First of all, I’d like to give a hearty hello and welcome to our newest writer, Michael. He’s already one-upping Andrew and I by posting three times in rapid succession, so I have a great feeling that he’ll be a wonderful contributor and will push myself to write a wee bit more. So, thank you Michael, you’re already doing wonders!

It was also Michael’s post regarding Brett Favre, and the comments that followed that sparked my desire to write a rebuttal piece regarding the Packer Legend. I don’t mean to start any fires; I just like playing devil’s advocate. It should also be noted that I grew up in Iowa and just recently moved down to Houston, Texas. Being in Iowa, there is no NFL team, but we are smack dab in the middle of Minnesota, Chicago, and Green Bay, and Detroit, so there is a huge mix of those teams’ fans in the Midwest, especially Iowa. Because of that, I have a special way of looking at fans of those other teams. With that out of the way, on to the meat of the piece.

Future Viking?

With all of the drama of Brett Favre’s “will he” or “won’t he” retirement that seemed to go on for years (I think it aged me a decade or so, and I’m not even a Packer fan), we all breathed a great sigh of relief when he finally held his press conference and proceeded to blubber his way into retirement. Finally. Brett Favre is done in the NFL. No more worries about last second comebacks against the Vikings, no more (or at least, not as many) Favre jerseys everywhere, and no more magical Packer seasons. Make no mistake; I never liked Brett Favre, but I did respect his ability to play the quarterback position. If you gave Favre the ball with two minutes left, and the Packers were down by four, stick a fork in the Vikings – Favre would undoubtedly march down the field and get the ball in the endzone. He was a great quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, and his magic seemed to finally dwindle this year with the Jets.

Yes, the Brett Favre magical mystery ride seems to finally have shut down. While he did very well for the Jets at the start of the year, by the end he turned into a very average quarterback with a few great games. Taking a look at his stats from ESPN.com, Favre only had three games where he didn’t throw an interception. Of the remaining 13 games, in six of them he threw one interception, in five games he threw two, and in the last two game he threw three. Over the course of the year, he threw 22 interceptions and 22 touchdowns. The thing to note is Favre’s final five games with the Jets this year:

Denver at home – 23 of 43 for 247, no touchdowns, one interception, QB rating of 60.9, Jets loss
At San Francisco – 20 of 31 for 137, no touchdowns, one interception, QB rating of 60.8, Jets loss
Buffalo at home - 17 of 30 for 207, one touchdown, two interceptions, QB rating of 61.4, Jets win
At Seattle – 18 of 31 for 187, no touchdowns, two interceptions, QB rating of 48.7, Jets loss
Miami at home – 20 of 40 for 233, one touchdown, three interceptions, QB rating of 45.1, Jets loss

Brett Favre started the year off a little slow, being new to the offense, but then exploded, putting the Jets at the top of the standings and a favorite to go deep into the playoffs. However, as us Vikings’ fans know, if your quarterback implodes, your team implodes, and that’s exactly what happened. Against the woeful Denver defense, the great Brett Favre couldn’t get into the endzone through the air. Against Seattle, a terrible team this year, he had two picks and no touchdowns. If you remove the Jets game against Arizona, his touchdown to interception ratio drops to 16 to 21. Simply spoken, he was an average QB with streaks of brilliant gameplay. Everyone knows Favre is just a liable to throw a crazy touchdown pass as he is to toss an unthinkable interception.

Brett Favre is simply getting too old and too run down for the NFL. He’s 39, and he is at the point where he really, really needs to hang it up. The Minnesota Vikings would be taking a poison pill by acquiring Brett Favre, and it doesn’t matter if he would win or not; it would still be bad for the fans.

First off, his tank is running on fumes right now. He just doesn’t have the physical abilities today that he did even two years ago. While I probably could have accepted Favreas a Vikings for this last season, he probably wouldn’t have changed our win/loss ratio by much, though I concede that the playoff game may have gone very differently. Overall, he wasn’t much better than Gus Frerotte throughout the course of the season.

Second, just think if the Vikings did acquire Favre, then went to and won the Super Bowl. Great, right? Or would that just give the media another excuse to downplay the Vikings and worship Favre? I think, should that scenario actually happen, Brett Favre would be given almost all the credit for the Vikings winning it all. It wouldn’t be the great defense, it wouldn’t be the one-two punch of Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor (though I’m sure Peterson would get a little credit), and it certainly wouldn’t be the coaching. It would be almost exclusively because of Brett Favre and his “magic.” It would be, “Look what the Vikings did after they got Brett Favre,” and “Brett Favre turned this team from 8-8 into a Super Bowl Champion!” Knowing the amount of praise laid at Favre’sfeet now, God help us all if he should make it to the Super Bowl again. Tony Kornheiser and Peter King would probably explode with joy.

Finally, it would only be a one year attempt at fixing the long term problem. Everyone knows Favre can’t play forever, so why get him for one year? Unless the Vikings draft a QB or commit to a younger QB to develop for a year, then the Vikings would be right back where we started this year – an unproven,  young QB who is inconsistent.

As a Vikings fan, I would love to make it to the Super Bowl regardless of circumstance, so please don’t say I would forfeit a chance at the championship for any reason. I just don’t know how much of the Favre Frenzy I could take.

Honestly, would you rather have Brett Favre at age 39 and 40 (his birthday is October 10) over a Tarvaris Jackson? While I believe Tarvaris Jackson is not the answer by any stretch of the imagination, I would strongly consider having the young Jackson over the aging, physically diminishing Favre. That’s not to say Jackson will ever be anything even remotely close to as good as Farve was, that’s just the thing: he wasthat good. At this point in time, is Favre a more consistent than Jackson? Probably. But are Jackson’s physical skills beyond Farve? I’d say yes. Plus, Jackson has mobility. So who would be the better choice? I honestly don’t know.

Again, I’m not making a case that Tarvaris Jackson is better than Brett Favre; far from it. If we did acquire Favre, I’d want him to be taking snaps with the first team to compete for that starting job. I’d want him to play well for the Vikings. I just don’t know how much gas the old man has left.

Please, Brett, just retire, for everyone

So, do I personally want the Vikings to go after Brett Favre? Absolutely not. I think he’s too old, he’s too erratic, and the Vikings need to look at the solution for the long haul. While Brett Favre at 39 is probably an upgrade, a Brett Favre at 35, or even 37, is leaps and bounds better than the Favre that’s 39. I think the Vikings need to look at a younger, late twenties to early thirties quarterback in order to fix the QB problem. Throwing another veteran as the starter for one year doesn’t allieviate the problem, though I admit that’s most likely what the Vikings will do.

Hopefully, Favre just decides to hang up his cleats and walk away from the game with as much dignity as he can muster. He’s had an amazing career, but I think his time in the NFL may finally be over for good. He made a good run with the Jets, but to think he can learn another new offense with a new organization would be even harder a year later.

Brett Favre, I’ve never liked you, but I do respect you. Hang’em up, man. And please, stay away from Minnesota.

Until next time,

Skol Vikings!
Woot Woot!