ENGLEWOOD • Jay Cutler left the Denver Broncos headquarters Monday with three boxes and a bag of prepared meals. He had a backpack and what looked like a drink container.

The little black bag wasn’t visible. Still, it was there. Somewhere. It’s going to be there for the rest of Cutler’s life. It’ll be at practice. It’ll be on the sideline during games. It’ll be with him at dinner and on every plane he boards.

Cutler was diagnosed April 16 with Type I diabetes.

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, “Type 1 diabetes develops when the body’s immune system destroys pancreatic beta cells, the only cells in the body that make the hormone insulin that regulates blood glucose.”

Cutler’s life and the lives of those close to him changed immediately. That black bag is essential to his survival. It contains what he needs to monitor his insulin-to-carbohydrate level.

Cutler joins numerous professional athletes and an estimated 20 million Americans with diabetes. The NIDDK says between 5-10 percent of diabetes cases are Type I diabetes.

“If you get control of it, you don’t really have a lot of problems,” Cutler said. “But if I let my levels go up and down a lot, there’s some long-term risks associated with diabetes. That’s the most important part.

“Right now I can probably regulate it pretty good but hopefully in the future, I can get tighter control so I can avoid some of the long-term problems.”

Those problems could include brain damage, seizures, comas, becoming mentally disoriented and even death.

The disease, as long as it’s managed, should only be minimally invasive to Cutler, the professional football player.

I’m sure there will be a time or two this season when Cutler hits the sideline, takes a lancet to a fingertip and gets a blood drop on a strip of paper. And I’m sure there will be some pocket-sized device ready to tell him if he needs insulin or some fast-acting carbohydrates.

“I don’t think anybody really knows what it is until it happens to somebody close to them,” coach Mike Shanahan said. “Then you start studying exactly what the effects are, exactly what the disease is.

“I’ve learned a lot about it. And he’s taken this disease head on. And knowing Jay and his discipline, he’ll whip it. He’s feeling better already.”

With all due respect, there’s no whippin’ diabetes. There’s managing it and there’s not letting it whip you. Right now, managing it as effectively as they can is the best for which Cutler and the Broncos can hope.

Don’t twist that last statement. Management isn’t a bad thing.

Former Colorado College hockey standout Toby Petersen now with the Dallas Stars, was diagnosed with Type I diabetes when he was 5. LPGA golfer Kelli Kuehne plays with an insulin pump. Former football players Wade Wilson, Mike Sinclair and Art Shell all played well with the disease.

The disease is certainly life-changing.

But Cutler isn’t the first athlete with it. He won’t be the last. But like many others, Cutler should be able to play a long time with it — and with every play he makes and every play he doesn’t, as long he’s in the spotlight, he’ll have the opportunity to raise awareness.

With help from Limbs for Life, and later Friends of Man and the Barr Foundation Amputee Assistance fund, Casey Fitzpatrick was able to afford a prosthetic leg enabling him to return to bowling. He even hopes to compete in local and state tournaments. Photo by (KEVIN KRECK, THE GAZETTE)