Maurice Jones-Drew on Jay Cutler criticism: "A lot of things have changed"

When Jay Cutler left the NFC title game during the 2010 season with a knee injury, Jacksonville Jaguars Pro Bowl running back Maurice Jones-Drew was one of the most vocal active players to criticize the Bears quarterback.

Jones-Drew on his Twitter account questioned Cutler’s toughness and said he should have finished the game. In later interviews, Jones-Drew insisted he didn’t regret his criticism and wouldn’t apologize.

Asked about it Wednesday during a conference call, Jones-Drew said, “I never got a chance to work it out with him.

“But that was two years ago. I’m just happy that he’s smiling. For a while, he wasn’t smiling during the year and you always want to see players having fun and enjoying the game. Obviously, you know about me and Matt [Forte]. To see them winning, I’m happy for [Cutler]. Hopefully, those two don’t perform to the best of their abilities this week. Me and coach [Mike] Tice are very close as well. I don’t know if a lot of you guys know that. You’re always happy for the guys you’ve worked with and are friends with around, so that obviously includes Jay with those guys as well.

“What’s in the past is in the past. A lot of things have changed. I have two kids. I got married. I heard he got married and had him a child. Matt Forte has gotten married; I saw him at the wedding.

A lot of things have changed since then.”

Asked why he said it, Jones-Drew said, “Uh. I think I explained that enough two years ago.

“I don’t really want to get into that. Jay said it best. That’s not going to affect his game, what I thought about him two years ago.”

Meanwhile, Jones-Drew did seem to have a beef with Forte, one of his friends.

“I haven’t talked to him. I’m a little upset he didn’t come to my wedding, and I flew out to Chicago for his, so I might switch over to defense and play a couple of snaps just for that reason,” Jones-Drew playfully said.

As for Cutler’s brush-off of Tice Monday night, Jones-Drew downplayed the incident.

“During the course of a game, there’s so many things and emotions that are flying and going on. I don’t think there’s a problem with that at all,” he said. “There’s been times in games, where guys disagree on things, because emotions are flying and things happen. I think people try to read into too much sometimes.”