It’s only the first sentence and I already know what most of you are thinking. You looked at the title and said, here’s some Favre apologist who’s going to rattle off a laundry list of excuses for last night’s loss to the Saints. Well, you’re wrong.
First off, I’m no Favre apologist. I’m anything but that after his crapfest down in Carolina cost me a fantasy football championship. Second, there’s no need to make excuses for him. Favre played his guts out. He was brilliant for 90 percent of the game. He threw for over 300 yards. He was better than Drew Brees all night long. His team getting KO’ed out of the playoffs was anything but his fault. Then again, if you missed the game and relied solely on the interwebs for the scoop, you’d come away thinking Favre threw 16 picks, deferred after winning the coin flip in OT and stole charity money intended for Haiti.
Hey, I’m glad New Orleans won. That city has long deserved something wonderful like this. As I’m typing this, I hope the French Quarter sees more boobs and beads than you can find on all the Girls Gone Wild DVDs combined. Big, BIG congrats to Who Dat Nation. I hope your Saints win it all…and, what the hell, that Kim Kardashian wins her bet and gets married to Reggie Bush.
But what the eff is it with all the Favre bashing? Sure, back in August I was right there with you. Hang it up, old man, we’re sick of the soap opera. But we were wrong. We were wrong. That old man can still play and had every right to come back and give it one more shot. When I realized that he was back and better than ever, I decided the comeback was more than worth all the wishy-washy drama. Looks like I was just about the only one, though. Well, other than ESPN, John Madden and Peter King.
During the game, Favre haters were binge-drinking Haterade on Twitter. Sports bloggers everywhere were furiously typing out their “Favre Screws Up Again” posts before Garrett Hartley even began warming up for his game-winning kick. After the game on the NFL Network, Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin were bagging on Mooch and Rich Eisen for being Brett lovers. Not only was Favre taking shots on the field, he was a punching bag off of it as well.
Seriously, what did the guy ever do to deserve so much hate? Play well for 20 years? Do these haters hate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as well? What about Mario Lemieux? Andre Agassi? George Forman? Hell, Jack Nicholson’s been a great actor for over five decades now and has surely considered retirement. We also see him at every awards show and Lakers game. See, he’s overexposed, too! By this logic, we should hate him more than twice as much as we do Favre.
We should be grateful that we have so much coverage of one of the greatest sports figures of all time. When I think back and recall my grandpa telling me how he wished he had more coverage of guys like Babe Ruth, Jesse Owens and Johnny Unitas, I know I feel lucky. When I tell my grandchildren about the sports legends of my lifetime, there won’t be so many blank spots.
What about giving up some respect for a 40-year-old man who goes out there and lets faster, bigger, stronger 25 year olds kick the everloving shit out of him? I’m only 31, and most days I’m on the fence about going to the gym. Sure, their are some big dudes there, but they aren’t knocking me on my ass every time I don’t get my set of 10 reps off in time. There’s never been a tougher athlete in the history of pro sports. I will never understand how at 40 he took the shots he did last night and kept on playing. I will also never understand how fans of the game could witness that and not appreciate the feat.
If you hate Favre, go ahead and keep hating him. That’s fine. But don’t blame him for this loss. He wasn’t the one who had a fumble hat trick. Hell, his teammates had about as many fumbles as there are Harry Potter books. Adrian Peterson’s hands were so bad last night, I thought he switched pairs with Braylon Edwards d for the week. The only thing that was All Day was his case of the dropsies. Add in the mind-boggling 12-men-in-the-huddle penalty with 19 seconds left, questionable refereeing and Cedric Grffin’s costly late-game injury, and it’s easy to see how this game got away from the Vikes.
Speaking of that 12-men-in-the-huddle penalty, was that really Favre’s fault? Or were the coaching staff and the players coming in and out of the game at fault? And after that penalty was assessed, Favre had to throw. It was 3-and-15, he couldn’t really run on that gimpy ankle and there was no way kicker Ryan Long-in-the-tooth-well was going to make a 56-yarder on the road with Who Dat Nation all up in his ear. Favre took a chance knowing the worst-case scenario was an interception that would send the game to overtime. Considering the way the Purple People Eaters were playing on defense, it was the right move.
Back in 1994, when an aging Joe Montana failed to win the AFC Championship and take my Chiefs to the Super Bowl, the Arrowhead faithful didn’t blame him. He had gotten us closer to the Big Game than any quarterback had in 25 years. Favre should be treated the same way. Instead of unfairly piling all the blame on Favre for this loss, we should be celebrating his remarkable performance in what could have been his last game. After all, a 40-year-old quarterback damn near overcame an injury, bad officiating in OT, the 13-3 Saints in a jam-packed Superdome and a fumbling epidemic to lead the Minnesota Vikings to their first Super Bowl in over 30 years.
If this game does end up being Favre’s last game, I think it’s one he and all of his fans can be damn proud of. Here’s hoping he comes back for one more year, if only just to see all the haters squirm while he does his thing.
