I am a little surprised he retired now. I figured the team is set up quite well for at least one more season and I thought he’d want to make one more playoff run.
Yes. Favre is a choke artist. He had a history of throwing game killing picks in big games. The fact that my team sucks does not mean that Favre was not a choke artist, nor does it mean that I have no right to call him on it.
Why do you think it’s ridiculous that a team with the best RB in the league and a very good defense might be able win a lousy division? Is it really that much of a stretch? Who the hell else is going to win that miserable division? The Bears? The Lions? The Packers? At least the Vikings have SOME life. Maybe as a Steelers fan, you don’t follow the NFC that closely but the NFC North is terrible. With Favre gone, the Vikings are going to be the favorite to win the division. Tell me why that’s delusional.
Hmmm… Does not compute.
You can’t say that the Vikings have any better chance of winning the division without saying that Favre is a great quarterback.
If Favre really sucked so much, the Packers should be better off without him, right? SuperBowl here we come!
Because they get passed on like the fat kid in dodgeball and they don’t have a quarterback?
What team in the NFC North does have a quarterback now? It’s not like I’m picking the Purple to win the Superbowl, just to beat the Packers without Favre, the Bears with no offense at all and the Lions with no anything.
The team with the superstar running back and a good defense (Vikes have been number one in the NFL against the run the last two years) has to be the best bet to win that division. If you disagree, then tell me who elese is going to win it. Tavaris Jackson might not be much, but neither is Grossman or Orton or Kitna or Rodgers and none of those teams have a horse like Peterson.
Favre was a great quarterback. I’m not denying that. He also had a propensity to choke in big games.
The Kool-Aid must be good there. The Vikings have a good offensive line, a very good running back, bad receivers (I was never very high on Berrian in the first place) and a respectable tight end (is Kleinsasser even alive anymore?) On defense, their line is very good, their linebackers are average (EJ Henderson is very good, but the others are iffy), the corners are average, and the safeties are very good. Their run defense has been amazing, but their pass defense has been wretched, which is perplexing considering that their safeties are among the best in the league.
The Packers still win the division with the Bears in second, the Vikings in third and the Lions in last. The only disclaimer to this order is that it’s contingent on everyone being healthy. A key injury kills any one of the teams. No Rodgers, no playoffs. No Urlacher, no playoffs. No Peterson, no playoffs. No Millen…um…well…scratch that. No Kitna, no playoffs.
What on Earth makes you think that Rodgers or Grossman are going to be able to win any games?
Does this domino effect mean John Madden will quit too?
Steven Jackson was traded to the Vikings?
If he does, Frank Callendo has lost half his repetoire. As it is, I’m not sure how he’ll do a Madden impression without going for the easy laughs with the Madden-Favre man-crush.
The NFC North is very far from being a bad division. They were one of only three divisions with a winning record last year, behind the AFC South and NFC East.
Won’t someone think of the television announcers? They have a whole fridge full of Farve semen that is sure to spoil now!
Unlike some here, I didn’t always hate Brett Favre.
Even now, in my saner moments, I acknowledge readily that
- He deserved his 3 MVP awards
- He deserves to be a first ballot Hall of Famer
- For most of his career, I’d have loved to have him playing for my Giants.
So, why did I start hating him? NOT because of anything he did, really. I just got sick to death of the ass-kissing and pandering he inspired in commentators.
Prior to this season, Favre had been a mediocre quarterback at best for 4 or 5 years. He’d hit a rut in which he was equally capable of throwing for 350 yards and 4 touchdowns or throwing 5 interceptions. That doesn’t make him evil, of course- every athlete goes through that kind of decline eventually.
But did any commentator ever see fit to say, “Boy, that was an ugly pick Brett just threw- and that’s the kind of pass he would have COMPLETED a few years back”? Did any commentator say, “It’s sad to see how a great champions skills have diminished”? Or “Brett doesn’t have the arm he once had, so he needs to play smarter”?
Nope. Commentators praised his every move. When he looked good, we heard that “Brett still has it.” and when he looked lousy, we heard, “Boy, he sure is having fun out there.”
In fairness, Brett Favre never said these things. For all I know, he may have scoffed at such silliness himself. But it drove me up the wall, enough to make me WISH Favre would screw up royally even more often, just so the media would have to acknowledge the obvious: that he was NOT an elite quarterback any more, and hadn’t been for some time.
They don’t have to win games, they just have to not loose them.
I think Rogers is a more cerebral, less emotional QB than Favre and may make smarter throws. More consistent and more conservative, hopefully.
You’re making that assessment based on seeing him play literally one half of a regular season game in his entire career. I don’t think I’m ready to say he can read defenses and make decisions better than Favre just yet.
Favre’s problem was never that he wasn’t smart – he was plenty smart. He could read defenses instantly and hit the hot receiver 19 times out of 20. His problem was that the 20th time, he’d get bored and try to force something into triple coverage 40 yards down the field. Favre always knew what he was supposed to do, he just had a tendency to be reckless, impatient and overconfident and try to squeeze passes into spots that he knew weren’t really there but thought he could muscle them in there by the sheer strengh of his arm any way. A lot of times he was right. That’s when he looked at his most brilliant. Other times it burned him, and a lot of those times came in crucial moments of big games, but it was never a result of Favre making a wrong read. He just thought he could beat the read sometimes and he wasn’t always wrong.
Rodgers has a long way to go before he can read defenses the way Favre could (there’s maybe three or four QB’s in the NFL who can).He looked good in one game because no one’s ever bothered to study him or plan for him. That’s going to change now. He’s going to get blitzed, he’s going to get suckered into making the wrong throws, he’s going to get the treatment that every 1st year starter gets. He seems to have potential and maybe in a couple of years he’ll be seasoned enough to be a quality starter, but this year is going to be rough.
Brewha agreeing with everything the self proclaimed Packer-hating Viking fan is saying…
Brain melting…
Cats and Dogs living together…
Lambs laying down with the Lions…
Universe collapsing…
Holy crap, DtC, where did that come from? Even as a Packer fan, I have to say it was well rationalized and coherent.
Eh – a lot of what I say about the Packers is just smack talk. Truth be told, I’ve never had anything against Favre and anyone who is a football fan has to give him his props.
I just watched his press conference and I admit to getting a little misty. I thought it was telling when he said that “Bret Favre got hard to live up to.” He was talking about being behind in games and having teammmates come up to him and tell him it was all up to him, it was time for him to pull out another one and just how wearing it became to have to be that guy all the time – to aways have to dig it out one more time – to always have to live up that expectation.
It almost made me feel bad for calling him a choker. Even though I say that towind up Packer fans, he never really choked in the sense that he ever became paralyzed by pressure. He just tried to over-achieve all the time. he got impatient. He wanted to throw for the endzone on every play. He could look as undisciplined as the rawest rookie but if I’m honest, I never once thought he looked afraid on the field.
He was tough as nails too – to my eternal chagrin.
Mark Chmura has been doing lots of radio interviews to talk about Favre. Very nice.