Favre seemingly infallible to Pack fans

By Krupka  |   Monday, May 15, 2006  |  Comments( 32 )

Green Bay Packers
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The golden boy of the yellow and green, a man who can do no wrong in the eyes of the Packer faithful, the destined for Canton, the immortal.

Brett Favre.

The Mississippi native has utterly mesmerized Packer fans throughout his career, causing their utter delusion. The man could probably commit a heinous crime, and nary a soul would blink. The response from Wisconsin would likely be minimal at best.

So when exactly did this seemingly blind love and trust begin?

In 1992, Favre was acquired via trade from the Atlanta Falcons, where he was known as a partier and butted heads with head coach Jerry Glanville. It cost the Packers their first-round pick in 1993's draft; but needless to say, Favre's elite NFL career has grossly tilted the scales of this trade in Green Bay's favor.

When starting quarterback Don Majkowski turned his ankle in a Week Three matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals in 1992, Favre saw his first action as a member of the Green Bay Packers. He proceeded to lead a rousing comeback, capped off with a game-winning touchdown pass to Kittrick Taylor as time expired. Ever since, he has manned the starting position, and has yet to relinquish it. Whether he should still have it is another topic, which many pundits have debated ad nauseam.

Now nobody is going to deny that Favre will go down as one of the all-time greats, but the fact is that he is vastly overrated by Packer fans as well as most media pundits. While his supporters would love to believe Favre was and is infallible, treating him in a god-like manner, let's not be facetious. Favre has made plenty of mistakes, both on and off the field. However, since this is a football site, I will look solely at his football based qualities (or lack thereof) to explain how he is overrated.

In his 15 seasons in the league, Favre has shown time and again the propensity to make putrid decisions. He continuously forces passes into coverage when there is no need for it, taking the whole gun-slinging mentality to absurd levels. He also trusts his arm far too much. On five different occasions Favre has eclipsed the magic number of 20 interceptions. In the past three seasons, he has thrown an astonishing 67 interceptions.

In addition, he benefited immensely from a top-notch defense in the Packers' back-to-back Super Bowl appearances in 1997 and 1998. In fact, during the championship season of 1996-1997, the defense was ranked first overall in yardage and points allowed. In 1997-1998 the defense was again superb, ranking ninth overall in yards and fifth in points allowed. Surely, the offense was also first-rate, but Favre benefited from an outstanding offensive line that included Marco Rivera, Ross Verba, Earl Dotson, Adam Timmerman, Frank Winters, Joe Andruzzi, and Jeff Dellenbach. The running game featured Pro Bowler Dorsey Levens, whose success can be partly attributed to the stalwarts up front, and a great running game always takes pressure off of a quarterback. Favre also had solid playmakers at wide receiver in Robert Brooks and Antonio Freeman, and at tight end with Mark Chmura. Thus, by no means did the star quarterback do it all on his own.

While the future Hall of Fame quarterback is second all-time in passing yards, he has attempted far more passes than everyone below him on the list. He has attempted only 360 more passes than John Elway (No. 3 on the list), but 787 more than Warren Moon (No. 4 on the list), and a whopping 1,143 more passes than Fran Tarkenton (No. 5 on the list). In fact, the most passes Tarkenton ever attempted in a season was 425, while Favre's fewest is 471. Favre has continually been in the mid to upper 500's in his pass attempts per season, topping out at 607 attempts this past season. Tarkenton also bests him in yards per attempt at 7.3 to 7.0, showing that the only reason Favre has more passing yards is the huge difference in attempts.

Many considered Favre to be a mobile quarterback in his prime, with his nifty feet buying him time to rocket the ball down field. However, Tarkenton dominates him in rushing yardage and touchdowns, as he revolutionized the quarterback position into the hybrid quarterbacks seen in recent years, such as Randall Cunningham, Steve Young, Michael Vick, and Daunte Culpepper. Tarkenton had 3,674 career rushing yards and 32 rushing touchdowns to Favre's 1,745 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. The Hall of Famer also played back when the NFL season was only 14 games long, which makes his career numbers even more remarkable.

When comparing Favre to another all-time great quarterback, Joe Montana, once again Favre pales in comparison. Montana is ninth on the passing yards list, but attempted 2,219 fewer passes. His yards per attempt bests Favre's by a half of a yard, and the most interceptions he ever threw in a season was 16. Montana also won three Super Bowls with the 49ers.

The stats don't lie, while Favre is definitely a great quarterback, he isn't as good as everyone in Wisconsin and the media would lead you to believe. Tarkenton and Montana are two of the many who are better than the Packers' quarterback.

Frankly, what it comes down to is that Favre isn't a deity, either on the field or off it, even though he is treated as one by the media and fans. It's time for people to see Favre for what he really is: an aging legend that is no longer what he once was and a human being capable of making mistakes.

And he's made plenty. Expect more next season.

Get more Brett Favre info at Realfootball365.com

Eric Krupka can be reached at ekrupka@realfootball365.com
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