Brett Favre 1, Skeptics 0
Brett Favre got even Monday night.
He showed the Packers he still has plenty left. He proved more capable of shining in The Big Game than his successor in Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers.
Favre completed 24 of 31 passes for 271 yards and three touchdowns, leading his new team to a 30-23 victory over his long-time team. He played like a kid again, running around and making huge plays with his surgically repaired arm.
Brett can retire in peace now, although not immediately. The Vikings play the Packers one more time this season, in Green Bay, and Brett will be jacked up for that game, too.
Here is how the pundits saw it:
Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN.com: “This one was for Ted Thompson. For Mark Murphy. For Mike McCarthy and the rest of the Green Bay Rubicons. It was for his former New York Jets teammates, who anonymously ripped his legacy a new one. It was for every Rodney Harrison, every doubter and every critic who said he was more drama king than quarterback, that he should retire and, for crissakes, stay retired.
But most of all, it was for the guy who didn’t act his age, who wore purple and pink and looked good doing it. It was for Brett Favre, who exacted whatever you want to call it – revenge . . . retribution . . . satisfaction — against the franchise whose helmet logo he wore for 16 green and gold years.”
Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports: “Seventeen times Favre had suited up for Green Bay and defeated Minnesota. The sight of him in the uniform of the Packers’ arch-rival remains an unforgivable act of treason to some on the other side of the state border here. As much as Favre wants to claim its just coincidence, the truth is he sought out a return to Minnesota in part to show Green Bay it was wrong to think he was done. Monday the message was delivered. His replacement in Wisconsin, Aaron Rodgers, wasn’t terrible, but he had a pick, a fumble and took eight sacks, including one in the end zone. Once again in this rivalry, Favre was the best quarterback on the field.”
Jay Mariotti, FanHouse: “So here comes the folk hero once more, teasing when he should be wheezing, charming when he should be farming, reminding us again why we really, really want to love him. Anyone who had buried Brett Favre as a mercurial mope — and who hadn’t, other than friends, family and John Madden? — was left to shut the hell up Monday night and nod admiringly at another inspirational portrait on a canvas unlike any other. Five days from his 40th birthday, with so much mid-life stubble on his face that Norman Rockwell would run out of gray paint, Favre left an indelible stomp-print on the psyche of Wisconsin and proved that he’s still capable of the spectacular.”
Does Tipsheet smell another marketing opportunity here?
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while wondering how much patience the next Rams ownership group will have with the football operation:
- Will the Packers give Rodgers a bit more help the next time they play the Vikings?
- Has Michael Crabtree finally figured out that life is the NFL is going on just fine without him?
- Wouldn’t you hate to be Peyton Manning’s back-up? Is there a less fulfilling job in America?
- Can you blame Our Town’s David Lee for passing up long-term money from Portland to remain a Knick?
BRAYLON EDWARDS NEEDS TO CHILL
The Browns receiver was in a combative mood during Cleveland’s loss to arch-rival Cincinnati. Then he got into it with a fellow named Edward Givens in the week morning hours Monday.
Givens is a promoter who was working outside of a Cleveland nightclub. He is also friends with LeBron James, the king of northern Ohio.
You don’t mess with the king’s men.
“I’ve never crossed paths with Braylon before, but it seems like there’s a little jealousy going on with Braylon and me and my friends. I have no idea why,” James told reporters after the Cavaliers practice. “I’ve never said anything to Braylon at all. But for him to do that is very childish. My friend is 130 pounds. Seriously. It’s like hitting one of my kids. It doesn’t make sense.”
QUIPS ‘R US
Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:
Dan Daly, Washington Times: “The United Football League - aka ‘the USFL without the S’ - begins play Thursday night when the California Redwoods meet the Las Vegas Locomotives. Which raises the question: If a whistle blows in Vegas and no one hears it, does it make a sound? The team based in Orlando is calling itself the Florida Tuskers - a tusker being a wild boar indigenous to the Everglades. Me, I’m just hoping the UFL isn’t a wild bore.”
Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “Only in L.A.: Lakers forward Lamar Odom marries Khloe Kardashian in a televised ceremony that turns out to be fake, with the bride presented by her stepfather, Bruce Jenner. I hear Jerry Buss suffered momentary heart failure when the bridal bouquet was snagged by his 18-year-old date.”
Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Miami’s fading mixed-martial-arts novelty, Kimbo Slice, just lost to a white guy who looked like he needed a man-bra. Dear Kimbo: free career advice. Lose beard. Change name. Try to become YouTube sensation as somebody else to buy another 15 minutes’ fame.”
MEGAPHONE
“Everybody wrote off the Twins, it seems like, a long time ago, especially when (Justin) Morneau went down. A team needs to keep fighting and they’ve been one of those special teams for a long time. It seems like they don’t give up. That’s the great thing about baseball. You never know.”
Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon, after the Twins forced a one-game playoff with the Tigers.
Elsewhere on STLToday
Cards fans demonstrated some angst about looming National League Division Series during my weekly Monday chat.
I’m not saying that Brett Favre is too old, but this recently discovered work of Chaucer is telling:
Rime of the Beggar of Stilton
“A derilect to the dairyman said/ ‘Sparest me some cheese from atop your head/ I’ve a wife and four children whom I fear will starve/ We are gripp’d by a hunger mightier than Favre.’”
yhl,
you just exploded the heads of every tipsheet reader. Well done, good sir.
Anything in those Canterbury Tales about the Blues and Mighty Lord Stanley’s Chalice?
Maybe we should look in a Tale of Two Cities Gar…
Let’s hope the Blues don’t have the post-Europe hangover that has afflicted so many teams in the past.
Go Blues, Go Cards!
I like to dress in a maids outfit and look at Cardinal highlights.
Go Blues and Cards!
Win Twins!
Rush Limbaugh as a potential Rams owner?
I couldn’t think of a better match.
Puke.
Yawn. Wasn’t everyone fawning over Favre the first few games when he was a Jet? And then he tanked severely? I can’t imagine that it will end any differently.
Garry, what difference does it make whose money it is that keeps the Rams here? Most of those rich guys are the same politically as Rush, they just don’t have a radio program. Limbaugh got his start in the Chiefs organization I believe, and is reportedly a huge football fan. Compare that to the current Californicator owners who hardly ever set foot in this town. Is it really that big a deal to you?
Minnesota’s success was more a product of their defense, and Green Bay’s broken down o-line, than anything. Sure Favre played well, but he certainly didn’t put the team on his back and carry them to victory.
And while all the attention will be on Rush, I’m giving two thumbs up to having Dave Checketts run the show! The guy’s a proven success.
Fun watching crafty old Brett dismantle the Pack last night — even though I am a fan of theirs. This was sweet revenge, pure and simple, against everyone who said he was washed up. Even if he can’t pronounce his own name, Favre’s still got it. More power to him, say I.
Limbaugh buying the Rams? Fine — if I need any further reason to avoid that stadium, that will provide all the incentive I need. I know they are desperate, but this would be the death-rattle, as far as I’m concerned. One of the 30,000 empty seats will be mine, for the duration.