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http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/giants/ny-spjim0117,0,5788068.column
While fans of the Giants and Packers are dreaming of a trip to the Super Bowl, all this NFC Championship game does for Jets fans is serve as another painful reminder of what might have been.
Brett Favre could have - maybe even should have - been a Jet.
The Jets had a deal with the Cardinals to move up two slots in the 1991 draft -- ahead of the Atlanta Falcons -- so general manager **** Steinberg could draft their quarterback for the future.
"We were going to pick Brett Favre," Ron Wolf said by phone from his Jupiter, Fla., home Tuesday night. Wolf, now retired, is well known as the Packers general manager who acquired Favre and built a Super Bowl champion, but before he worked in Green Bay he was an assistant in the Jets front office. And he pushed hard to draft Favre in 1991.
"But when it came time for the Cardinals pick, they told us the guy they wanted was on the board, so they didn't do the deal," Wolf said. "They picked their guy, the Falcons picked Brett Favre and that was it."
The Jets, understandably angry and frustrated, had to move on. So they looked down their chart of quarterbacks and took the next one. It was Browning Nagle. Everyone knows how that worked out.
This story is nothing new, especially for Jets fans. Wolf even admitted he bumps into Jets fans from time to time who mention this to him. But seeing Favre all these years later still among the best quarterbacks in the league, preparing his team one win away from another trip to Super Bowl, must just eat away at Jets fans.
"That really is rare for something like that to occur," Wolf said. "When you think you have a deal done, you kind of stop trying to do something, stop trying to make moves. **** thought he had a deal done. And in the end it just didn't work out."
The Falcons selected Favre with the sixth pick in the second, which was 33rd overall. The Jets, Wolf said, rated Favre as the best player available in the draft. They didn't have a first-round pick -- they took receiver Rob Moore in the supplemental draft the year before -- or else they would have taken Favre there.
"It was not a debate," Wolf said. "I thought he was the best player in the draft that year, 1991, and he's proven that. He's even better than the best pick. He's a rare pick. To me, that was the easy part."
Of course it hurts Jets fans even more when only a year later the Falcons soured on Favre, and Wolf managed to finally land the quarterback he wanted -- only with the Packers, not the Jets. The Packers hired Wolf as their general manager late in the 1991 season, and he said he realized his first day on the job he could get Favre.
That offseason he traded a first-round pick to Atlanta for Favre. He has started 253 straight regular-season games since his first Packers start in 1992.
The Jets, meanwhile, have started Nagle, Boomer Esiason, Frank *****, Ray Lucas, Rick Mirer, Chad Pennington, Vinny Testaverde, Neil O'Donnell, Quincy Carter, Bubby Brister, Glenn Foley, Brooks Bollinger, Kellen Clemens, Ken O'Brien and Jack Trudeau.
"To me he's one of the greatest players to ever play in the National Football League," Wolf said. "And to have this opportunity in a time of his career when people have said he should hang them up, it's a great, great credit to him and his determination and his ability. I think people tend to underestimate just how good he is, and I'm sure he's just fine with that."
Who knows if Favre as a Jet would have worked out. He even admitted as much in an interview with the Newark Star-Ledger in 1997. "I don't know if I would've been too good in New York," he said. "That's too big a city for me. I like the slow, easy lifestyle. Green Bay is perfect, although the weather is bad. But, you know, all that traffic and stuff, paying $2,000 a month for an apartment. That would kill me. No, New York's a little too big for me."
But, given the alternatives, Jets fans surely would have liked to have seen Favre in green and white.
While fans of the Giants and Packers are dreaming of a trip to the Super Bowl, all this NFC Championship game does for Jets fans is serve as another painful reminder of what might have been.
Brett Favre could have - maybe even should have - been a Jet.
The Jets had a deal with the Cardinals to move up two slots in the 1991 draft -- ahead of the Atlanta Falcons -- so general manager **** Steinberg could draft their quarterback for the future.
"We were going to pick Brett Favre," Ron Wolf said by phone from his Jupiter, Fla., home Tuesday night. Wolf, now retired, is well known as the Packers general manager who acquired Favre and built a Super Bowl champion, but before he worked in Green Bay he was an assistant in the Jets front office. And he pushed hard to draft Favre in 1991.
"But when it came time for the Cardinals pick, they told us the guy they wanted was on the board, so they didn't do the deal," Wolf said. "They picked their guy, the Falcons picked Brett Favre and that was it."
The Jets, understandably angry and frustrated, had to move on. So they looked down their chart of quarterbacks and took the next one. It was Browning Nagle. Everyone knows how that worked out.
This story is nothing new, especially for Jets fans. Wolf even admitted he bumps into Jets fans from time to time who mention this to him. But seeing Favre all these years later still among the best quarterbacks in the league, preparing his team one win away from another trip to Super Bowl, must just eat away at Jets fans.
"That really is rare for something like that to occur," Wolf said. "When you think you have a deal done, you kind of stop trying to do something, stop trying to make moves. **** thought he had a deal done. And in the end it just didn't work out."
The Falcons selected Favre with the sixth pick in the second, which was 33rd overall. The Jets, Wolf said, rated Favre as the best player available in the draft. They didn't have a first-round pick -- they took receiver Rob Moore in the supplemental draft the year before -- or else they would have taken Favre there.
"It was not a debate," Wolf said. "I thought he was the best player in the draft that year, 1991, and he's proven that. He's even better than the best pick. He's a rare pick. To me, that was the easy part."
Of course it hurts Jets fans even more when only a year later the Falcons soured on Favre, and Wolf managed to finally land the quarterback he wanted -- only with the Packers, not the Jets. The Packers hired Wolf as their general manager late in the 1991 season, and he said he realized his first day on the job he could get Favre.
That offseason he traded a first-round pick to Atlanta for Favre. He has started 253 straight regular-season games since his first Packers start in 1992.
The Jets, meanwhile, have started Nagle, Boomer Esiason, Frank *****, Ray Lucas, Rick Mirer, Chad Pennington, Vinny Testaverde, Neil O'Donnell, Quincy Carter, Bubby Brister, Glenn Foley, Brooks Bollinger, Kellen Clemens, Ken O'Brien and Jack Trudeau.
"To me he's one of the greatest players to ever play in the National Football League," Wolf said. "And to have this opportunity in a time of his career when people have said he should hang them up, it's a great, great credit to him and his determination and his ability. I think people tend to underestimate just how good he is, and I'm sure he's just fine with that."
Who knows if Favre as a Jet would have worked out. He even admitted as much in an interview with the Newark Star-Ledger in 1997. "I don't know if I would've been too good in New York," he said. "That's too big a city for me. I like the slow, easy lifestyle. Green Bay is perfect, although the weather is bad. But, you know, all that traffic and stuff, paying $2,000 a month for an apartment. That would kill me. No, New York's a little too big for me."
But, given the alternatives, Jets fans surely would have liked to have seen Favre in green and white.
