May be the REAL reason why Brett Favre came back
August 21st, 2009Anyone remember two football players named Jim Brown and Franco Harris? Yes, this was years ago, but if you’ve followed football for awhile, Jim Brown used to have the rushing title and some fans thought it will never be broken.
Well, Franco Harris comes along and gets really close. Jim Brown goes in front of the TV camera and announces that if Harris breaks his record, Brown will make a comeback, despite being in his 40s (which pretty much never happens as a Running Back).
A bit more recently, there was Dan Marino, one of the greatest NFL players never to wear a Super Bowl ring (in the Super Bowl era). Marino had almost every record in the books - most TDs, most Yards, most Attempts, most Completions. That is, until Brett Favre came along and broke all of them.
Before Favre broke them, Marino joked to the TV camera to at least let him keep one record as you (Brett Favre) at least have a Super Bowl ring. The thing is, was he really joking? I didn’t think so either.
Sports players generally like their records. With the exception of Wallie Payton who had the rushing title at one point, but he cared more about his team winning the big one. That was the type of person Wallie was though, a man who while dying of liver disease got a possible transplant and rejected it because he felt he only got the liver because he was a famous and loved celebrity. He died shortly after that.
Brett Favre says he doesn’t care about those records. I call BS. And I’ll tell you the four records he cares about most - longest starting streak for a QB, which he’ll probably die having, most TDs, most Yards, and most Wins.
Let’s now look at reality. There’s this guy named Peyton Manning who throws the football pretty dang well. Unlike Favre, Manning had the luxury of playing for the same team his entire career, playing in back of a solid Offensive Line his entire career, and up until recently, having a Hall of Famer (possibly the best possession Wide Receiver to EVER play the game) as his primary receiver.
So Manning has numbers. Big ones. In fact, numbers so big that they threaten Favre’s records.
So Favre had to come back. The longer he plays, the more he pads those magical numbers. Manning has 117 wins. Favre has 169. One more year and Manning collapses before eclipsing that record.
Favre threw 464 TDs. Manning 333. The thing is, Manning throws a lot of TDs every year and at this rate, Manning would break that record in five years. One more year, Manning may break his back first.
Favre threw for 65127 yards. Manning 45628. Keep in mind Manning is seven years younger than Favre. Favre may have to play two more years to keep this one out of reach.
As for consecutive starts, nobody will break that one in Favre’s lifetime. That’s one of four.
Two more years, and nobody breaks the other three.
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I knew all along Favre was coming back to the Vikings. I said it in early July, and put my money where my mouth is. I put money on both the Packers and the Vikings to win the Super Bowl. The Packers because they’re my favorite team, the Vikings because they’ve completed the puzzle. Even when Favre said he was not going to come out of retirement, I knew he was. Those records are in the back of his mind, and he’s not getting any younger. I had no doubt my money was safe.
No, Brett Favre is no longer an elite QB. However, he’s a HUGE upgrade over what they had. The Vikings have the best player in the NFL today with Adrian Peterson, plus a dominant Defensive Line. Opposing teams simply load the box against the Vikings and do everything they can to stop Adrian Peterson because they know the Vikings’ QBs are jokes. Now that Favre is on the team, they stick 8 men in the box and Favre will burn them, especially with Berrian who’s a speedster.
Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BrettFavre.jpg
I know you’re talking about career numbers, but there’s still one single season record Marino has: 5,084 yards.
With Marvin Harrison gone, Manning still has Reggie Wayne as his #1. It’ll be interesting to see how long Manning plays.
Now that you mentioned Favre padding his numbers, I’m kinda glad Emmitt Smith played those two extra years to get over 18,000 rushing yards. LaDainian Tomlinson looked like he was on his way, but now he’s slowing down at 30.
Well, remember when we thought Marino’s 48 TDs in a season was safe? Wasn’t Drew Brees on pace to break Marino’s 5084 last year, but he had a bad 16th game so didn’t break it?
Yeah, Wayne is a perennial Pro Bowler. Manning has had it much easier than Favre. Not taking anything away from Manning, just being realistic. So Favre better keep playing.
As for Smith, LT is done. He’s got 3 to 4 years tops, but only one or two of them will be any good. Once an RB starts to decline, it’s over. Smith declined very late in his career. LT won’t put up anywhere close to Smith’s numbers, and I’ll offer anyone 2 to 1 odds on that if they’re willing to bet me right now. I hope I’d get takers.
Smith was right to play as long as he could. With today’s technologies, AP may threaten Smith. Knees can be repaired. It’s ankles you worry about now.
interesting ZS, I say he just wants to stick it to the pack.
He does hate Ted Thompson. But as much as he hates Ted Thompson, I think the records are more important than him. Like it or not, Minnesota is one of the only teams that has a good Offensive Line and he’ll be facing 8 in the box. Imagine being any QB and facing 8 men in the box all day long.
If Favre stays healthy, don’t be surprised to see him throw 25+ TDs.
I don’t give a shit where or why Favre plays!
I’m pissed off that if the Vikings can afford to pay him $25 million, they can build their own damned stadium! Our idiot governor is cutting back on all levels of infrastructure and still pushing for a publicly funded Vikings stadium.
Yeah, taxpayers end up getting stuck for everything.
I was in Seattle when we voted down a new stadium. The city built it anyways. Then billed the taxpayers, yet some corporation paid 15% of it and they got to stamp their name on it. Absurd.
A little birdie (who correctly predicted that Favre was going to start at QB by the beginning of the year, AFTER he announed he wouldn’t come here 3 weeks ago) that a deal is being made by people out in Shakopee and someone, his own little nation he said, is going to help with the financing. If we get to/win the super bowl you can bet that the legislature will take it up.
Wallie? Did I ever tell you that I’ve met Walter Payton? I even got his autograph on my racing shirt (only race car drivers were allowed to sign it, so even if I had ever seen Joe Montana at a CART race, he wouldn’t have been allowed to sign it). I cried when he died - one day after Greg Moore. It was a horrifically sad year in Champ Car.
I believe that Mike Illitch paid for the new Tiger Stadium…it wasn’t supposed to get a corporate name, but it was the same year that Fedorov sat out as a restricted free agent. He got an offer, but the deal in the NHL was that the Wings got the right of signing him to the same deal. It was for a palty $2 million per year with a shitload of incentives (which the offering team would never had had to pay in a million years related to winning the Stanley Cup), but ended up costing the Illitches $26 million as the Wings did win the SC that year, so in the end they took the corporate money from Comerica.
Ben - That ought to be interesting. First things first though, you still have to win games. Favre is such a wild card. In the mid-90s, he had the best consecutive three years ever by a QB. The problem is it got to his head and with no Mike Holmgren telling him to chill out, he started to get erratic.
My fear with Favre is that Childress won’t put the reins on him. I’d hate to see Favre have another 20+ INT season, which he’s capable of when the coach doesn’t tell him to chill out. He simply gambles too much, and with the best player in the NFL in All Day, all he really has to do is complete passes, which would keep you guys on the field all day long.
Kathleen - You met Payton? Wow. He’s my favorite non-Packer ever. I too was very upset when he died.
Montana may have been the best QB ever, but Payton was the man the NFL wishes they had more of. He was a Saint.
And I know nothing about hockey, but wow. That’s good they won the SC, but bad they had to take the corporate money because of it.
Walter Payton was a good man. A friend of mine ran into him in an elevator in Chicago a couple of times and said he was always the epitome of class.