I just heard Brock Huard on the local ESPN radio affiliate take another cheap-shot at my all-time favorite football player, Brett Favre. Being a loyal Favre supporter (it’s “supporters”—not “fans”—that Favre acknowledges on his website), I feel that I must “retaliate.” Brock doesn’t have much credibility to talk about Favre, given that he rarely stepped on an NFL field; his professional output—well, I won’t embarrass him by mentioning it (0-4 as a starter, one decent game that raised his career QB rating from 67 to 80), but suffice to say that sometimes having no statistics is better than having them, which puts his partner, Salk, on more-or-less equal footing. Anyways, Brock claimed that Favre was a “bad teammate.” The only people who make that claim are not the players who actually played with him, but commentators who are making judgments on whether or not he showed-up at mini-camps. It was only late in his career that he started to “waffle,” and his teammates knew why: After 200+ consecutive starts, they respected the fact that he played with injuries he rarely made an issue of (like Ben Roethlisberger does), and there was a wink and a nod from players who knew he gave them credibility, national exposure and a chance at the playoffs every year if he had time to heal. And it wasn’t because he was a “bad” teammate that several veteran players defied management and openly supported his return to Green Bay in 2008; it was management that nagged him into retirement, then tried to keep him retired, had the temerity to tell him he had to “compete” for the starting job after coming off one of his best seasons, before deliberately trading him to an ill-fitting suit.
And it wasn’t because Favre was a “bad” teammate that three Vikings went to Mississippi to convince him to come back after taking as brutal a beating as any quarterback has ever endured in the NFC title game the previous January. Even in New York, nobody accused Favre as being a “bad” teammate; on the contrary, his Jets teammates commented on how he “lightened-up” the atmosphere when he arrived. Jets coach Eric Mangini, who some might expect to say that Favre was “bad” teammate given that he lost his job after the season was over, never said that; in fact he chided know-it-all Steven A. Smith for calling Favre a “selfish” player. There is perhaps one caveat I might add: There is one player who Favre was a teammate of who has spoken about him in the negative tense—Aaron Rodgers, most publicly on the David Letterman show after the Super Bowl. Talk about not respecting your elders—if not your betters; Rodgers still has a long, long way to go before he proves definitely that he is not another Mark Brunell, who for a time with Jacksonville seemed like an “elite” quarterback (as “defined” at that time), but is now backing-up Mark Sanchez. I’m not saying that Rodgers will end-up like that, but I’m being goaded into it.
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People in Seattle are currently talking about whether they have the gonads to sign a player like Prince Fielder on the baseball side (they don’t) or acquiring that franchise quarterback on the football side. They had their best chance to do so in 1991; instead they drafted Mark McGwire’s brother instead of the other guy that coach Chuck Knox desperately wanted. The draft is always a crap-shoot, and they’ll likely pass on free agent Matt Flynn, so they might end-up settling for another “game manager.” If they do so, the Seahawks—unless they have that bone-crushing defense—will have to insure that they have the playmakers around him. Take, for example, the quarterback who is the quintessential definition of “game manager,” Troy Aikman. Based on career statistics alone, Aikman has no business being in the Hall of Fame. On paper, his output was strictly pedestrian; in 12 seasons, he averaged about 2,750 yards passing, 14 TDs and 12 INTs a year. His won/loss record as a starter was 94-71 (compared to Favre’s 186-112). What set him apart were three Super Bowl victories. How did he do it—or more precisely, who were the playmakers who helped him achieve this? Let’s take a look at some statistics from the Dallas Cowboys’ 1992-1995 seasons:
1992
Total offense: 5606 yards
Net passing yards: 3485
Michael Irvin, receiving yards: 1396
Emmitt Smith, rushing and receiving yards: 2048
1993
Total offense: 5615 yards
Net passing yards: 3454
Michael Irvin, receiving yards: 1330
Emmitt Smith, rushing and receiving yards: 1900
1994
Total offense: 5321 yards
Net passing yards: 3368
Michael Irvin, receiving yards: 1241
Emmitt Smith, rushing and receiving yards: 1825
1995
Total offense: 5824 yards
Net passing yards: 3623
Michael Irvin, receiving yards: 1603
Emmitt Smith, rushing and receiving yards: 2148
Notice a pattern here? Irvin and Smith alone accounted for 60 percent of the Cowboy’s offense; all Aikman was expected to do was to get the ball into their hands. That is what a “game manager” does for you. You can win Super Bowls with a “game manager” as long as you have the playmakers around him; if you don’t, then you need an “elite” quarterback. The Indianapolis Colts are having a season that painfully proves that point.
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I have no ill will toward Drew Brees, who broke Dan Marino’s single season passing yards record; records are there to be broken. It’s simply incomprehensible that Norm Van Brocklin’s 1951 record of 554 yards passing in a single game still stands (a few nuggets from that game: The Rams beat the New York Yanks 54-14, outgaining them 722-111. Van Brocklin threw to two Hall of Fame receivers, Elroy Hirsch and Tom Fears, and a guy named “Vitamin” Smith). Still, I found his post-game speech a little disingenuous, thanking everyone and the people who cleaned the toilets (I think it would be funny if Salk embarrassed Brock by asking him what players do when they must answer nature’s call real bad when they are supposed to be on the field). I’ve accused Peyton Manning as being stat-happy, always with that dour look when he was taken out of games late, especially the year he was chasing Marino’s single season touchdown record; Tom Brady might have the same “instincts.” But Brees takes the cake. I’ve never seen a guy for whom statistics defined who he was. It obviously meant the universe to him and his self-image to break the single-season record: “My name is the record books” before qualifying it as a “team” effort. Next week’s agenda: Recapture the single season pass completion record that Manning rudely stole from him last year. The Saints are still battling the 49ers for a first round playoff by, so Brees will be expected to take care of that unfinished business rather handily.
One small worry: Tom Brady is still “only” 190 yards behind Brees, and the Patriots still have to beat Buffalo to clinch home field advantage throughout the playoffs; another 300-yard game might not be enough if Brady decides to light it up like he did in the season opener against Miami.
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I suppose I would be remiss not to mention a report from Fox Sports Wisconsin, concerning a particularly irate fan following the Packers upset loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last week. A 36-year-old female fan was charged with child abuse after allegedly being so mad that she choked her 11-year-old daughter following the game at the hotel her family was staying at. The daughter told police that she was choked so hard that she temporarily lost her breath. The husband also alleged that his wife "threw her dinner on the floor, broke a lamp and tried to punch him in the face" because she was so distraught over the loss. You have to hand to Rodgers and company: Favre never excited that kind insanity among the fandom.
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