For at least the last 10 years, Brett Favre has been held to a different standard than the rest of the quarterbacks in the NFL. That may have been taken to new heights Monday night. ESPN should look back at that broadcast and be embarrassed. They treated Favre like he was some sort of king.
If anybody else had played the same game Favre did last Monday night, they would have been ripped to shreds for the mistakes, but Favre got praised for the plays with the key mistakes being merely a footnote.
He lost two key fumbles and threw an interception returned for a touchdown in the last two minutes that clinched the game for the Jets.
Down by two, he had a chance to take the Vikings down for a game-winning field goal. He made an awful mistake that would immediately make most quarterbacks the goat, but he was still being praised as a hero.
In fact, on the last drive he had three bad throws. First, he threw one down the sideline, not giving Moss a chance. Then, he overthrew a WIDE open Percy Harvin, who could’ve run for the game-winning touchdown and finally the pick-six, ending the threat.
Yet, right after the extra point was kicked after the pick-six, Ron Jaworski began talking about how great Favre played.
He finished 14-34 with 264 yards, three touchdowns and three turnovers. Not awful numbers against that defense, but not the kind of game a quarterback should be praised for.
His first two touchdown passes were nice throws, but ones you expect starting quarterbacks to make.
His third was a great play by Percy Harvin, who jumped high in the air, adjusted to the ball and somehow got both feet in. As soon as the play ended, either Jon Gruden or Ron Jaworski said “great throw.” Wait … what? Is John Madden announcing this game? Did you not see that catch?
Ahhh, who was the quarterback? I see. When Favre succeeds, he gets all the credit, when he doesn’t, it’s everyone else’s fault. It has been that way for years.
Even on the fumbles, they wanted to blame someone else until the replays showed he was, without a doubt, at fault. Up until this last game, he had been thoroughly out-played by every other quarterback in the division, including Shaun Hill, and he has a lot more around him.
Many media members said he needed more weapons. If a quarterback needs more than Adrian Peterson in the backfield, Percy Harvin, Visanthe Shiancoe and Bernard Berrian, he’s simply not that good of a quarterback.
Berrian is the player who has gotten most of the blame for the Vikings’ slow start. To that, I say he was a great deep threat on a Super Bowl team that didn’t have a great quarterback or Adrian Peterson. In his first season with the Vikings, he averaged over 20 yards per catch on a 10-win team with Gus Frerotte and Tarvaris Jackson. He should be enough as a deep threat if the quarterback adjusts to his talents. He’s not a “jump up and get it guy,” he’s a “throw it out there and I’ll run under it guy.” Favre never made that adjustment and Berrian took the blame.