A Tarnished Legacy

Brett Favre. The ‘Ol Gunslinger, The Silver Fox, NFL’s Iron Man, statistically the greatest QB of all time. John Madden’s man crush, ESPN’s top 5 favorite athletes. Wrangler Man. Media Whore. Drama Queen, Liar, Cheater, Fraud.

Brett Favre is many things. Many great, many not so great. He is the definition of longevity, lasting an amazing 20 years in the NFL and setting the all-time consecutive games played streak. Favre is a Super Bowl winning QB and 3 time NFL MVP. He’s based much of his popularity on his “Aww Shucks” country boy persona, his boyish charm, and his family man values.

While many have grown tired of his antics, including his long-time team, the Green Bay Packers, there is unfortunately no denying that he is a true first ballot Hall of Famer. Years ago, he broke all of Dan Marino‘s records in all major passing categories and last year he seemed to find the fountain of youth in having perhaps the best single season in his storied career.

But for the last, oh I don’t know, 5 or 10 years, he has carried out his annual disingenuous, “retirement contemplation”. He will lead you to believe, that he’s just a simple country boy who loves the game but isn’t sure his body can hold up.

While anyone with half a brain can see that he leads the media around like the pied piper. ESPN, the largest and however, least credible sports news source, has happily obliged for all these years.

Every year from the time Brett throws his annual playoff interception to knock his team out of their Super Bowl run, to the time he finally decides to report to his team, ESPN force feeds the “FAVRE WATCH” down all our throats. ESPN has its “analysts” play dumb and actually act like they believe that he will really retire….. “THIS TIME ITS FOR REAL” so as to build up the drama and boost ratings and stroke Lord Favre’s ego.

After all, what is ESPN if not a pre-money shot FLUFFER for its favorite athletes?

Favre, his hillbilly agent, and ESPN, will try to brainwash the masses into believing that Favre is an innocent victim in all this attention. I mean, c’mon! All he wants to do is sit around on his ranch in his wrangles, drive his truck, and hunt ‘Dillas in peace. He doesn’t want Ed Werder flying down in a chopper to Hattiesburg every time he throws the ball around with a bunch of high school kids or has a consultation with Dr. James Andrews.

I could literally write for days about all the many examples of why Favre and his mouthpieces are full of shit, but I don’t have the time, interest, and I don’t want to bore anyone more than I already plan on doing! So let’s just take a look at the events of the past year or so.

Perhaps the only thing more reliable than the ‘Old Faithful geyser (maybe that should be his new nickname), Favre was right on schedule throwing his season ending interception last year helping the Saints earn their trip to the Super Bowl.

In fairness, Favre was beat around in the NFC Championship game, but almost immediately, his ESPN apologists started making excuses and laying the groundwork for another 6-8 months of Favre Watch 2010.

Favre happily complied as he limped around (but seemed to jump around like a 22 year old rookie when he made a rare good play) and started his typical verbiage about loving the game and not knowing if he can hold up, but he’ll make a decision VERY quickly to help the team out. Sure Brett….

After the Packers finally got fed up with Favre’s annual antics and showed him the door, he went on to pull the same BS with the Jets and to an even greater extent with the Vikings (thanks to Chilly’s enabling).

Favre made no secret of the fact that he wanted to play for the former rival Vikings when the Packers turned the page on the aging QB so he would have an opportunity to exact revenge on his former team.

Chilly made no secret that he wanted Favre, but as we would see, they wouldn’t be joined right away. Favre teased the Vikings and the nation about his potential signing with the Vikings after a second straight retirement/un-retirement, but as always, nothing was decisive. He whined repeatedly about his torn bicep and age and uncertainty about whether or not he could still play.

Intermixed in between ridiculously irrelevant ESPN reports of Favre playing catch with high school kids, was Favre’s whining about not wanting to have to stay in the Vikings dorm rooms for training camp.

C’mon Brett…. you’re 40! You’re a man! (Mike Gundy voice). You’re too much of a p@#*y to spend a couple weeks away from home and have a roommate? Well, predictably, Favre reported to the Vikings as soon as training camp was over.

Some “team guy” huh? Aren’t true team guys and true leaders the first into the building and the last to leave? Could you see Peyton Manning skipping a single OTA? Let alone all of training camp? The worst part of last year and this year even, isn’t that Favre skipped camp.

It’s that he actually thinks that we’re that stupid so as to believe that he really didn’t decide until the last minute. He thinks just because ESPN gave him a pass that we didn’t notice that he delayed his ankle surgery with the clear intent to delay his rehab to coincide with the END of training camp.

If he had actually just come out and said “I’m 40, I’m old and tired and beat up and I need the longest possible off-season to get mentally and physically ready so I’m gonna skip camp and come ready to play for week 1″, I for one would have infinitely more respect for him. But no, he thinks he’s smarter than everyone and he thinks that he can get away with anything he wants with no recourse.

Unfortunately he basically has for his whole career. While statistically the greatest QB of all time, he also leads the league in dumbest and most selfish plays. I remember just as many, if not more, dumbass forced interceptions as I do great plays and record-breaking performances.

This guy has absolutely KILLED his team in so many big spots its amazing. He might honestly be the most UN-CLUTCH Hall of Fame QB of all time.

Year after year he throws ridiculous interceptions in the biggest moments and throws away his team’s hard work on just a handful of stupid decisions that he does only to try to selfishly increase his legacy and caring nothing about the consequences.

Besides, it doesn’t matter what he does…. he’s Brett Favre. John Madden, ESPN, and the general public will love him no matter what he does on or off the field. Last year he actually made me second guess my thinking on him. Well, ignoring the whole “I’m gonna skip camp and make you think that I really haven’t decided and gawsh I just wish the dat gum media would leave me alone” stuff… During the season, he was incredible.

The smart strategy would have been to ride Adrian Peterson and use Favre sparingly to punish defenses for stacking up the box. But for whatever reason, Peterson was largely ineffective and Brett was called on to be much more than just a game manager. He made less dumb decisions and had incredible stats all while taking his young WR’s (Rice & Harvin) to a new level.

Favre and Rice were perfect together in that Rice desperately needed a QB who wasn’t completely useless and Favre needed a big body WR who could out jump the defense and make plays to cover up his inaccuracy and dumb throws into double coverage. Sidney Rice looked like a mini-Plaxico as he instantly became Favre’s go to big play WR.

Going in to the playoffs, Favre looked incredible with 33 TD’s and 7 INT’s. Favre usually has 7 INT before he steps off the bus! As we know, they advanced deep into the playoffs partially due to Favre, but mostly in my opinion due to the defensive front 7 (Look what they did to Romo and the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs).

Facing the eventual Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints, the Vikings were horrendous. I can’t put it all on Favre as Peterson had what felt like 29 fumbles, but it does get back to the lack of clutch performances for a Hall of Fame QB. Think about it. For all the post-season appearances, for all the talented teams and all the statistics, Favre has ONE Super Bowl!

I’m not diminishing the Super Bowl as few men have ever won one, but in terms of the greatest QB’s of all time, how can you even put him in the conversation? In most instances, he was the reason his team didn’t advance. In the biggest moments, he actually came through ONCE. Far more often, he was responsible for a crippling interception or drive killing incompletion or stupid sack.

Look at his last game for the Packers, in the sub-zero game against the Giants (who won the SB that year). For the “greatest cold weather QB ever”, he was putrid. He looked like he wanted no part of being out there in the cold.

He quite honestly looked like he just wanted to go home and get warm. But despite his awful performance, his team put themselves in position to win…. Until he threw the interception to seal the win for the Giants who went on to make history against the 18-0 New England Patriots.

Even after the magical season last year, after he had been pummeled for about a quarter, he no longer looked like he wanted to be out on the field. He honestly looked like he was afraid to get hit.

The guy who once got into it with Warren Sapp and head butted him after being sacked basically asking for more contact now looked afraid to get hit. He limped around and whined trying to draw a penalty against the Saints because let’s face it, he was Brett Favre… that HAS to be a penalty. Long story short, he AGAIN threw a game ending INT and cost his team a chance at history.

When you look at the truly great QB’s, Montana, Elway, Manning, and Brady…. even when they played poorly, they were NEVER the reason their team lost a big game. I know John Elway had a horrible SB record until he got Terrell Davis, but they didn’t lose because of him. They were severely over matched.

But Favre has repeatedly been awful in clutch moments and he has been the beneficiary of ridiculous and unfair praise by the likes of ESPN. They have covered up his flaws for many years just as they are now doing with LeBron (i.e., blatantly covering up LeBron’s antics in Vegas this summer).

Just look at the game last night against the Jets…. In the first half alone, Moss had a step or two against Antonio Cromartie and was so poorly under thrown that he had to almost stop to time his jump which allowed Cromartie to catch up and deflect the pass.

Not once did the Monday Night Football crew make reference to this. But the one time he actually made a good throw and hit Moss in the end zone, they pointed out that Moss FINALLY got some separation. Then reference the Jenn Sterger fiasco where this information was made available months ago. ESPN made the decision to NOT report on it just as they tried for as long as possible to protect Ben Roethlisberger and Tiger Woods. Only when they had no choice did ESPN finally pick up on the story.

So after years and years of holding his entire team hostage and countless acts of selfish and dishonest behavior, karma may finally be sneaking up on the ‘Ol Gunslinger, on and off the field.

After intentionally delaying his ankle surgery in the off-season to time up the end of his rehab exactly with the end of training camp, Favre played the media like a fiddle yet again. Since he wasn’t getting near enough attention for his liking due to the LeBron-a-thon over the summer, he decided to send a cryptic text to a teammate saying he was done (knowing it would hit ESPN).

We all saw the disgusting display by ESPN where they basically set aside the rest of the day of programming dedicated to Favre and his newest “retirement”. Jackass “analysts” like Mark Schlereth were on ESPN saying that he really believed this was it and Favre was done for good this time.

Obviously a couple days later, after his teammates flew down to Favre’s house and brought him back to play, “Stink” was then on air asking how anyone could be surprised by Favre coming back and that he knew he’d be back all along.

In his annual un-retirement presser, Favre said how he wasn’t sure if he could do it again, but came back “for the guys”. Right Brett, it’s all about the guys and that’s why you timed your surgery and rehab to miss camp. After a couple days of practice, the Queen of all Media leaked to Peter King that he had to get a cortisone injection in his ankle already.

Literally dozens of players get injections and treatments of varying degree on a weekly if not daily basis in the NFL. Yet Favre felt the need for more attention, more pity, and more built-in excuses just in case he fell flat on his face this year. Could you imagine if ESPN reported every single treatment that players received during the season? C’mon man!

On the field Karma:

After all of this BS, football finally started up and Brett got his chance to make everyone forget about all of his selfishness. Except this year, the Vikings didn’t get to start with a cupcake schedule. They opened up with the defending Super Bowl Champion Saints and the tough Dolphins. Favre looked old, slow, confused, out of sync and downright awful.

Despite his horrific play, they actually had a chance to win both games basically due to the great running of Adrian Peterson and solid defensive play. They ended up losing and going 0-2 as we know and the great teammate that is Brett Favre, blamed a lack of timing. He essentially admitted that because he skipped all of the off-season and training camp that he had no rhythm and timing with his offense.

What he didn’t admit though was that ignoring timing, he was just flat out missing guys who were open. The World-wide Leader in Favre excuses (ESPN) would go on to blame the Sidney Rice injury and tried to ignore the fact that the rest of the team was exactly the same as last year.

They tried to say repeatedly that the Vikings WR’s just weren’t getting open and Favre had no help. Perhaps they didn’t get consistent separation, I don’t know without watching the entire film, but I did see plenty of instances where WR’s were wide open and Favre missed them horribly.

Plus, if you’re going to assign ALL of the credit of last year’s success to Favre, then one WR isn’t going to make that kind of difference a year later. If you’re blaming the bad start on the Rice injury, you’re basically saying Rice made Favre last year (which to some degree he did as he erased countless questionable throws due to poor decisions or inaccuracy).

As we know the Vikings managed to squeak out a win against Detroit and went into the bye week 1-2, perhaps positioned to salvage the season. During the bye week they made a run at disgruntled and troubled WR Vincent Jackson but were rebuffed by AJ (the dick) Smith, the Chargers GM.

In a desperate (and smart) move to try to salvage the season and Favre’s “last” year, they pulled off the trade to acquire the great Randy Moss. Even with Moss on the field, Favre struggled mightily against the Jets this past Monday night looking absolutely awful during the first half. The defense kept them in the game and Favre managed to connect on 1 of about 10 deep passes to Moss for a TD. Predictably though, Favre threw yet another pick 6 to end the Vikings chances late in the game to put them at 1-3 and in a huge hole to dig out of.

Apologists blame his bad ankle, the newest excuse of tendinitis in his throwing elbow and Favre’s anxiety about the fans reaction in NY and what signs they might have taunting him. For such a “great” QB and iron man tough guy, he sure seems to be awfully fragile.

Too afraid to spend a week with his teammates in a dorm during training camp, scared and panicked over the fans reactions and signs for god’s sake in NY, and not tough enough to play through adversity anymore.

It’s pretty funny how he jumps and runs around like a school boy for the handful of good passes throughout the game, yet limps and sulks around every time he throws a horribly inaccurate pass, fumbles a hand-off exchange, or throws another INT.

Off the field Karma:

So with all the circus surrounding the scandal with Jenn Sterger and his truly terrible performance this year, could it possibly be that karma is FINALLY catching up to this douche? If so, karma won’t be quite done with him as he continues to pull his same BS any chance he gets.

In an obvious attempt to deflect any attention and criticism that he possibly can from the Sterger issue, his latest antics this week is to HINT at missing games and ending his consecutive games played streak or retiring early due to his sore elbow. In fairness, it’s worked EVERY time in the past.

The minute he doesn’t get the attention he wants or the type of attention (negative) that he wants, he calls up Ed Werder or Mort or Adam Schefter to drop a hint about retirement or an injury or ANYTHING to get his own personal marketing network (ESPN) to do a full blown Favre watch and dominate the conversation. And just when you think there is NO way he can avoid this Sterger situation, the ‘Ol Gunslinger comes up with yet another way to cheat karmic justice.

For those who don’t know, Favre allegedly sent pictures of his “Lil Gunslinger” and racy text and voice messages to Sterger, who at the time was employed by the New York Jets. Despite this information coming out months earlier, the NFL is finally getting involved and is investigating the situation in terms of sexual harassment and/or personal conduct policy violations.

So how can Favre possibly skate from this? Sterger had previously admitted that this incident(s) actually took place, the NFL is conducting a full investigation and if there is ANY evidence that this took place, Goodell will have no choice but to suspend him based on precedence. This would invariably tarnish Favre’s legacy, end his consecutive games played streak, and potentially set in motion a Tiger Woods like parade of mistresses.

However…. the NFL is on record in saying that if Sterger doesn’t cooperate with the investigation and confirm the events, that they will have no standing for any sort of punishment. Couple this with the fact that Sterger initially confirmed the story and then significantly backed off and is now saying (through her manager) that they don’t want a quick resolution but the correct resolution and that she will do whatever is deemed to be in her best interest.

What does this mean? It means that Lord Favre paid her to keep quiet, she won’t cooperate, the NFL will close the investigation with no consequences for Favre, and he will go on with the rest of the season mostly unharmed. If and when the investigation is over and he is not punished or concretely implicated, ESPN and the rest of the sports media will forget this ever happened like they tried to do in the first place by not reporting it.

On the field, although it’s evident that Favre is playing awful, playing scared, and is feeling sorry for himself, it won’t shock me in the least bit if the Vikings beat the Cowboys this week and go on a roll to get themselves back into playoff contention. They do have the talent to make it happen so long as Favre doesn’t lose games for them.

Moss should help immensely even though he and Favre may not be on the same page for quite some time and Moss won’t know the offense very well. But Moss is just THAT good that he can make a huge difference for the rest of the players and is good for at least one big play a game and is the type of WR Favre needs to erase his awful throws that he will surely make.

The Minnesota Vikings will probably end up making the playoffs, ESPN will have its typical love-fest about how he carried the team back even though he was injured, the Sterger thing will be forgotten, and Favre will throw yet ANOTHER season ending interception. Favre will yet again cheat karma and will never be held accountable for what he does and the fraud that he is.