--- title: Autographed Jay Cutler Football Goes Unsold description: A football signed by Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler went unsold at a charity auction last month. canonical: https://time.com/3771418/jay-cutler-autographed-ball/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-04T13:08:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:29.176Z article:section: Sports og:title: Autographed Jay Cutler Football Goes Unsold at Auction og:description: Somebody stepped in days later to buy the ball for his son for $100 og:url: https://time.com/3771418/jay-cutler-autographed-ball/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0861867542b60438/698786b1a988ca62f66ad3ad/jay-cutler.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: Chicago Bears v Minnesota Vikings og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Autographed Jay Cutler Football Goes Unsold at Auction twitter:description: Somebody stepped in days later to buy the ball for his son for $100 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0861867542b60438/698786b1a988ca62f66ad3ad/jay-cutler.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Autographed Jay Cutler Football Goes Unsold at Auction > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Wearing a Weapon: The Football Helmet's Dangerous Evolution [Watch (HLS stream): Wearing a Weapon: The Football Helmet's Dangerous Evolution](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ArcR8sPL.m3u8) (2:19)  _Published 2015-01-28. The history of how helmets arrived on the football field_  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Apr 4, 2015 1:08 PM UTC  Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears speaks to the media after the game against the Minnesota Vikings on Dec.28, 2014 at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN. Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears speaks to the media after the game against the Minnesota Vikings on Dec.28, 2014 at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN. Hannah Foslien—Getty Images  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Apr 4, 2015 1:08 PM UTC A football signed by Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler [went unsold](http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/smackblog/chi-bears-jay-cutler-autographed-football-auction-20150403-story.html) at a charity auction last month. Not a single person bid on the white autographed ball auctioned on behalf of the Anti-Cruelty Society, the Chicago _Tribune_ reports. But an unnamed buyer ultimately purchased the ball this week for $100 as a gift for his Bears fan son. Sports blogs are [seizing on the unsold ball](http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2419531-jay-cutler-autographed-football-doesnt-get-single-bid-at-charity-auction) as a symbol of the struggling quarterback’s declining status, though the _Tribune_ notes that most of the items at the auction were not sports related and the attendees weren’t much of a “football crowd.” \[[_Chicago Tribune_](http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/smackblog/chi-bears-jay-cutler-autographed-football-auction-20150403-story.html)\] ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] We're in the midst of this concussion epidemic. How did we get here? [ MUSIC ] We have to look at the history of the helmet itself. Helmets, you know, if we think of the first helmet, you think of the leather head, or a helmet that doesn't have the facemask. And when Teddy Roosevelt was President ,. There was a year where 18 men died playing football. And the reason why they died is skull fractures. And so Teddy Roosevelt, who loved football, he said this is not gonna be good. So he got together all the teams that were around then, you know, Yale, Harvard, Rutgers. He said look, guys. We have to put some rules in place. And they put it together an institute to just kinda makes the game a little bit more safe. A couple years later they instituted the helmet, but it didn't have face mask. Now when we were studying football's history we saw that we got to this concussion epidemic around the 1950s. Because there's this gentlemen Otto Graham who was a quarterback, he had a huge gash on his face and his coach said look, were, I'm gonna lose this guy unless I protect his face. So his coach was Paul Brown and he made this. This plastic face mask when we put it on, onto the helmet. And soon, the face mask became a standard issue. Now, that doesn't seem like a big deal, it's a safety feature. But, it actually made the game more dangerous. And how did it do that? Well, it changed our behavior. Before, we used to tackle with our shoulders, we were afraid to break our noses and our jaws because we didn't have a face mask. Mask. But when the face mask was instituted. Well, then the helmet actually became weaponized. And we started tackling with our heads. So the helmet was never designed to mitigate concussions. It was designed to stop skull fractures. You can think of it as bubble wrap for the head. If you think of your head as an egg, your brain is the yolk. Your skull is the shell. The helmet is sort of bubble wrap on top of that. Prevents the shell from breaking, but it doesn't do anything to stop your yolk, or your brain from sloshing around. And that's what gives rise to a concussion. So, a lot of people say the concussion epidemic started in the 90s but we would say. That, that trend started in the 50s when the face mask was instituted. 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