The guy should have never come back. Favre was dreadful in the first half. He spent much of this storm-delayed game as a rain-soaked mess, fumbling the ball all over the field and chasing after it the way an octogenarian shoos a pigeon in the park. Minnesota got nothing going on offense and I think Favre had like 31 yards of passing in the first half.
To his credit, he looked pretty decent in the second half connecting on TDs to Moss and two to Harvin but on that two-point try, Favre missed an open receiver in the corner and was picked off in the end zone, a critical turn of events. Reports are that at halftime, Jenn Sterger texted him saying that she would like to meet him at the hotel after the game. This may be just what he needed to get energized in that second half.
Just as Favre and the Vikings climbed back into the game and he had an opportunity with a couple minutes left to drive his team down for a game winning FG, Brett threw a bad INT for a TD effectively ending the game. This kind of sounds familiar doesn't it? Kind of like the same bad interception that cost the Packers the NFC title game three years ago, or the same bad interception that cost the Vikings the NFC title game last winter. The worst part is that after the INT, Sterger texted Brett and said she couldn't make it...OUCH!!!
Lets face it. Brett isn't the same carefree country boy in the Wrangler jeans ads. Favre no longer looks like a guy who could aw-shucks his way through just about anything. The guy has already matched his interception total from last season (seven), and his team looks headed for a 7-9 or an 8-8 season. Beyond the losing record and Favre's battered physical state, the quarterback now faces a possible suspension and, worse yet, a most humiliating end to his Ripken-esque streak of consecutive starts.
He just looks like a man from Mississippi who made a mistake. A man who should have kept the door closed on those recruiters from the north, and sat this last season out.
Please note that I borrowed much of this post from ESPN's site.
6 comments:
I said this on Robs' site...
He hasn't recovered fully from his ankle surgery. As a result, he doesn't have his legs under him yet. As a result he doesn't have proper balance or endurance. He wasn't ready to come back, but he did because he's Favre and he thought he could will his way through these games. He's probably doing better any other 41 year old dude could, but the fact remains, he wasn't ready to come back.
He's probably doing "better than any other 41 year old dude could" really isn't saying much.
So he doesn't have proper balance or endurance because he hasn't fully recovered from his ankle surgery. Couple that with the fact that he is dealing with severe enough tendinitis in his throwing elbow that he clinches it after many of his throws and the guy is not ready to be playing football.
This is exactly why he lost a lot of respect from his teammates in NY. He is trying to be this hero and courageous and everything and some people will view him that way but if you can't make the plays, you are hurting the team.
It's a long season, if he is as banged up as you think he is, wouldn't it be better to sit down and get healthy as opposed to having to play the entire season unhealthy where you can't play to the level you think you are able to play? He's an egotistical diva that just thinks about himself. The thing is he portrays himself as this warrior but he always has an out because he can blame his injuries for his poor play. That is exactly what he did in NY. This is why he has become such a divisive and polarizing person.
In fairness to the team, if you were considering coming back (even remotely), he should have stayed at the Viking camp in the offseason and received the first class therapy and treatment on the ankle while also staying close to the teammates and attending meetings so you can be as ready physically and mentally as possible. If the ankle is not responding or you don't feel like you are there mentally, he could have always walked away. Instead, it's all about Brett. Sure, the Vikings sent their three "wisemen" to go and get him but I'm sure it didn't take a whole lot for him to suit back up. He did the team a disservice if he knew he wasn't healthy but wanted to play anyway. Don't get me wrong. The Vikings are at fault too for going along with it.
As the article states, down in Mississippi, Brett Favre never should have opened the front door to his backwater estate. He never should have allowed those three not-so-wise men from the Minnesota Vikings back into his life.
Ill make a few comments here then go back into hiding for the next few days.
1. Brett Favre isn’t playing as good as he should or can. Last nights interception was gut wrenching. Favre is still better than 95% of the QB’s in the league and he still gets up after any hit, and gives the Vikings a chance to win every game, so to call him “washed up and broken” just seems like a convenient way of saying he is old, has been around for too long and its time to go or change the channel. Kind of like watching the same episode of the same show on TV back to back to back… you just get sick of it after a while and want to see something new, unless it’s your favorite TV show like watching Favre and the Vikings is for me.
2. Favre has not fully healed from his Ankle injury – good point Deepie.
3. I saw him play with some emotion for the first time this season and the offense came alive.
4. Clearly better play calling in the third and fourth quarter. I am sure it will carry over to the remaining games. Beware, The Vikings will win the next 6 games and destroy the fledgling Bears on the way. The Vikings are the better team but have been playing much tougher teams. It’ll all balance out in the end.
5. About the Jets players getting upset with him when he was playing injured: Common Football Sense - Favre did disclose the injury to the coach. It is Mangini’s job or any coaches job to make a change and disclose it in the injury report. I guess the Jets would have been better off with Kellen Clements that year( I’m being sarcastic). Come on get real the Jets were 4-12 the year prior to Favre and finished 9-7 and were at one point the second best team in the AFC. I guess that is still subpar for a LEGEND like Brett Favre.
6. Calling him Egotistical and divisive is so far off the ball, I’m starting to question if any of you really watch any news on Favre. The guy skipped retirement because he was convinced by the three man group that came to Mississippi. (Read the article you just posted). He did not come to play because he wanted to as an egotistical or divisive person would do. He did it “for the guys” just as the article posted. Again ill say that it’s the media that follows him around and portrays an image. He’s just a normal guy that wants to play ball and is getting older. All the attention he gets is solely due to the LEGEND that he has created. Another point… he did not attend training camps or team meetings this summer because HE INTENDED ON RETIRING. The article clearly says that he was convinced by the three riders from the north otherwise he would have stayed in mississippi.
7. Mark my words, the Vikings will be one of those teams that has started weak but will be a force by the end of the season. The question is will they catch steam before it’s too late and win the division. I really don’t think the Bears are legit. They will screw up. It’s going to be Vikings or Packers. Just watch.
JSR, please come back to reality. To you points:
1. You say that Favre is still better than 95% of the QBs in the league? Given that there are 32 teams, you are essentially saying that he is better than all but 1.6 QBs out there (32 multiplied by .95). I think Brady and Manning alone would dispute your claim. Also, Favre is ranked as the 30th rated QB in the league currently.
I get that you love him but don't confuse your love with how good he is.
2. Favre's ankle is not fully healed. Well, he shouldn't play if he thinks it's affecting his play to the point where he isn't able to perform to where he thinks he should perform. If it isn't that bad, then too bad. Many players are playing with some type of injury.
3. Favre's emotion can be attributed to the halftime text he got from Jenn Sterger. I'm kidding. I'm glad you got a kick out of his hopping like a school girl into Moss' arms. Good for you.
4. We'll see how the Vikings do over the coming weeks. I imagine Favre will continue to have let downs (INTs and fumbles).
5. The Jets were 8-3 at one point and seemed like a virtual lock for the playoffs but Favre and the Jets collapse at the end of the season (going 1-4) was a disaster. The collapse prompted Favre to publicly state that he had been suffering from a torn bicep. Man up and don't use excuses. If it was bothering you so much than get out of there. So what if Mangina knew it. He's a moron. Favre should have done what was best for the team and I would have taken my chance with Clemens over a guy with a torn bicep that was clearly struggling down the stretch (threw 2 TDs vs 9 INTs and never had a rating higher than 61.4 during that stretch).
6. I love it. He did it for the guys. He had surgery on the ankle back in May and the recovery time was expected to be 4-6 weeks. During the summer, he started his workouts with the high school team as he always does. It really didn't take much to get him to come back. Three guys to fly down for a day. If you were hell bent on retiring, seems like it would take more than three friends for a few hours to get me to come out of retirement. You are fooling yourself if you didn't think he was at least thinking about coming back all offseason. If you agree with that, then he owed it to "the guys" to go to camp and at the very least get the first class treatment on the ankle and sit in the meeting rooms and be around "the guys" so that they could have taken care of some of the issues prior to the season that they are instead having to deal with now in the 6th week of the season. He did not want to come to camp.
7. They have the potential to be pretty good. We'll see. I just think Favre will make his mistakes (again, he already has as many INTs now than he did all of last year) and he will hurt his team. Of course, he will put the blame on his ankle or the tendinitis or that Jenn Sterger didn't return his texts or any other reason other than his ability because he is a legend and a warrior and he is the great Brett Favre and can do whatever he wants to do.
Ok. Most of what is written in youre points is speculation and what YOU think happened or should have happened. And im sorry but taking yourself out of a game and benching yourself without the consent of the coach is not okay by any standard. Mangini should have made that call. He is the coach. Favre was respecting the Coach. Had he benched himself, I am sure you would be critisizing him for that decision. Again, a fact I will state, is that it doesnt matter what Favre does, you and most of the Favre haters will always say he should have done the opposite of what he did.
Thats perfectly fine.
One point of clarification: "Favre is still better than 95% of the QB’s in the league". I dont know of any NFL team that has only one QB on their active roster and practice squad. I was not refering to only 31 other starting QB's. Therefore my 95% was a modest percentage, its more like 97%.
No. You're right. I don't think any player should pull themselves out of a game because they don't want to play. That takes us to the whole Vince Young thing last year.
However, if you are legitimately injured and because of the injury, you are hurting your team, you need to sit. I don't know what was disclosed to Mangina but if he knew full well the extent of the injury and Favre told him that he was having difficulty playing because of it, I would say Mangina is the moron. Somehow though I feel that Favre let him know that he was good enough to play but it was clear based on the numbers, that he struggled. He should not have tried to be the hero and thought more about the team.
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