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Hutchinson aims to make most of second chance
By BILL WOLVERTON, Rockford Register Star
>> Click here for more about Bill
LAKE FOREST -- Quarterback Chad Hutchinson missed a day of surfing to join the Chicago Bears this week, but he hasn't given up the laid-back, surfer-dude attitude.
"I'm really going to enjoy myself this time," Hutchinson, 27, said. "Last time I put so much pressure on myself to be the next Troy Aikman when it wasn't really feasible, you know, coming four years out of baseball and not enough experience.
"I'm going to have fun because this is another lease on life."
The 6-foot-5, 237-pound Stanford product will take the roster spot of Rex Grossman, the franchise quarterback who was lost for the season after injuring his right knee in Sunday's loss to the Vikings.
Hutchinson took a long, winding road to Chicago. He tried out here in 2001 after giving up baseball to concentrate on football, but the Bears passed on a bidding war the Dallas Cowboys eventually won.
Hutchinson was the 26th overall pick in the 1995 baseball draft and 48th overall in 1998, joining the St. Louis Cardinals organization in 1998. He opened the 2001 season on the St. Louis roster before being sent down to Memphis after three relief appearances. He signed a seven-year contract with the Cowboys that year.
Hutchinson began his NFL career with 95 straight pass attempts without an interception. He started nine games that season and finished with a 66.3 passer rating, completing 127 of 250 passes for 1,555 yards and seven touchdowns against eight interceptions. But when Bill Parcells took over as head coach in 2003, he named Quincy Carter the starter. Hutchinson came off the bench in one game and was cut in July a week before training camp.
He joins the quarterbacks coach from his rookie season in Dallas, Wade Wilson, who was hired by Bears head coach Lovie Smith. Hutchinson hopes he has time to work on the finer points of being an NFL quarterback, things such as footwork and decision making and throwing mechanics.
"I just want to get a better grasp on all those things because when I came into the NFL out of baseball, I didn't," he said. "I just was rushed in there, and I wasn't able to do those little things that make a quarterback great. I hope now I have a chance to work on those things and get those things ironed out."
He'll be the third quarterback this week behind starter Jonathan Quinn and rookie Craig Krenzel.
"You can't get ready in one week to jump right in," Smith said. "In time, we would like to see Chad move up to that spot at No. 2."
Before that can happen, though, Hutchinson has to get a grip on the Bears' playbook, which is about 1,000 pages.
"Wow, it's huge," he said. "It's an encyclopedia, but I'm going to put in the time off the field and pay attention on the field as much as I can.
"I basically said I'm going to give everything to football for the next five or six years, whether it's going to play in the Arena League, Canada, NFL Europe again. I want to see what my ceiling is. I want to see how good I can be, and I don't think I've even come to that point in my football career. I would regret, 20 years down the road, not seeing how good I can become in football."
Contact: 815-987-1202; bwolverton@rrstar.com
By BILL WOLVERTON, Rockford Register Star
>> Click here for more about Bill
LAKE FOREST -- Quarterback Chad Hutchinson missed a day of surfing to join the Chicago Bears this week, but he hasn't given up the laid-back, surfer-dude attitude.
"I'm really going to enjoy myself this time," Hutchinson, 27, said. "Last time I put so much pressure on myself to be the next Troy Aikman when it wasn't really feasible, you know, coming four years out of baseball and not enough experience.
"I'm going to have fun because this is another lease on life."
The 6-foot-5, 237-pound Stanford product will take the roster spot of Rex Grossman, the franchise quarterback who was lost for the season after injuring his right knee in Sunday's loss to the Vikings.
Hutchinson took a long, winding road to Chicago. He tried out here in 2001 after giving up baseball to concentrate on football, but the Bears passed on a bidding war the Dallas Cowboys eventually won.
Hutchinson was the 26th overall pick in the 1995 baseball draft and 48th overall in 1998, joining the St. Louis Cardinals organization in 1998. He opened the 2001 season on the St. Louis roster before being sent down to Memphis after three relief appearances. He signed a seven-year contract with the Cowboys that year.
Hutchinson began his NFL career with 95 straight pass attempts without an interception. He started nine games that season and finished with a 66.3 passer rating, completing 127 of 250 passes for 1,555 yards and seven touchdowns against eight interceptions. But when Bill Parcells took over as head coach in 2003, he named Quincy Carter the starter. Hutchinson came off the bench in one game and was cut in July a week before training camp.
He joins the quarterbacks coach from his rookie season in Dallas, Wade Wilson, who was hired by Bears head coach Lovie Smith. Hutchinson hopes he has time to work on the finer points of being an NFL quarterback, things such as footwork and decision making and throwing mechanics.
"I just want to get a better grasp on all those things because when I came into the NFL out of baseball, I didn't," he said. "I just was rushed in there, and I wasn't able to do those little things that make a quarterback great. I hope now I have a chance to work on those things and get those things ironed out."
He'll be the third quarterback this week behind starter Jonathan Quinn and rookie Craig Krenzel.
"You can't get ready in one week to jump right in," Smith said. "In time, we would like to see Chad move up to that spot at No. 2."
Before that can happen, though, Hutchinson has to get a grip on the Bears' playbook, which is about 1,000 pages.
"Wow, it's huge," he said. "It's an encyclopedia, but I'm going to put in the time off the field and pay attention on the field as much as I can.
"I basically said I'm going to give everything to football for the next five or six years, whether it's going to play in the Arena League, Canada, NFL Europe again. I want to see what my ceiling is. I want to see how good I can be, and I don't think I've even come to that point in my football career. I would regret, 20 years down the road, not seeing how good I can become in football."
Contact: 815-987-1202; bwolverton@rrstar.com
