Seems to be an unwarranted aspersion. I mean he’s a Hall of Fame quarterback. How dumb can he be?
Yes, it’s cheap, but the whole article is moronic. Favremania is tiresome, but the theory that the Jets would be better off with Pennington at QB is pretty ludicrous. The central contention of the article - to the limited extent it has one - seems to be that this was a bad trade because it might not work. That doesn’t make sense, and I disagree with the writer’s statement that the trade is a failure if the Jets don’t reach the Super Bowl. Before Tom Brady got hurt, nobody was even sure if this trade made the Jets a playoff team. Since they had an unsettled quarterback situation to start with, it probably does make them a better team, and they gave up next to nothing in the trade anyway.
Of course it is but since Lil’ Abner is a comic character, he ain’t not gonna complain.
Pat Haden was a Rhodes scholar- would you rather have HIM at QB over Favre?
I get annoyed by Favre worship in the media,but be real. In his prime, Favre WAS one of the best ever. He was “smart” enough to go to two Super Bowls, winning one (and performing well in the other).
Most of the best quarterbacks are instinctive rather than cerebral, anyway. A LOT of champion quarterbacks sound rather dim when you see/hear them interviewed.
Anything that depends on real-world, real-time execution is instinctual rather than cerebral. Many of the smartest “cerebral” people I know can’t stand time pressure, they need time to think things through at their own pace. Do so much as stand over their shoulder and they get affected. Totally the opposite requirement of being a quarterback, which requires the ability to process many different conflicting pieces of information, to infer the missing bits, to determine a likely best course of action given that data, and then to actually execute that plan the way you imagined it (and possibly change it yet again, on the fly, while doing so), all while under time pressure. (Not to mention the pressure of not being hit by a squadron of 'roided up, shoulder-padded 300 lb. guys running at you full tilt.)
This is not just in terms of being a quarterback or a point guard or “field/floor general” type of player; this is also true in technology or engineering emergencies. Think of the scene in Apollo 13 when the astronauts in space are running out of oxygen due to a leaking valve, and a room full of NASA’s top engineers are simply told, “Our men are going to die in less than 30 minutes unless we can tell them how to make (holds up one piece) fit into this (holds up another piece) using this (dumps a box of loose crap on the table representing the material available to the astronauts).” Some of the best systems designers are the worst troubleshooters and end up being distractions rather than assets in emergency or pressure situations.
The NFL’s ultimate Li’l Abner was Terry Bradshaw, right? He only won 4 Super Bowls, while calling his own plays.
Favre is certainly as football-smart as Bradshaw (well, except for the odd throw nowhere near any identifiable receiver). What other kind of smarts does he need?
Doesn’t a QB of Favre’s caliber have to know what every offensive player is expected to do in every play he calls? Could Lil Abner do anything like that?
Never thought about this but might Favre hide his superior intellect because he wants his teammates to regard him as a “regular guy”?
Sounds like pure bigotry to me, based on nothing more than Favre’s accent.
I’ve given this speech before, but what the hey, I’ll repeat it.
I’m 47, and remember very well that, when Terry Bradshaw first came to the NFL, fans and media treated him like a dumb redneck. People were recycling old Polish jokes and turning them into Terry Bradshaw jokes. Terry was VERY sensitive about that. All through the Seventies, whenever he gave an interview, you could see that he was trying very hard to tone down his Southern accent, and to give thoughtful, articulate, serious answers to all questions.
After winning four Super Bowls, of course, you start to realize that you don’t need to prove yourself to anyone any more. You can be yourself, or even put on a goofy schtick if you like.
As I recall, for his first year or two as a color commentator, he tried to be serious. After that, he apparently decided that it would be more fun to do a Dandy Don Meredith imitation, and play the Southern hick.
My hunch is, the goofy hick is a persona he adopts for show biz purposes, NOT his true nature.
In fairness, just saying the play “name” out loud tells all the players what to do. In the NFL, most plays don’t have names, but instead are called as a series of instructions.
He can be a rotten sonofabitch, too (although I liked him when he was the QB for the Steelers).
Anyone else remember when on his pre-game show, when he went on a long rant on why a particulsr QB was absolutely right in some game situation and Collinsworth asked a question that totally demolished Bradhsaw’s argument, he (B-shaw) gave a shitty response and Collinsworth said something like “Well, I’m not chopped liver,” B-shaw responded with a curled lip, “You are chopped liver.” Shortly after that, Collinsworth was gone.
By the way, B-shaw is bipolar - by his own admission. Cite? Can’t, gotta go to eye doctor.
Oh, spare me, spare me. :dubious:
OK, what objective evidence do you or the writer have that Favre is stupid?
And why did the writer choose the Li’l Abner comparison, do you suppose?
[quote=“spoke-, post:13, topic:463540”]
OK, what objective evidence do you or the writer have that Favre is stupid?
I don’t, and apparently, you missed what I said in a previous post, to wit:
Doesn’t a QB of Favre’s caliber have to know what every offensive player is expected to do in every play he calls? Could Lil Abner do anything like that?
Never thought about this but might Favre hide his superior intellect because he wants his teammates to regard him as a “regular guy”?
In other words, I think Favre is pretty fucking intelligent.
OK, if you agree that Favre is intelligent, then how is the linked article not simple bigotry?
And why was the Li’l Abner comparison made, if not to play on an existing stereotype?
Bigotry is putting it a bit strongly, isn’t it? It’s urban snobbery, and I think it’s what you’d expect from the Village Voice.
Sixteen posts in, and no one has suggested that it’s a cheap shot at Li’l Abner’s intellect? OK, I’ll volunteer.
The article is playing to a common stereotype.
Call it the Beverly Hillbillies Effect. People hear a Southern accent and they make (frequently false) assumptions about the speaker’s intellect. The Li’l Abner comparison puts a pretty fine point on it, don’t you think? (Imagine comparing a black athlete to, say, Stepin Fetchit. How would that play?)
And yeah, I think Terry Bradshaw got the same treatment a generation ago.
I’m not going to get all het up about displays of this sort of bigotry, but I recognize it when I see it.
Anyhow, it turns out the author is a Birmingham native (now ensconced in New York) so maybe he’s not so much bigoted as pathetically obsequious toward his New York readers. New York’s “House Hillbilly” as it were.
Well, to be fair to Bradshaw, Collinsworth is a douche.
Psst. Look at Post #3 again.