Are you dedicated?
Yesterday, we posted on a Chicago guy who demonstrated his strong affinity for Pabst beer by purchasing his casket (he’s only 57 years old!) - a giant, beautifully decorated Pabst can.
Today, we learned that 12 year old David Witthoft has accomplished the nearly impossible task of out-dedicating, if you will, many Packer fans by donning a Brett Favre jersey daily for the last 4+ years of his life (1581 days).
USAToday put out this list of Favre’s greatest moments. It is well done (as is often the case at USAToday) and it makes me miss Favre already.
It also made me think about the greatest moment I can remember in Favre’s career. There were so many that it is nearly impossible to single one out. The Super Bowl, Oakland game, Denver game and the many Bears games triumphs come to mind. But one play forever sticks out in my mind. It may have been the most beautiful pass I’ve ever seen. It was at the end of a game in Detroit against Detroit, probably mid-90s and I believe it was in the playoffs or to get to the playoffs. The pass traveled about 60-70 yards in length when you consider he threw the pass from the left side of the field to the right corner of the end zone. Sterling Sharpe ran under the perfectly thrown ball with just enough space to get 2 feet down for the winning touchdown.
I’ll think of others, but that play comes to mind often when I think of Favre. What are your favorite Favre moments?
Thanks to Greg Bedard at jsonline for pointing out this funny Onion article on Favre. Perhaps most interesting is that even the hilarious but often brazen writers at the Onion waited several weeks after Favre’s retirement to post this article. I guess even unabashed hilarity needed time to absorb the pain of Favre’s departure.
Also, check out the infograph here.
Peter King writes today about how he has come to believe Rodgers could be a legit QB in the post-Favre era. He makes some good points and I was particularly struck by McCarthy and Favre both pointing out that Rodgers maybe hadn’t really won over his teammates until this past year.
Read here from jsonline, re Packers taking a looking at Quinn Gray. It’s funny, my gut reaction to this was “he’s not a bad player”. But a couple seconds later my thought was “crap, the quarterback market must be thin”. Then I thought “please come back Favre”.
Rodgers may be able to step in but now more than any time in the last 17 years, it is imperative that the Packers find some quality at back-up. I could have seen Brunell as a Packer a few years ago in his career, but now he seems washed up and injury prone. Though, signing a player like Brunell as the 3rd stringer might be helpful in that he could provide some valuable guidance for Rodgers.
But looking at Quinn is interesting for several reasons. First of all, he did fill in pretty well for Garrard last year and seemed to have poise, especially on the road. Secondly, he’s a big guy and hard to bring down. But perhaps most interesting is the fact that he likely wouldn’t just be brought in as a back-up camp guy. He’s young enough and talented enough to presumably battle Rodgers for the starting job. I’ll say it again, while Rodgers should be considered the #1 guy right now (in part because he’s the only guy right now), he shouldn’t just be handed the starting job. We need to make sure we are starting the best quarterback we possibly can come September.
(Trade for Pennington).
UPDATE: Steve writes: Don’t trade for Pennington.
Now that Favre has firmly confirmed his retirement and appears set on a new path, we at packergeeks, along with GB management, need to start looking forward. It’s still hard to accept, but we need to start looking forward.
That begins today. As GM, I would have already called Takeo Spikes and Chad Pennington. I’m not sure the extent of Spikes shoulder injury, but he was more than quality last year for the Eagles and would bring a talented veteran presence to the defense replacing Poppinga (Spikes is a strong-side linebacker now).
Brother Steve will no doubt rip my lobbying to trade for Chad Pennington. Aaron Rodgers would too. But the fact is, Rodgers is mostly unproven. While many of us feel sorry for him having to sit his first 3 years etc, I don’t think it’s healthy for everyone to assume he should be our next quarterback. He does seem smart, knows the offense, played well in Dallas and it’s fine that he’s considered the first (and only) quarterback we have right now. But I think some veteran competition would be good and Pennington is just the guy. Chad Pennington has not been that great in NY recently, but he is a very good quarterback. Pennington, in a system like ours surrounded by the developing receiving talent we have could be unstoppable (like Eli Manning’s watch commercial). The Clemens guy the Jets replaced him with is atrocious. Anyway, in addition to offering solid competition for Rodgers, Pennington would be a tremendous asset to have ready-and-waiting when Rodgers gets hurt calling him mom on his cell phone before the first game. He probably wouldn’t cost much - maybe a 3rd/4th round pick and he’d be worth it.
Now, I know how much TT values picks, but one flaw with his draft-first mentality is the assumption by him before the draft that all of his draft picks will pan out. What I mean by this is, TT guards all of his draft picks and adds more through trades etc almost as though he believes every one of the draft picks he makes will turn out to be successful. Where’s David Clowney? Couldn’t we have had Randy Moss last year instead of David Clowney? TT, drop a 4th rounder and pick up Pennington.
UPDATE: Steve writes: Andy’s hitting the crack pipe again. If Chad Pennington provides competition for Aaron Rodgers we don’t want anything to do with either one of them. I’d give up a 7th round pick for him, nothing more. When people described Brett Favre’s passes, they talked about a “laser” or a “rope” or a “rocket.” When I see Chad Pennington, the first thing that comes to mind is “wet noodle.” Even in a short passing game, his balls don’t have enough zip to get to receivers without getting picked off. When we went to see the Jets-Packers game at the Meadowlands a few years back, I remember thinking, after one Pennington throw twenty yards down the field, that if I broke on the ball when he released it, I might have been able to pick it off. I was in a luxury box at the time.
Spikes, on the other hand, is intriguing. He is not the player he once was, to be sure, but he’s probably better than Brady Poppinga. And, if Justin Harrell doesn’t pan out, the Packers could ask Spikes to use his neck to stop the run. It’s wider than Gilbert Brown.
Well, I have only been able to watch parts of the press conference due to questionable technology at work. Obviously not too pleased re this. But from what I have seen:
*It appears to be a firm retirement. When he said he just doesn’t “want” to anymore, that really signaled the end for me. It was a decision that both Brett and Deanna made together - which is sensible. One of the most telling comments to me was Deanna stating pretty clearly that she will not be around nearly as much for her charity work and that neither will be up there for the annual softball game. This speaks to me of 2 people who are simply exhausted.
*Favre’s exhaustion isn’t just dealing with expectations of Packer fans, but of the NFL. He IS the NFL and though he’s been relatively quiet about it over the years, he has had a tremendous amount of pressure on him simply because the NFL surely wanted him to keep playing.
*Brett Favre is highly underrated in the intelligence category. I know he plays jokes on people and may say some stupid things out of the public eye, but in public, he is one of the very rare people who manages to avoid saying dumb things…ever. At the same time, he still manages to actually say something. Explained: so many athletes just say cliche crap and give us nothing as far as insight or interesting info. Favre manages to say more than most athletes without ever getting trapped into saying something regrettable or stupid. One of the only other players I know like this is Mark Tauscher (who, by the way, is brilliant).
*I detected a fairly strong sense of Favre being settled already with this decision. He may have flare ups where he gets a burning desire to be back out there, but he came across quite firm and OK with his decision.
*As he often has, Favre alluded again to the fact that the bulk of his weekly work begins after games on Sundays - the full week of preparation, the working out etc. Well, Dan Needles made a great point on the D-List this morning when he shamelessly admitted that he’s been trying to work out now for 5 years and can’t do it. (Me too - Steve, how are you doing in the fat contest we’re having?) I think the larger point is that most people can’t keep any sort of a workout regimen up for 2 months, much less years. So, it’s extra understandable to me that a 38-year old whose been beaten up on the field for over 24 years or so now would just want to relax and not work out for a while - in fact the sound of that is appealing to me as I write (wait, I haven’t been working out for months anyway).
I am really going to miss this guy. Who else would come to the site of what surely would be perhaps the most emotional thing he’s ever had to do, without notes. One the the things we’ve always loved about him is his ability to be real in a world where there is unbelievable pressure to be fake (think other athletes and cliches and politicians and newscasts and pretending to like coworkers…). He is a class act through and through and he has really served the organization well.
Favre - because I know you’re a faithful reader of packergeeks.com, if you get bored in retirement and decide to play a Wisconsin round of golf - just shoot us an email…
Brett Favre was emotional as he announced his retirement this afternoon. Greg Bedard has lots of details and there will be video/transcript over at Packers.com.
The first question he took involved an issue we’ve kicked around a bit here. Will he unretire?
He didn’t answer directly. If I had been watching a politician answering a question about whether he might seek higher office, the lede might be: He did not rule it out.
But Favre isn’t a politician. And watching as the press conference continued, I got the impression that Favre is very comfortable with his decision. Although he was quite emotional as the session began, he regained his composure the longer he spoke and gave very rational, thoughtful answers about his decision to retire.
“Believe me, I’ve questioned the decision. I think it’s the right decision.”
UPDATE: On ESPN News, Darren Woodson and Mark Schlereth had just the opposite view. They both argued that Favre seemed to leave the door open to a return quite deliberately, given that he refused to rule it out twice in response to questions. Interesting.
UPDATE: The PFT guys think he’s done for good. “Above all else it was clear it was final.” Their whole post is worth reading.
Check out this previous packergeeks post. Perhaps this bit of forecasting may have been a bad omen. I apologize to all Packer fans if Favre read this and made his decision mostly based on this Packergeeks post…
To add to brother Steve’s post calling out Coldhardfootballfacts, these guys are frequent guests on Homer’s show on 540 ESPN Milwaukee. Before the season, nobody, and I mean nobody, was more obnoxious about how much Favre sucks and brings the team down. Nobody. Homer at times had a hard time having these guys on the air because they were so incredibly anti-Favre.
In the name of accountability, I’m glad brother Steve called them out.
