by Brian McCombie - Monday, July 21, 2025
Anti-hunters are at it once again, doing what they seem to do best: attacking someone for the legal, ethical activity known as hunting. This time, the focus of their contempt and anger is former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler.
Unfortunately, the attacks were exacerbated by some truly shoddy reporting by the mainstream media.
On a recent hunt with South African outfitter Tyityaba Hunting Safaris, Cutler took a sable antelope, and posted a photo of himself and the animal to his Instagram account. “Kicked off the Africa hunt with a beauty,” Cutler captioned his post. “Sable down.”
The attacks by the antis quickly followed.
“I went to Africa on a safari and saw the most incredible wildlife and never once thought about murdering them,” replied one follower, with another posting: “This is nothing to brag about.” A third wrote: “Wow, Jay. You killed a wild animal in a place it’s rarely hunted and it had zero idea you were a threat. Suppeeerrrr impressive buddy.” “He should be cancelled,” said one person on X after the Cutler photo was posted to that social media site. “I’m sure it makes him feel like a real man!” one person commented on a Facebook post of the Cutler story. “Says a lot about the size of certain parts of him,” posted another anti-hunting wit to a different Facebook post.
All of this would qualify as a whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, except that the mainstream media was quick to hype this so-called controversy, too. One outlet referred to the anti-hunting commentary as a “Firestorm” while another platform said Cutler’s post “sparks outrage.”
Bad (and sad) enough, but some media went a step further, stoking the anti-hunting and anti-Cutler commentary by getting the basic reportage very, very wrong.
One headline screamed, “Ex-NFL QB Jay Cutler kills what could be critically endangered animal and people are outraged.” The article went onto claim that Cutler had killed a “critically endangered” giant sable, a species with fewer than 100 adult animals in existence. PennLive initially had the term “critically endangered” in its headline, which was subsequently changed, but the term remained in the story’s web link.
Actually, Cutler took a common sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) and not the truly endangered giant sable antelope. The common sable numbers well into the thousands in a vast range stretching across the savannas of East and Southern Africa. The common sable population is at low risk of extinction.
Cutler, who played eight seasons with the Chicago Bears after being drafted in the NFL’s first round by the Denver Broncos in 2006, seemed unfazed the anti-hunting attacks.
Soon after his Instagram post, Cutler added a video of him stalking his sable. He followed that with more photos of other animals he took on the hunt, with the caption, “Another great day.”
Of course, regulated, legal hunting generates revenue for habitat conservation and anti-poaching efforts, with the hunting regulations themselves scientifically based to conserve wildlife populations, not wipe them out. Hunting also provides communities with jobs and related revenues, and, as in the case of so many African hunts, needed meat for local people.
Too bad almost none of the media reports even mentioned these realities.