Saturday, July 12, 2008

Guest Blog: Brett Favrve

With all fo the talk about the 'ol gunslinger holding up the Pack for a chance to come back and play somewhere else, or start again, I dug through my hard drive and found this piece. It was posted on the Mlive forum a while back, but unfortunately, I realized that I didn't catch the name of the poster in my copy. So if anyone knows who it was, or can find out somehow, than please post in the comments below so I can give proper credit. Thanks!!



From the Mlive Forum:





http://www.sunherald.com/sports/story/663221.html

Interesting read – one I agree with, but have never had the time to research. Yes, he’s the former QB of our division rival, but in the 90’s we got to watch future Hall of Famer’s on the field for both offenses twice a year when the Lions and Packers met.

We interrupt the continued deification of Brett Favre -- a first-ballot Hall of Famer and the most durable player in NFL history -- with the following reality check.


Yes, Favre played long enough to throw the most touchdown passes and collect the most wins by an NFL quarterback. But let's examine the second half of No. 4's career. The truth is, Favre did little over the past decade to earn the gushing praise heaped upon him by our fawning brethren in the media.


In his 17 seasons, Brett Favre set numerous NFL records, including most yards passing (61,655) and most touchdowns (442).


But do those numbers, combined with Favre's three MVP awards and one Super Bowl victory, put him among the top 10 quarterbacks of all time?


After beating the San Francisco 49ers in the 1997 NFC Championship Game, Favre won just three of his last 10 playoff games. Eli Manning had more postseason wins in a 29-day span this past season than Favre had in his last decade with the Green Bay Packers.
Yes, Favre won a Super Bowl -- 11 years ago! But as his career arc spiraled downward, the blind adulation only got worse.


Favre's passer rating in his last 12 postseason games was a pedestrian 77.8. In his last five wild-card games, he went 2-3 with more interceptions (nine) than touchdown passes (seven). In his last three divisional playoff games, he went 1-2 with seven TDs and seven interceptions. That's a 3-5 record with 14 touchdown passes and 16 picks.


In two of his last four postseason appearances, Favre threw two of the most unthinkable playoff interceptions in NFL history, both in overtime -- to Brian Dawkins of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2003 and to Corey Webster of the New York Giants in January. In fact, Favre is the only quarterback in NFL history to throw overtime interceptions in two playoff games. In his last nine playoff games, Favre threw 18 interceptions.


Brett Favre's career playoff record was 12-10. Fellow Packer star quarterback Bart Starr, above, was 9-1.In the first 81 years of the Green Bay franchise, the most hallowed in all of pro football, the Packers were 13-0 at home in the postseason. But since 2002, the Packers have gone 2-3 in playoff games at Lambeau Field, with Favre losing to three not-quite Hall of Fame quarterbacks: Michael Vick, Daunte Culpepper and Manning.


If Manning had a decade like that, he'd be run out of New York. If Philip Rivers kept chucking ridiculous overtime interceptions in the postseason, he would be branded a first-round bust. If Drew Brees came up short in three out of five home playoff games, he'd be mocked.
But no matter how many dumb passes he threw and how many playoff games he lost, Favre remains immune to criticism.


Favre isn't even the greatest quarterback in the history of the Packers. It's not even close. Bart Starr won five NFL championships -- four more than Favre -- and retired as the NFL's most accurate passer.


Oh, you say Starr was surrounded by a Hall of Fame roster with a legendary coach. But Starr still is the NFL record holder with a 104.8 career playoff passer rating, nearly 20 points higher than Favre's. That wasn't Vince Lombardi or Ray Nitschke throwing those passes for Starr, whose career postseason passer rating, by the way, is 38 points higher than Johnny Unitas'.
Favre's career playoff record was 12-10. Starr's was 9-1 -- without the benefit of wild-card games. Favre threw 28 interceptions in 22 playoff games. Starr threw three in 10. Think about that -- just three picks in 213 postseason attempts.


But Bart Starr gets the Ringo Starr treatment -- underappreciated and overlooked. Favre gets put on a pedestal. Yes, he had a Pro Bowl season in 2007 with the youngest roster in the NFL. But his final moment on Lambeau Field was a wildly errant pass that turned into the NFC title for the Giants.


Indeed, a decade after his last moments of glory, the football hype machine continues to paint Favre as a hallowed icon of Americana, a symbol of all that is right with sports, a Wild West gun-slinging good ol' boy. There's Brett on the farm! There's Brett with his family! There's Brett on the cover of Sports Illustrated! There's Brett throwing another overtime interception!


Favre was among the best in the game, once upon a time. Those days are long gone. Only the idolatry remains.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here, here. Bring on Aaron Rodgers.

-nubs

Anonymous said...

I didn't do a line-by-line comparison, but it looks like most of it was written by ESPN's Sal Paolantonio. Here's the link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=paolantonio_sal&id=3281535&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1

-SprBwlB4IDie

Anonymous said...

The thing you found on M-Live appears to be a word-for-word copy except for the following 3 additions:

"In his 17 seasons, Brett Favre set numerous NFL records, including most yards passing (61,655) and most touchdowns (442)."

"But do those numbers, combined with Favre's three MVP awards and one Super Bowl victory, put him among the top 10 quarterbacks of all time?"

"Brett Favre's career playoff record was 12-10. Fellow Packer star quarterback Bart Starr, above, was 9-1."

-SprBwlB4IDie

DetFan1979 said...

Thanks SprBwlB4IDie! I knew a lot/most of it was from an article, but missed the appropriate link and the poster when I copied it.

Glad I could get the documentation right -- thanks for the assist!

JJLions20 said...

I have to comment on this article. Favre may not have been the best ever, but he was very, very good. Think about the Lions if you had inserted Favre in the same Lions backfield as Barry Sanders, and with those WR's the Lions had in the 90's.

Anonymous said...

detfan,

I went back to Google, and I think I found your the M-Liver you wished to credit in a forum post by jselt53 (7/2/08 18:05 ET). There are some differences in the added chunks of text, but they were probably just evidence of the original poster editing his work and re-posting.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:L1ZB2xEeg7cJ:www.mlive.com/forums/lions/index.ssf%3Fartid%3D3158775+%22Only+the+idolatry+remains%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us

-SprBwlB4IDie

CHIEFGER139 said...

i think a lot of those seasons farve played hurt with a broken thumb or whatever,that brought him down, plus he had to go through rebuilding years because his teams got old and the salary cap etc.-the pack is a fan owned team and they dont have the money a jerry jones has etc. plus being a outdoor team in the far north,when they were bad no one wanted to play for the pack too bad. i think if coaches would of been man enough to sit him out when he was hurt his qb ratings would be much higher-but thats how he got the most yards etc. actually you have to give him credit-he basically took a team like the lions-bottom of the pack and made them great just because he was there-kind of like what ditka did with the bears and later lovie smith-the good players take pay cuts to be with a winner or a warm climate team-farve was good enough to take a much worst team than detroit was at the time and make them into winners for years and years. thats why they think of him so high-personnely i cant stand him-he beat us when we were at our best!! but i respect him 100%

CHIEFGER139 said...

ok i signed in to your ffb-got my name straight in my logo-what should i be doing now??? making a draft list and guys i want and if so can i do that on the computer or do i need to make a paper list come draft day?? and what if i cant make your live draft-figure ill do my best to if can but what then hapens?? and like it says my computer goes down or maybe i need to make sure i have the java-if so whats the down load link for that or anything else i need?? im sorry maybe i shouldnt of even got into your league but glad i did-im sure you will help me and ill get beter by learning-maybe if i learn enough ill get in your pay leagues next year. sounds like alot of guys on m-live love this ffb-i probably will too-thanks for your help-and do be imbarrassed to dump me-i understand-you probably all are pro's at this-but maybe there was a day your as blind as i am-read the rules now and see kinda of how it works
signed the not so wize chief-hey but love my logo!!

DetFan1979 said...

I respect Brett Favre, but his special qualities were his overwhleming personality/precense and his toughness -- not his athletic skills, which were pretty much average for a QB. So while his stats are average, he still managed to make his whole team better. I actually put Kitna in this category. He has never started on any really good teams -- they were all in teh process of building/rebuilding -- and drafted a young stud to replace him when they got close to contending because while Kitna is tough and a leader, he's not quite as talented as Favre -- although they share a lot of the same tendancies. I still think if you put Kitna on, say, even the 2006 Bears -- they win the Superbowl. He won't screw up the game, he will inspire the team to keep fighting, but he isn't a Brett Favre who will put the team on his back, and go out slinging the team to victory. But he does a damn good imitation (see: 1st Minnesota Game last year.) at times.