Favre to the JetsI honestly don't know what to make of the deal. Maybe it is time for Pennington to accept the demotion to backup; it worked out for Jim McMahon who went from constantly injured as a starter to a guy you could depend on to win games as a backup.
I was an early bandwagon guy for Favre; in 1993 I bought up every card of his that I could find. I even have several of his awful Atlanta cards, where he's just on a headset on the bench talking to coaches. Like everybody else I wonder whether he's going to be the Brett Favre of 2007 or the Brett Favre of 2006.
Great, great player who didn't quite put together the career anybody would have projected for him after that first Super Bowl. I'm amazed that he didn't win three or four. He became the Peyton Manning of the 1990s instead of the Tom Brady.
Where does he rank? I'd put him in the inner ranks of the Hall of Famers, but inevitably there comes a bar because of the championships. Are you really going to rank him ahead of Otto Graham or Johnny Unitas or Bart Starr or Joe Montana? On the other hand, he's clearly ahead of all the great passers who never quite won one: Dan Marino, Dan Fouts, Fran Tarkenton, Sonny Jurgensen, Kenny Anderson (who should be in the Hall, that's a ridiculous mistake).
It's the other guys, who did win championships who it will be tough to slot Favre against. Troy Aikman? Terry Bradshaw?
Tools? Greatest arm I ever saw. And I saw Sonny Jurgensen throwing spirals behind his back for 40 yards. Favre was the only guy who could complete that run left throw right pass and put authority on the ball. Unfortunately, as everybody saw, he trusted his arm sometimes too much, getting a ridiculous number of interceptions in the low-int era.
He must be considered about average as a runner--way above the slug Marino of course, and well below Elway. I don't think anybody would classify him as a particularly heady player. Alert, certainly.
And, invincible. That is the #1 thing I would associate with Favre. The guy is just the proverbial immovable object, and this was something that was very much remarked on him even in college. He was famously almost killed in an automobile accident in August of his senior year; in early September he led Southern Miss to an upset win over Alabama. He has never missed a game since he first started for the Packers almost 16 years ago.
