Cutler battles through Type 1 diabetes

He has been sacked by Shawne Merriman, knocked down by Jared Allen and intercepted four times in two games by the Oakland Raiders.

Now Jay Cutler has a new nemesis.

Type 1 diabetes.

The Denver Broncos quarterback received that diagnosis on April 16 – 13 days before he turned 25. Happy birthday.

Initially, Cutler was shocked by the news. Wouldn’t you be? But at least that explained the unusual symptoms he had experienced.

Loss of appetite. Dry mouth. Frequent urination. And a mysterious pattern of weight loss.

Cutler weighed 238 when the 2007 season opened. He dropped 8 pounds in one week in October, then lost about two pounds per week for the rest of the season. By the end, the incredible shrinking man was at 203.

A late-season Thursday night game in Houston was one of the low points. “I remember just being absolutely exhausted. I just didn’t feel right going into it,” Cutler said. “And there were a few deep throws that came up short. It just wasn’t getting there.”

Cutler huddled with Broncos head trainer Steve Antonopulos. They chalked everything up to the grind of the season and the stress Cutler was experiencing in his first full season as an NFL starting quarterback.

Wrong.

The telltale signs followed Cutler after the season to Atlanta, where he went to work out with wide receiver Brandon Marshall and tight end Tony Scheffler. Cutler has always been a warrior in the weight room. But he wasn’t getting any stronger or regaining any weight. After he worked out in the morning, he was exhausted. He’d go back to his apartment and sleep.

“You get depressed,” Cutler said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

The mystery was finally solved when he returned to Denver in late March for the team’s off-season program. Medical personnel detected a high blood sugar level during a routine physical, and Cutler was sent to a diabetes specialist.

Now that the culprit has been identified, Cutler has a strategy for dealing with it. He has been wearing an insulin pump called an OmniPod that regulates the amount of insulin that gets delivered into his body. It is small – think of an egg sliced in half the long way and stuck to his abdomen – and is controlled by a hand-held device that looks like a cell phone.

When Cutler sits down to eat, he enters the amount of carbs he is about to ingest. The device then gives him a reading of how many insulin units it recommends.

Cutler won’t wear it during games to prevent it from getting smashed or delivering an overdose of insulin.

Cutler has regained weight and regained his fastball.

“I feel good throwing the ball,” Cutler said. “It’s coming out of my hand with a lot of zip.”

For the Broncos, that’s the best news of the off-season.