On Sunday, for those of you not in the USA, Brett Favre played at quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings in their victory over the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Would it be so that this was the simple truth. A game that looked to be an easy win for the superior visitors became a bit close for comfort before the better team won.
Of course, most of the United States had one thing in mind in making this the most watched Sunday regular season game since the mid-1990s. This was akin, somewhat, to Sol Campbell returning to Spurs in Arsenal colours; if Sol Campbell had been, say, David Beckham, who had made a promise not to move to Arsenal, went off and played for Manchester City for a year, and then transferred to Arsenal. Something like that.
Except here you need to add the personality. Brett Favre was a Green Bay icon. He won the Superbowl with them in the 1990s. He broke quarterback records with them throughout his career. He was the Packers for over a decade. But like all organisations in American sport, you need to plan for the future, and the way Green Bay wanted to go was to get a quarterback in through a high draft pick, let him learn from Favre for a couple of years, then take over. Especially as Favre had given off plenty of vibes, and quotes to the likes of Peter King on CNNSi, that he wanted to retire. In 2005 the Packers drafted with their first round pick Aaron Rodgers. He knew he’d have to bide his time in taking over from a legend….
Rodgers shadowed Favre in the 2005/6 season, a disappointing one for the Packers in which they finished 4-12. The following year Rodgers broke his foot mid-season while filling in for Favre, and missed the rest of the campaign. Rodgers probably would have expected Favre to carry on in 2007 as he was approaching a number of Dan Marino’s records. But the nonsense of Favre’s on/off retirement plans had their germination in January 2006, and it is this sorry saga that will taint Favre in many fan’s eyes…
In January 2006, Favre’s coach, Mike Sherman was fired. Favre indicated in an interview that he was undecided on a return but if he had to say right then “I’d say I’m not coming back”.
OK, everyone can get a bit emotional when your friend has got the boot, and Favre was entitled to change his tune, and did so in April. The Packers were prepared to wait but the new coach, Mike McCarthy wanted a decision reasonably early in the season as to whether Favre would be back for 2007. When the Packers season ended in December, Favre was non-committal “If today’s my last game,” he said, “I want to remember it. It’s tough. It’s tough. I’ll miss these guys, I’ll miss this game.”
As we were all to find out, this would be classic Favre obfuscation, but again this would be relatively short-lived delays as in February 2007 he committed to a return. Aaron Rodgers was just two years through a five year deal, and could now be thinking of moving on without wasting too much of his career. Green Bay knew this and although allowed Favre to stay, the lines seemed to be strained. For Green Bay it was a great move, as they recorded a 13-3 record and were a Giants field goal away from meeting the Patriots in the Superbowl. On March 4, 2008, Brett Favre announced his retirement from the NFL.
Six weeks later, the day before the NFL draft, Favre went on the David Letterman show and said he was having second thoughts, and pointedly refused to rule out a comeback. By now the Packers were in a real quandary. Do you say thanks, but no thanks, to a Green Bay legend, or do you make overtures to him to make him stay, knowing that Aaron Rodgers would be well within his rights to demand a trade. If that was the case, then the Packers may have considered drafting another QB for a couple of years down the line. It is hard enough replacing a living legend in your line-up – Miami have never replaced Dan Marino with anything resembling a league-rated QB (although Pennington was superb last season) so Green Bay were caught between a rock and a hard place.
Knowing that the Packers had decided to go with Rodgers, Favre asked for an unconditional release from Green Bay. Now the Packers had his contract, had his registration and also knew full well that one of the teams interested in him were bitter divisional rivals, the Minnesota Vikings. Green Bay were not going to allow Favre to be released then have the potential to embarrass them in the purple of the Vikings straight away. So the Packers declined. Having not been granted the release in July, Favre “unretired” in August (after much of pre-season had passed) and was traded to the Jets (who the Packers would not meet in interleague play until 2010, by which time they hoped he would have hung up his spikes). In the trade, there was a specific clause that the Jets could not trade Favre to an NFC North team without the penalty of some pretty high draft choices.
Favre started well with the Jets, and had them at 8-3 at week 12, but an embarrassing collapse in the team, and Favre’s form culminated in a home loss at Giants Stadium to the Dolphins in Week 17, with Favre abject in a game that could have seen the Jets reach the postseason. Common knowledge was that Favre was finished. There were stories of favourable treatment, elusiveness, exclusivity, which is common in the voracious New York media, but it was clear the Jets thought it was a mistake. Chad Pennington’s form for the Dolphins, after he’d been released to make way for Favre, rubbed salt in the wounds.
On February 11, 2009, Favre announced he was retiring (you keeping count) saying he was unwilling to have the necessary surgery on his bicep tendon to allow him to play again. On February 13 he told ESPN that there was no way he would ever play another NFL game. On April 28 he was granted his unconditional release from the Jets and said that “he had no intention of returning to football.” That last statement is classic Favre – it was not a No. No-one believed him. No-one thought that there was no way he would play again. We all waited. Rumours started to circle about him playing again, almost as if Favre wanted to be wanted, teasing media and fans alike while in retirement. Like Shearer did about playing for England (only he stuck to it). In June the rumours had grown so that Brad Childress, the Vikings coach, made a statement that he was not pressing for Favre to make a decision (going into the season with Tavaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels was not appealing to Vikings fans).
Five days after Childress made this statement, the first signs of a tedious turnaround became obvious. Favre was thinking about it and was interested in playing again AND importantly, he’d had the shoulder surgery. On 17 July he made a promise to the Vikings to commit or not by 30 July. On 28 July Favre announced that he would not come back, saying it was the hardest decision he’d ever had to make (bet that pleased Packer fans). This “retirement” lasted three weeks. On 18 August he announced he would play for the Vikings… The Jets did not have to forfeit anything to the Packers as they had released him into retirement, and the Packers now faced the prospect of playing the Vikings with their icon lining up against them.
They met in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago, and the Vikings won comfortably. The real meeting would be at Lambeau Field, and this took place last weekend.
After this long contextual piece (thanks to links here and here - since writing this piece, I’ve come across a more detailed one here) it now remains for me to say that I absolutely feel for the Green Bay Packers in this, and the re-deification of this obfuscating self-publicist is the most nauseating sports story of the year. If there were any justice in this world, Favre would get a proper career-ending injury, although it is uncharitable to wish for that. I’d probably settle for getting his arse handed to him in the NFC Championship game by the New Orleans Saints. Throughout this tiresome timeline his chief cheerleaderhas been Peter King on CNNSi. Even he seemed to signal he’d had enough this summer, but his volte face, as witnessed by his columns up to and after this weekends, have been, to quote Private Eye, arslikhan of the highest order.
This Sunday Fox employed a camera that was trained on Favre throughout the game, and afterwards. The stations covering the NFL decided to forego the highlights of other games, and carry live the alway tedious, why the fuck do they bother, press conference with Brett Favre. Deadspin’s take on this hit the nail firmly on the head from my perspective. You know what I think of post-match interviews. Peter King was never going to let go, and his regular column Monday Morning Quarterback was a tribute to fanboyship rather than journalism.
Take this… Favre auditioning for Geoff Capes Syndrome, King lapping it up like the faithful spaniel…
He’s relieved in many ways, as it turns out. Favre told me he pulled or strained his groin in practice on Wednesday and took it easy in practice for the rest of the week. There was never any question he’d play, he said. But about an hour before the game, during pregame warmups at Lambeau with the groin wrapped tightly, he aggravated the muscle on the field. “I told T-Jack [backup Tarvaris Jackson] and [offensive coordinator] Darrell Bevell I may not be able to do it,” he said. “I didn’t know if I’d be able to drop back very well. After I aggravated it, there was no way I was going to be able to move around in the pocket very much. We never called one bootleg the whole game. But we made it through OK.”
And now, I wondered, how was the groin four hours and a lot of lost adrenalin later?
“It’s throbbing right now,” he said.
I’ll bet that wasn’t the only thing throbbing…
King then goes into a eulogy for Favre on Sunday including these gems..
“He got emotional after the game. I was surprised to see him choke up a couple of times to Pam Oliver on the field, but that happened in part because he’d just left an embrace with longtime Packer director of security Jerry Parins, one of his favorite people. “I knew it’d probably be the last time I’d ever step foot on Lambeau Field, and it got a little emotional,” he said.
OK, now: the last time? You sure?
Nope. “I’m reluctant to say that,” Favre said. “You know me. At this stage, I’m game to game. That’s it.’”
Because we are all fucked off with him, that if he tells us his name is Brett now, we ain’t going to believe him.
“He hopes, someday, he’ll be able to go back to Green Bay and get a better reception. One of the things Favre doesn’t often show is how much he wants to be liked in Green Bay. But he does. “I hope the people who booed at least watched the way I played today — with passion, like I always do — and say, ‘That’s why we loved him. He lays it out there on every play.’”
This shows his arrogance in so many ways. Supporters are a strange bunch, we worship players to the point of deities and beyond, yet we know it is always unrequited love. They don’t really care about you. They wouldn’t play for nothing, none of them would. If there was a perceived better place to play, they’d play there. You know, there’s something I will always hold that hopes that Sir Edward of the Norfolk Coastal Town holds something dear in his heart for us loyal WindyBricks, but he doesn’t. I just can’t admit it. Those who have, now despise him with a passion. Favre doesn’t understand that – he thinks you can betray a team by worming your way out of a contract to play for your most hated rivals, and then try to put the blame on your club, and you don’t expect your reputation to be tarnished in their eyes? That’s arrogance. They’ll always respect your game, they might not be in a hurry to respect the person. People who aren’t fans will never accept that.
Peter King then proves what an arse he is with this in the Offensive Player of the Week
Really, could the day have been any more perfect? Four touchdown passes, tying him with Dan Marino for most four-TD games in an NFL career. Watching the man the Packers kept instead of him, Aaron Rodgers, come up short in the fourth quarter when Favre himself came up big. “This one will hurt for a couple of days, physically and mentally,” said Rodgers. Not for Favre. For the second straight game against his former mates, he didn’t try to do too much. Just win. And that was enough. Other players in Week 8 had better statistical days, but no one played as well with the heat turned up as high as did Favre.
This bit – Watching the man the Packers kept instead of him, Aaron Rodgers, come up short in the fourth quarter when Favre himself came up big – is disingenuous. Rodgers outplayed Favre last season (QB ratings 93.8 – 81.0) with teams of, I would say, comparable talent. Aaron Rodgers does not have the twin threat of Adrian Peterson in his Packer line-up. Brett Favre does not have to face that excellent run defense of Minnesota. Comparing the two is like apples and oranges. To try to imply that the Packers made a mistake is cheap shot journalism based on Favre’s superior team beating Rodgers’ inferior one.
It is odious. I hope the Saints take them apart when the time comes.
