I'm sure you've heard by now that Brett Favre is taking a leave from his job as a professional football player for the next several months... again. He calls it a retirement but since he's had a press conference each of the last 3 seasons to announce his "retirement," let's just acknowledge it's a leave of absence for now and leave it at that. Favre is just one perfectly timed reminder that Vinny Testaverde played QB well into his 40s from being back slinging passes for some NFL team next September.
Here's my slanted take on Favre's deal. He still wants to play football, of this I have no doubt. He had a good time playing for the Jets last year although they faltered late in the season and failed to make the playoffs. Who wouldn't have a good time throwing 6 TDs in a single game?
But he wants to play for the Minnesota Vikings. He wanted to play for them when he left Green Bay but the Packers pretty much blocked his path. Now it's another year later. The sanctions the Packers put on him moving to a team within their division are lessened greatly. He asked for an outright release from the Jets but they refused. So he retired again. But that's not the half of the story.
The other half of the story is that he would have been fine staying with the Jets under Eric Mangini. But now the Jets head coach is former Shitbird defensive coordinator, Rex Ryan. I don't think Favre has any particular problem with Ryan. The problem lies in the fellow Ryan hired to be the Jets new QB coach, Matt Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh is a knucklehead coach, plain and simple (with the emphasis on simple). In no way could I see Favre playing for Cavanaugh.
Matt Cavanaugh is the guy who ruined Brian Billick's reputation as an offensive guru while he was offensive coordinator on Billick's staff in Baltimore. Matt Cavanaugh is the guy who could not get an offense moving under a myriad of QBs both high draft picks and high profile free agents. So when Billick and Cavanaugh got the boot out of Baltimore, Cavanaugh ended up on Dave Wannstache's staff at Pitt as offensive coordinator. He was universally hated by Pitt fans. His offense was so powerful that Pitt lost their most recent bowl game by a score of 3-0! Word in the 'burgh is that Shady McCoy, who represented 99.4% of Pitt's offense last season, would have stayed for his senior year if he had known Cavanaugh was leaving for the Jets.
And that's the Steel City Slant on this story, friends.
2 comments:
i was reading some stuff last night and he hates thompson with a passion. he would LOVE to play them twice a year. thing is, he would try too hard, force balls, and ultimately end up losing ala the fish game this year.
For those following this story:
Fan is referring to Ted Thompson the Green Bay GM. The same Thompson who Favre repeatedly put in an awkward position regarding the NFL draft each year by dragging out his retirement options until it was too late for Thompson to do much about it.
Then Favre wondered why Thompson tried to push him out the door.
So again, for clarification, Favre to the Vikings would give him two chances each year to beat Thompson and the Packers.
Post a Comment