: three small fractures along the spinal column.

“It sounds a lot worse than it is,” Cutler tried to explain. “I broke three transverse processes. Those are the little bones that jut out on either side of the vertebra. I broke three of those off.”

The injury occurred during BYU’s ninth game of the season, but Cutler was back in the lineup by game No. 10. “I pad it up quite a bit,” Cutler said. “It’s been uncomfortable, but I can still play with it.”

Therein lies perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Cutler’s football career. Despite all the concussions and contusions, breaks and aches, Cutler has never missed a game because of injury.

Cutler started every one of the Cougars’ 12 regular-season games this season and tied a National Collegiate Athletic Assn. record by catching touchdown passes in 8 consecutive games. His 64 receptions represented the sixth-highest total in BYU history, and his 1,039 receiving yards were within 142 of the school’s single-season record.

So Cutler has proved he can take a licking and keep on clicking.

But, as a two-time Academic All-American, Cutler also is smart enough to diagnose a trend when he spots one. This sport can be hazardous to one’s health, and it’s much preferable to get out before you’re carried out.

One more game, Cutler figures, and then he can rest his brittle bones amid the comfort of a cushy desk job. He knows he’ll always have his memories.

At least the ones he can remember.

“It’s a funny story now, but it’s quite an adjustment to make when you forget a month or so of your life,” Cutler said. “After I took that hit, I couldn’t remember things that happened during that entire semester. Gradually, most of my memory returned, but there’s still a 2-week period that never came back.”

Teammates first noticed something wrong when they had to remind Cutler, again and again, to shower and dress after the Air Force game. Then, Cutler fell asleep on the plane back to Provo, Utah, and when he awoke, he couldn’t remember anything about the pass he caught and the hit he took--or any of the other passes thrown and hits made during that game.

Cutler also couldn’t remember details in his personal life. Little details, such as which classes he was taking at BYU--never a good thing just before final exams--and whom he was supposed to be marrying. Oh, Cutler knew he had a girlfriend, the former Michelle Maxfield. He just couldn’t remember getting engaged to her.

“She had to take me back to the jewelry store where we bought her ring,” Cutler said. “The jeweler thought I was trying to weasel out of it. ‘Oh, sure . . . ‘

“I had to re-propose to her on Christmas Eve. I did it at a family dinner and her grandpa videotaped the whole thing. I was going to be playing in the Freedom Bowl (against UCLA in 1986) and he was concerned that I’d get knocked out and forget again.”

Taking care of his classes was more difficult. Cutler had to convince skeptical instructors that his amnesia was not a ruse and then, had to take “incompletes” in each course. After several tutoring sessions during the following semester, Cutler finally took those final exams the next summer.

“At the time, it was real scary,” Cutler said. “I was almost in a state of depression. People would talk about places and things that I just couldn’t remember. Every once in a while, I’d panic around people. I’d get anxious, just like I was this year, when we played at Air Force again. I couldn’t remember a thing. Same with the San Diego State game. I couldn’t remember the locker room or anything.”

Cutler shakes his head and smiles.

“It’s a funny story,” he said. “It’s certainly one I’ll never forget.”

So to speak.

Cutler’s next two seasons at BYU were a pain in his hands. Imagine a kicker with a broken foot or a quarterback with a broken arm. Cutler’s job is to catch footballs--and he’s had to do it with the tools of his trade in continual need of retooling. Last summer, he couldn’t make a fist with his right hand. Today, both hands are scarred and misshapen by surgery and soon headed back for another trip to the shop.

“Look at his hands,” BYU Coach LaVell Edwards said. “They’re not like an athlete’s hands. They look like a bricklayer’s now.”

Said Cutler: “Every year since ‘86, it’s been the regular January-February-March routine. I have an operation and undergo therapy, so I can get my hands working again.”

In an odd way, though, Cutler believes his hand problems have made him a better receiver.

“I’m almost grateful for the injuries,” he said, “because it’s made me concentrate on the ball more. I’ve had to play with little casts on my hands, with both thumbs taped up. It’s motivated me and, I think, made me a better receiver.”

As a result, Cutler today shares an NCAA record by catching touchdown passes in 8 consecutive games, joining Cincinnati’s Jim O’Brien (1968), Auburn’s Terry Beasley (1971), Fresno State Henry Ellard (1982) and Miami’s Michael Irvin (1985).

“I guess I’m in there with some pretty good company,” Cutler said. “I had a chance to break it in the San Diego State game, but they were keying on me and I got hurt. They didn’t want me breaking the record against them.”

Cutler had to settle for a tie.

“That’s about the only thing I didn’t break,” he said with a laugh.

Next, it’s a return to the Freedom Bowl, where he played 2 years ago and caught 4 passes during BYU’s 31-10 loss to UCLA. Then, Cutler plans to hang up the adhesive tape and move to the corporate world, where hands are used primarily for shaking other hands.

“I’ve had some job offers and I’ve got some more interviews lined up,” he said. “I’ve got a family now, a baby boy, and my responsibilities are now with them.”

Cutler married Michelle Maxfield in May, 1987, and this October, Michelle gave birth to Kalin Cutler. Already, Chuck Cutler has plans for his new son.

“I bought him some golf clubs,” Cutler said, grinning. “No way is he going to play football.”

As they say, father knows best.