August 12, 2008 Sal Pal on Favre: Overrated! No practice today. It was supposed to be a two-practice day at Hofstra, closed to the public, but Eric Mangini gave the team a rest. With no live action, this is the perfect time to bring you one man's take on - you guessed it - Brett Favre. ESPN's Sal Paolantonio, a good friend and one of the best journalists on TV (and I stress the word "journalist"), addressed Favre's career in a recent book. This is a chapter from "The Paolantonio Report: The Most Overrated & Underrated Players, Teams, Coaches & Moments in NFL History," by Sal Pal with Reuben Frank. Let?s examine the second half of No. 4?s career. The truth is Brett Favre has done very little over the past decade to earn the gushing praise heaped upon him by Packers fans and many in the mainstream broadcast media. After beating the 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 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 touchdowns (seven). In his last three divisional playoff games, he was 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 - Brian Dawkins in Philadelphia in 2003 and Corey Webster against the Giants this past January. In fact, Favre is the only quarterback in NFL history to throw overtime interceptions in two different playoff games. In the first 81 years of the Green Bay franchise, the most hallowed in all of pro football, the Packers were 13-0 at home in the postseason. Never lost a game at home in the playoffs. But, since 2002, the Packers have gone 2-3 in playoff games at Lambeau Field, with Favre losing to the following not-quite Hall of Fame quarterbacks: Michael Vick, Daunte Culpepper and Eli Manning. In his last nine playoff games, Favre threw 18 interceptions. That?s two per game. If Eli Manning had a decade like this? He?d be run out of New York. If Philip Rivers kept chucking ridiculous overtime interceptions in the postseason? He?d be branded a first-round bust. If Drew Brees came up short in three out of five home playoff games? He?d be mocked. But no matter how many dumb passes he threw and how many playoff games he lost, Favre remained immune to criticism. Favre isn?t even the greatest quarterback in the history of the Green Bay 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 head coach. But Starr is still 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, barely above .500. Starr?s was 9-1 - without benefit of wild-card games. Favre threw 28 interceptions in 22 playoff games. Starr threw three in 10 games. Think about that, just three picks in 213 postseason attempts. But Bart Starr gets the Ringo Starr treatment - underappreciated and overlooked. Brett Favre gets put on a pedestal. Yes, he had a Pro Bowl season in 2007, with the youngest roster in the NFL. But his final moment on Lambeau Field was a wildly errant pass that turned into the NFC title for the New York Giants. Indeed, a decade after his last moments of glory, the football hype machine continued to paint Favre as a hallowed icon of Americana, a symbol of all that is right with sports, a Wild West gun-slinging good ol' boy. There's Brett on the farm! There's Brett with his family! There's Brett on the cover of Sports Illustrated! There's Brett throwing another overtime
Can't argue with it, he makes some valid points. Let's hope he doesn't make the same mistakes with the Jets.
Which is why I almost feel sorry for Jet fans, reality is just a few short weeks away. It won't matter if the Jets are a better team than last year, not when Jet fans have dreams of 14 wins and Super Bowls in their heads.
I agree with what Sal Pal says. I don't think the Packers really had that great of teams around Favre the last 10 years. The Jets probably are the second best overall unit he has been on since his Super Bowl team. (Last year's Packers were the best overall team he has been on for awhile). What people keep forgetting is the Jets are a pretty good team. Their offense is pretty good too. Great O-line, great running backs, solid receivers. Favre does not have to do it all. He does not have to put the entire team on his shoulders. He will have plenty of help. That is why I expect the Jets to succeed. This is not a 4-12 team with Favre putting the entire team on his back. Well, technically it is, but still.
He will make some, that's Brett Favre. I don't know, Brett might even play dumber because he perhaps doesn't care as much about playing for us. Maybe instead of being careful with a throw he'll take a "well let's see what happens" approach. The guy is beloved because when he plays QB, every game is enjoyable to watch. He creates excitement, whether it's throwing a huge bomb for a TD, making an obscure play with a backhanded throw, or throwing a pick to the other team on a play where the should have thrown it away. I hope he's not an INT-machine this season...and I certainly don't expect him to be last season's Brett Favre. The reason he is good for the Jets is that we had been figured out by the rest of the league. Regardless of who is on the O-line or who calls the plays, you're eventually going to have to throw it. With Chad a QB, every time we called a pass play it was like we were in the red zone, that's about how much space needed to be covered by the D. If Kellen had shown more in camp, Favre wouldn't be a Jet......but he blew it, so we're going with the beloved Hall of Famer with a cannon who wishes he was a Viking.
Don't feel sorry for all of us... I was never a Favre fan but, you know what, I'll roll that dice over Chad Pennington and Clemens.... In the all time rankings of QB, I have him pretty low... I think a SB this year would be a miracle.... I was excited about this season before Favre and I still am - I personally love what this Front Office has been doing.. Favre is only a temporary rol of ths dice hold the fort QB till they find someone else.. and for today, I'll take Favre over the options.... I HOPE thy can win 9+ games and maybe make the playoffs.... Just enjoying one day at a time... Don't feel sorry for me - I'm LOVIN' it... But, I just love football....
Great post - I thinks it's good for the Offensive coaches to be able to show more creativity and I think it's good for the younger guys to see what it's like to toss the ball around a little and take some chances on you playmakers making plays.... Clemens got to learn enough form Chad on preparing, working and reading a defense conservatively - Maybe now before he gets tossed from the NFL he learns to take the bat off his shoulders and let it fly.
He's obviously past his prime, but he's still one of the best in the league. Over the last 10 years 97-63 regular season record 4 division titles 7 playoff appearances While he blew the overtime pass last year, he put up enough points in regulation for the pack to win. Their defense gave up long time consuming drives aided by penalties. The Giants had the ball for over 40 minutes of that game. The Favre led offense put up more points against that Giants defense than the Brady and the Pats did 2 weeks later. And let's not forget about 4th and 26. I suppose that was his fault? He put up enough points to win that game too. It's not like he's only leading the offense to 7 points in these losses.
Agree completely. This year's Jets had the potential to be a really good (not great) team pre-Fruve. Many on this site felt that QB was the last glaring piece of the puzzle. The media expects him to be a savior...I just expect him to be better than what we had before he came. That should be enough to get us into the playoffs. The biggest weakness we have is or depth on both lines and at ILB. This is the unfortunate side effect of some of our cuter draft pick trades. If, and it's a big IF, we stay healthy, we have the talent to go far into the postseason.
All true, he is still a huge upgrade for the Jets. In this league of 32 teams the over all QB play is atrocious. Favre is still a top QB in this league.
What people keep forgetting is that the Jets were a 4-12 team and would have been 3-13 if Herm Edwards weren't such an idiot. On a side not, it didn't take Herm long to totally destroy the Chiefs now did it? :rofl: The article is dead on. I posted some similar statistics earlier that everyone pretty much ignored. I'm amazed Jet fans have responded to it as well as they have. No namecalling to date. :wink:
If you look at just the last 3 years your point is illustrated very well. In 2005, the Packers were decimated with injuries and were lacking talent. They finished 4-12 and Favre threw a ton of INT's trying to win games they had no business winning. In 2006 they got younger and added talent, they went 8-8, the team grew up as the season progressed and at the end of the season they were significantly improved. We all know what happened in 2007. Let's not forget that the Jets went 10-6 with a similar schedule in 2006 and have added a ton of talent and experience in the system since then.
This is the main reason I was hesitant for the Jets to get Favre, because I've always thought he is overrated. That was before I knew we could basically steal him and not lose anybody but Chad. Still, we upgraded the QB position a bit, but Miami upgraded theirs by more because they had nobody before.
That's fair enough, but there just seems to be many Jet fans with unrealistic expectations here. In the end being excited for the season is all any fan can ask for.
In Green Bay, for at least 8 of the last 10 seasons, the team was basically Brett favre and some other guys. He was asked to be a savior. We don't need a savior, we just needed an upgrade at QB. We got that. Overrated? Not sure I agree with that. You can't argue with 1 losing season. Was Marino overrated? If you give Marino the win in his early and only SB appearance and compare their careers, I'd say Favre won more with less.
Two important points conveniently ignored: 1) The Jet QB situation before getting Favre was abysmal. They had a QB who can't throw a ten yard pass as their starter. 2) Favre's most recent season, last year was absolutely dynamite.
