Apparently, Bob Ryan is as clueless as some others are. Favre will always be a top 10 QB all-time in NFL history. If Favre had been the Pats QB this year they win the Super Bowl.
Jeezus...from one extreme to the other. If Favre had been the Pat's QB this year they probably don't even go to the Superbowl. He couldn't do anything against the Giants pass rush either, even moreso in OT after they won what should have been the deciding play of the game - the coin toss... And he threw the mindless pick in OT that was the eventual Packer killer. But it never would have happened because if Brett Favre was the Patriots QB for the last decade they have no Lombardi's and the fans and media here would have run his ass out of town. Remember, we had a gunslinger for a QB before Brady came along and salvaged this decade. And it took an extended injury to facilitate unseating him. He was the only QB Brett ever bested in a SB, and that was OVER A DECADE AGO!
What Brett Favre was was one of the top 10 icons of the modern football era and a mediots dream. He threw the ball a lot, and improvised, and hung around - that is what they love in what has become a coaches game. He hung around long enough to own all the cumulative stats, which is how they measure heros and success, mostly because his first in the league $100M contract kept them hamstrung until at least 2006. He wasn't even the MVP of the one SB the Packers won in his career - a PR took home that honor. He was an elite QB for a brief period early in his career. Then he was an average to below average QB for most of the remainder of his career save his final season when he was well above average one more time. As Football Outsiders assessed it, he had "the greatest QB career" to date in NFL history, but that is based entirely on durability and longevity at a slightly above average overall level as opposed to sustained excellence which is what the greatest QB's of all time provide.
Had he been a student of the game he had the talent and the teams around him for much of that time to be truly dominant. But that was the gap in his game - once Holmgren left he couldn't bring himself to work at his craft until his skills had eroded to the point he had to in order to balance his own desire to win and keep playing in GB against his determination to have fun doing the only part of the game that really appeals to that psyche - slinging the ball around on Sunday.
He was a leader on the field by default because that comes with the position. What he never did was lead his team off the field because that part of the process was never more to him than a necessary evil he at best tolerated. He was one tough SOB, but he fully admits he never understood why they asked players to watch film until he was in his 30's, and he didn't bother to take a crack at it himself until he was clinging to the game by his fingernails in his late 30's. Players admire him because he was durable and inately talented and he had the capacity to impact the game, positively as well as negatively, and because they have to believe that talent is more important than scheme. It's a mentality that is shared by many still today, which is why you see players on successful teams landing huge contracts in FA they somehow never live up to.
If I had to choose players to perform in a coachless NFL, Brett would probably be my QB. That's the lure of a Brett Favre.
Sal Pal kind of sums it up in his piece.
"After beating the San Francisco 49ers in the 1997 NFC Championship Game, Favre won just three of his last 10 playoff games.
Eli Manning had more postseason wins in a 29-day span this past season than Favre had in his last decade with the Green Bay Packers.
Yes, Favre won a Super Bowl -- 11 years ago! But as his career arc spiraled downward, the blind adulation only got worse.
Favre's passer rating in his last 12 postseason games was a pedestrian 77.8. In his last five wild-card games, he went 2-3 with more interceptions (nine) than touchdown passes (seven). In his last three divisional playoff games, he went 1-2 with seven TDs and seven interceptions.
That's a 3-5 record with 14 touchdown passes and 16 picks."
In two of his last four postseason appearances, Favre threw two of the most unthinkable playoff interceptions in NFL history, both in overtime ... In fact, Favre is the only quarterback in NFL history to throw overtime interceptions in two playoff games.
In his last nine playoff games, Favre threw 18 interceptions."
"But no matter how many dumb passes he threw and how many playoff games he lost, Favre remains immune to criticism.
Favre isn't even the greatest quarterback in the history of the Packers. It's not even close. Bart Starr won five NFL championships -- four more than Favre -- and retired as the NFL's most accurate passer.
Oh, you say Starr was surrounded by a Hall of Fame roster with a legendary coach. But Starr still is the NFL record holder with a 104.8 career playoff passer rating, nearly 20 points higher than Favre's. That wasn't Vince Lombardi or Ray Nitschke throwing those passes for Starr, whose career postseason passer rating, by the way, is 38 points higher than Johnny Unitas'.
Favre's career playoff record was 12-10. Starr's was 9-1 -- without the benefit of wild-card games. Favre threw 28 interceptions in 22 playoff games. Starr threw three in 10. Think about that -- just three picks in 213 postseason attempts."
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=paolantonio_sal&id=3281535
