Favre Is Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good

[Daytona]

By Lee Russakoff
Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:42:48 GMT


For myself and Derek Zoolander, it’s hard being really, really, really good looking.

For Brett Favre and other elite players like him, it’s hard being really, really, really good.

It means you’re judged harsher than the average player. It means you’re judged against the legends that came before you. It means you’re judged by the numbers you yourself put up earlier in your career.

Which was the impetus of my column this summer claiming that the Vikings were better off without Brett Favre.

I realize that’s a preposterous notion today (which is why I’m writing this column); but at the time it was anchored in air-tight logic (the only kind of logic I employ).

Jump into my Delorean, I want to take you back to this summer. Adrian Peterson was coming off a dominating season, the Vikings defense looked like an elite unit and no one knew who the hell Sidney Rice was.

Based on that team, I said the Vikings didn’t need a star at QB and they certainly didn’t need a gunslinger.
Minnesota needed a guy who could manage the game and not turn the ball over.

Brett Favre had proven himself to be the exact opposite of that for a decade.

Check out his TD-INT ratio in the 2000s prior to this year. Remind yourself of the multiple playoff game-losing interceptions he threw since 2000 and notice the obvious trend in statistics from 2000-09: Favre’s deceleration was accelerating.

The facts were the facts. Brett Favre had played like a below-average QB over the past four years. Don’t take my word for it, look at all the stats I laid out back in July.

But that’s the great thing about sports. No matter how many numbers you crunch, no matter how much game film you break down, football is played by human beings capable of change.

Well, Brett Favre changed alright. And he may have stolen my Delorean, because the guy is playing like it’s 1996.

No, I take that back … he’s playing better than he did in the ‘90s. Before 2009, Favre’s previous low for interceptions was 13 (which he did three times: ’92, ’95, ’96). This year he’s thrown just seven. Before this year, his lowest interception percentage (percentage of pass attempts that are intercepted) was 2.3 percent in ’95. This year it’s a staggeringly low 1.3 percent. That’s tied with Aaron Rodgers for best in the league, and will go down as the 11th best interception percentage in NFL history.

Eleventh best in history. Peyton Manning has never had a better interception percentage (his best year was 1.6 percent in '06). Tom Brady has never been better (1.4 percent in '07). Joe Montana? Dan Marino? John Elway? Nope. Never. (Montana '94: 1.8; Marino '83, '97: 2.0; Elway '93: 1.8).

In fact, the staggering thing about the list is that every QB above Favre (aside from Rodgers this year and Bart Starr) was more of a game manager than a QB. For the QB’s who put in better years than 1.3 percent, their entire job was based on not throwing interceptions. Everything else was secondary.

Not Favre. Favre threw for 4,202 yards and 33 TDs. When the team suddenly found itself incapable of running, No. 4 put the Vikings on his back and threw them to 12-4 and the NFC 2-seed in the playoffs.

Think about it. Brett Favre’s 2009 wasn’t just the best year of his career … it was quite possibly the best year a QB has ever put together in the NFL. The numbers are ludicrous.

(As an aside, I also have to note what an incredible year Aaron Rodgers had. Same interception percentage, 4,434 yards and 30 TDs. I’d say the Packers had a pretty great problem when they were forced to decide between these two.)

Look, I’m not a Favre slurper. Anyone who has read anything by me over my entire career can tell you that. And, as a fan, I won’t be rooting for the Vikings this weekend, simply because I think my head might explode if I have to listen to two straight weeks of “ESPN Favre Love” (in that relationship, ESPN is definitely the reacher).

But when I see greatness, I recognize greatness. And No. 4 has been other-worldly all season, including last week against Dallas.

Name me another QB who could have made the throws Favre made against the Cowboys.

The first 47-yard toss to Sidney Rice was so ridiculously perfect that Terence Newman didn’t even try to tackle Rice when the ball fell into his lap at the 5-yard line. He couldn’t. He was in shock.

I don’t know if any other NFL quarterback could have made that pass. Maybe Peyton Manning. Maybe Kurt Warner. Maybe.

What about the second Rice TD? Favre rolled out on a bootleg, pumpfaked Marcus Spears out of his manzier (it’s a bro!) and found Rice again, seconds after his star WR was lying flat on the ground, for another 16-yard score.

Only a handful of NFL QBs are mobile and crafty enough to make that play -- namely guys like Romo, maybe McNabb (though McNabb probably would have just thrown it at Rice’s ankles. Hey-yo! Kidding Eagles fans. Kidding), but it’s certainly not a play Manning or Warner can make.

And then Favre went deep to Rice again, this time for a 45-yard TD despite blanket coverage from Cowboys CB Mike Jenkins.

I have never, in my lifetime, seen another QB capable of making the entirety of plays that Brett Favre can make. We have never, in the history of the NFL, seen a QB have the type of season No. 4 is having this year.

Why, then, did Peyton win the MVP over Favre this year? I don’t know either.

Now, could Favre blow it all Sunday with an ill-timed pick that loses the NFC Championship game?

Possibly.

Will Favre haters jump out of the woodwork to tell us all “I told you so.”

Definitely.

But I can promise you one thing: I won’t be one of those guys. Not after this season.

When I see greatness, I recognize greatness.

[zoL]

General Performance?

[AleroB888]

Originally Posted by Daytona

.......

The facts were the facts. Brett Favre had played like a below-average QB over the past four years. Don’t take my word for it, look at all the stats I laid out back in July. ..........

"Stats are for idiots."
-- Mike Ditka

[AlbinoMonkeyRat]

Originally Posted by zoL

General Performance?

qft

[JLw7123]

I have to say that farve is a great QB but he should have retired the first time. but he is doing great in Minnesota.

[ServO]

Minnesota has NEVER won a superbowl. They always get close, and then they always choke. The Vikings are looking for a miracle from a 40 year old man...even Jesus was in his early 30's when he stopped performing miracles.
Just look at the Vikings '98 season. The Vikes went 15-1, and kicker Gary Anderson converted all 35 of his attempted field goals and all 59 extra points for a 100% success rate. Then we get to the final moments of the NFC championship game vs. the Falcons. Mr. 100% lines up for a 38 yard FG (a kick my 16 year old overweight cousin could probably make) to seal the deal, and what happens? He chokes. Atlanta takes the ball, and the Vikings go home with a perfect record of choking. 1998 was the last time I watched an entire NFL game. Either my home team is cursed, or the whole thing is fixed like pro wrestling. I can't wait for the game on Sunday...I have a bunch of errands to run, and I'm counting on front row parking spaces, and no lines in the checkouts at Target.

[Kilroy]

Originally Posted by AleroB888

"Stats are for idiots."
-- Mike Ditka

90% of stats are made up, and the other 30% is just the fudge factor. Also, 12 out of 10 people don't understand what the stats really mean anyway.

[AleroB888]

Originally Posted by Kilroy

90% of stats are made up, and the other 30% is just the fudge factor. Also, 12 out of 10 people don't understand what the stats really mean anyway.

I had another one like that somewhere, I'll have to look it up

[AlbinoMonkeyRat]

99% of all facts are made up on the spot. 62% of all people know that!

[alerored04]

Wow, Favre threw an ill timed pick. How in character of him. This may have all been a huge ploy by Green Bay to get Vikes fans hopes up and then laugh as we are all disappointed. Devious bastards.

Seriously though, why the hell would he not have ran that ball into field goal range in the last seconds of the game and let the kicker do his job? Dumbass.

[AleroB888]

Originally Posted by alerored04

Seriously though, why the hell would he not have ran that ball into field goal range in the last seconds of the game and let the kicker do his job? Dumbass.

Because he was tired from carrying the whole team on his shoulders, which team apparently had no offensive line to speak of.....

[Gr1m]

i never did like him anyway, i was laughing to see him get hit every play

[Ttop191]

Originally Posted by Kilroy

90% of stats are made up, and the other 30% is just the fudge factor. Also, 12 out of 10 people don't understand what the stats really mean anyway.

120% ?????????????

[AleroB888]

Originally Posted by Ttop191

120% ?????????????

10 x 12 = 120

[cherrington17]

Originally Posted by Gr1m

i never did like him anyway, i was laughing to see him get hit every play

my g/f kept hitting me, because i was yelling "BREAK HIS LEGS!" everytime he got nailed.

he needs a theisman injury, to prevent his return to the field...forever.


anyone notice how his wife and daughter look like clones of each other? thats gotta be a little creepy. Get done banging your wife, go downstairs to get something to drink and your daughter is standing there, who is an exact duplicate of the woman you just got off of..

how do you spell mind f*ck?

[zoL]

Favre is a joke, and he always will be.

Originally Posted by cherrington17

how do you spell mind f*ck?

Mind eff.

[Ttop191]

I lol'd

[cherrington17]

Originally Posted by zoL

Favre is a joke, and he always will be.



Mind eff.

rhetorical question. relating to your brain exploding when your daughter looks exactly like the sex object you married. one your allowed to grope.. the other.. ew.

(couldn't find the picture of them in the crowd, that they kept showing at the end of the 4th.. so this is close enough)


daughter on the right... mom left.

[Gr1m]

id nail both of em