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Time to walk away with playoffs a mere illusion
By BOB MCGINN and TOM SILVERSTEIN
[email protected]
Posted: Jan. 31, 2007
OPPOSING VIEWPOINT: Favre should stay
Miami - You can tell Brett Favre is deep into the decision-making process.
His fans have spoken. After the season-finale against the Bears, we asked whether it should be Brett Favre's finale. Hundreds of fans wrote in their opinion. The overwhelming consensus: Brett, please, please come back. Why wouldn't you come back?
Earlier this week, he spoke at length with Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy about his future. On Wednesday, he spoke with former Packers quarterbacks coach Steve Mariucci about the same subject.
"I can't tell you what he said," said Mariucci, who is at Super Bowl XLI as an analyst for the NFL Network. "That would be betraying his confidence. But he hasn't made a decision yet."
Ask 100 people whether they think the 37-year-old Favre can still play football and 99 of them will say yes. The 100th would be a split-decision. Mariucci clearly is in the "Aye" group when it comes to those in favor of Favre continuing, as was every single person interviewed for this story.
But there is much more to the quarterback's decision whether to play on than just his ability to perform at a high level. There is the capability of the team to compete for the Super Bowl, the potential for a debilitating injury, the mental toll of 22 weeks of practice and meetings, the possibility of tarnishing his legacy and the difficulty of spending more time away from his wife and children.
"He is giving this all serious thought," Mariucci said. "He's doing his thing to determine football, family, future, how it all fits together right now. It's a commitment. He's going to really heavily consider his family in this next year. And he should, his daughter (Brittany) is going off to college and his little one (Breleigh) is still a kid. There's some thinking he has to do."
As much as his fans would like him to come back, Favre has plenty of reasons to call it a career, not the least of which is that he has already accomplished what every NFL quarterback wants more than anything: a Super Bowl championship. The only player to win three Most Valuable Player awards in a row, Favre can leave the game now guaranteed of being a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection as well.
What isn't guaranteed is an 11th post-season. The Packers finished 8-8 in 2006, winning their final four games, but they only beat one team with a winning record all season, and that was over a Chicago Bears team that had already clinched home-field advantage in the playoffs.
"You know what, I think the thing he really truly has to ask himself is, 'How close are we really? Can we compete with the upper echelon teams?' " said former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe, now a studio analyst for CBS. "You look at the Bears, they're a young football team. You look at the Cowboys, they're a young football team. You look at Seattle, you look at some of the other teams, New Orleans, they're a very, very young football team.
" 'Are we in that class? Can we compete week in and week out?' If he answers yes, he should come back and if he answers no he should leave."
The fear some people have of Favre coming back for another season is that he'll be stuck playing on another losing team. Until the 4-12 campaign in 2005, he had never played for a team with a losing record. What most people remember about Favre are all the glorious moments he had in 15 seasons as the Packers' starting quarterback.
As he considers whether to come back and play another season, he could easily say to himself, 'Why bother? I have more to lose than I have to gain.' He would fall short of the Holy Grail of passing records, Dan Marino's all-time mark of 420 touchdowns, but so what? His all-time mark of 236 consecutive regular-season starts will last a lot longer than the touchdown record.
"The only thing I fear about Brett playing is that I don't want the team to do badly," said former Denver linebacker Tom Jackson, currently a studio analyst for ESPN. "I don't want to watch 3-13 because I don't want that (to be my) memory of the end of Brett's career because I know how great a player he is."
There are other factors. While most agree he can still perform at a high level, some aren't sure whether he can be the quarterback he once was. And if the mental toll catches up to him, the combination of a physical and mental slide could make for a disastrous season.
What happens if in the middle of the season, he hits the wall mentally? He has been playing football non-stop since he was a kid and hasn't always had time to stop and smell the roses. As mentally tough as he is, the meetings, the practices, the film study and the off-the-field obligations add up as the years go by.
Another factor for Favre is whether his return to what was the youngest roster in the NFL is a good fit for him. All of the veteran teammates who were friends or golfing and hunting partners - Frank Winters, Doug Pederson, Craig Nall, Ryan Longwell among them - are gone. The only player close to him in age is long snapper Rob Davis, who turned 38 in December.
Only 18 of the 79 players on the current roster were more than 12 years old when Favre became the starting quarterback for the Packers.
"There's a point where you become frustrated because he's a man now playing basically with kids," said Favre's former teammate, John Jurkovic. "I think the camaraderie he had with those guys he had before is the kind of camaraderie he's going to have to develop with these guys. There's no reason why he shouldn't be able to do it, but he doesn't have a ton in common with these guys except for the fact that he plays football.
"I don't know if he's going to invite these guys down to go hunting with him, shoot sporting clays, go play a bunch of golf with these guys."
By BOB MCGINN and TOM SILVERSTEIN
[email protected]
Posted: Jan. 31, 2007
OPPOSING VIEWPOINT: Favre should stay
Miami - You can tell Brett Favre is deep into the decision-making process.
His fans have spoken. After the season-finale against the Bears, we asked whether it should be Brett Favre's finale. Hundreds of fans wrote in their opinion. The overwhelming consensus: Brett, please, please come back. Why wouldn't you come back?
Earlier this week, he spoke at length with Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy about his future. On Wednesday, he spoke with former Packers quarterbacks coach Steve Mariucci about the same subject.
"I can't tell you what he said," said Mariucci, who is at Super Bowl XLI as an analyst for the NFL Network. "That would be betraying his confidence. But he hasn't made a decision yet."
Ask 100 people whether they think the 37-year-old Favre can still play football and 99 of them will say yes. The 100th would be a split-decision. Mariucci clearly is in the "Aye" group when it comes to those in favor of Favre continuing, as was every single person interviewed for this story.
But there is much more to the quarterback's decision whether to play on than just his ability to perform at a high level. There is the capability of the team to compete for the Super Bowl, the potential for a debilitating injury, the mental toll of 22 weeks of practice and meetings, the possibility of tarnishing his legacy and the difficulty of spending more time away from his wife and children.
"He is giving this all serious thought," Mariucci said. "He's doing his thing to determine football, family, future, how it all fits together right now. It's a commitment. He's going to really heavily consider his family in this next year. And he should, his daughter (Brittany) is going off to college and his little one (Breleigh) is still a kid. There's some thinking he has to do."
As much as his fans would like him to come back, Favre has plenty of reasons to call it a career, not the least of which is that he has already accomplished what every NFL quarterback wants more than anything: a Super Bowl championship. The only player to win three Most Valuable Player awards in a row, Favre can leave the game now guaranteed of being a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection as well.
What isn't guaranteed is an 11th post-season. The Packers finished 8-8 in 2006, winning their final four games, but they only beat one team with a winning record all season, and that was over a Chicago Bears team that had already clinched home-field advantage in the playoffs.
"You know what, I think the thing he really truly has to ask himself is, 'How close are we really? Can we compete with the upper echelon teams?' " said former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe, now a studio analyst for CBS. "You look at the Bears, they're a young football team. You look at the Cowboys, they're a young football team. You look at Seattle, you look at some of the other teams, New Orleans, they're a very, very young football team.
" 'Are we in that class? Can we compete week in and week out?' If he answers yes, he should come back and if he answers no he should leave."
The fear some people have of Favre coming back for another season is that he'll be stuck playing on another losing team. Until the 4-12 campaign in 2005, he had never played for a team with a losing record. What most people remember about Favre are all the glorious moments he had in 15 seasons as the Packers' starting quarterback.
As he considers whether to come back and play another season, he could easily say to himself, 'Why bother? I have more to lose than I have to gain.' He would fall short of the Holy Grail of passing records, Dan Marino's all-time mark of 420 touchdowns, but so what? His all-time mark of 236 consecutive regular-season starts will last a lot longer than the touchdown record.
"The only thing I fear about Brett playing is that I don't want the team to do badly," said former Denver linebacker Tom Jackson, currently a studio analyst for ESPN. "I don't want to watch 3-13 because I don't want that (to be my) memory of the end of Brett's career because I know how great a player he is."
There are other factors. While most agree he can still perform at a high level, some aren't sure whether he can be the quarterback he once was. And if the mental toll catches up to him, the combination of a physical and mental slide could make for a disastrous season.
What happens if in the middle of the season, he hits the wall mentally? He has been playing football non-stop since he was a kid and hasn't always had time to stop and smell the roses. As mentally tough as he is, the meetings, the practices, the film study and the off-the-field obligations add up as the years go by.
Another factor for Favre is whether his return to what was the youngest roster in the NFL is a good fit for him. All of the veteran teammates who were friends or golfing and hunting partners - Frank Winters, Doug Pederson, Craig Nall, Ryan Longwell among them - are gone. The only player close to him in age is long snapper Rob Davis, who turned 38 in December.
Only 18 of the 79 players on the current roster were more than 12 years old when Favre became the starting quarterback for the Packers.
"There's a point where you become frustrated because he's a man now playing basically with kids," said Favre's former teammate, John Jurkovic. "I think the camaraderie he had with those guys he had before is the kind of camaraderie he's going to have to develop with these guys. There's no reason why he shouldn't be able to do it, but he doesn't have a ton in common with these guys except for the fact that he plays football.
"I don't know if he's going to invite these guys down to go hunting with him, shoot sporting clays, go play a bunch of golf with these guys."