The Brett Favre Saga Vol. XIX – The Beginning Of The End Kinda Sorta

There’s a new tradition in football, and it revolves around Brett Favre. You see every off season, no matter how old he is, we’re treated to a flood of “stories” and “breaking news” focused on whether Brett Favre will be wearing khaki shorts or football pads come September. It’s doesn’t exactly bring us the same kind of joy as tailgating, painting our faces or calling in to work sick every Monday during the season, but the Brett Favre Watch is becoming a staple of our summer whether we like it or not.

This year will be no different and our football betting oddsmakers have put up some NLF prop bets to keep the Brett Favre Saga alive and well. At -110 to stay and -130 to retire, there’s no doubt in my mind that we will be as frustrated as we were last summer when Favre kept us guessing all the way through and past the preseason.

While nearly all of us were nauseated by the amount of reports that surfaced, none of us expected Favre to do what he did during the 2009 football season and his performance for the Vikings up until the final minute of the NFC Championship game tell me two things – he’s old and tired, and he’s still got “it” in spades.

In his nineteenth season, Favre submitted one of his best statistical performances in his career and, overall, was one of the top-3 quarterbacks in the entire league when all was said and done.

Stat Line 2009 NFL Rank Career Rank vs. Himself Yards 4,202 yards 9th 3 Touchdowns 33 TD’s 2nd 4 Yards/Avg 7.9 8th 1 Rating 107.2 2nd 1 Interceptions 7 INT 1st 1

I mean, look at those numbers and tell me you wouldn’t want a quarterback with twenty years of experience slinging passes?

Nobody was more thrilled than Brad Childress and the Minnesota Vikings’ betting bandwagon which was rewarded with a 9-6-1 ATS record, including a 5-2-1 ATS record at home and a 2-0 ATS record in the 2009 NFL playoffs. Offensively the Vikings were the fifth most productive offense overall, and were second in the entire NFL with 470 points scored behind New Orleans.

Nobody was less excited to have Favre come aboard than Tavaris Jackson, the supposed heir apparent in Minnesota. Jackson will be entering his fifth year since leaving Alabama State and at 6-foot-2 he’s not exactly built like the prototypical quarterback. He’s at that pivotal stage in his career where he either needs to play to prove his worth are simply accept his role as a backup. Even to Favre, Jackson won’t be as patient as he was in 2009.

And one thing Jackson learned along with the rest of the world is that Brett Favre is worth the $13 million Minnesota will have to spend on him. Even entering his 41st year on this planet, Favre still has plenty of gun powder left in that canon arm of his to be decisively effective at this level.

Physically, he’s worn down, but anyone would be at that age playing in a professional contact sport like football. That ragged, scruffy look he had during interviews at the NFC Championship game was the same look he had back in 2006 when he was first mulling with retirement.

Yet the competitive nature of Favre and his unrelenting passion for the game should point to the fact that he is itching to return. Once the bruises have healed and the soreness of a rough and tumble season have subsided, the league leader in fun will be itching to come back. The lingering memory of that fourth quarter pick against New Orleans will be haunting him. Simply put, Favre can’t let his career end like that no matter how comically appropriate it may be for him to walk off in to the sunset with an interception.

The Vikings will get a revamped Bears’ offense, the surging Packers and the dwindling Lions like they do every year. In the 2010-11 NFL season, however, they’ll also have to deal with the Cowboys, Giants, Dolphins, Bills and Cardinals. Those are four teams going through major overhauls and Minnesota man-handled Dallas easily last season. The attractiveness of playing with an absolutely loaded Minnesota squad against a marginally soft schedule will also be enough to lure Brett back to the game he loves so much.

He owes one more to the Vikings for that pick. Brad Childress will be begging him to return. And for those of you that lost money on the Vikings’ moneyline in the NFC Championship, Favre will give you one more crack to win back those losses in our NFL futures.

This summer will be like the last four summers of “will he, won’t he” with Brett Favre. The only difference is that we won’t be sick to our stomach every time an analyst waxes poetic about his return. We all made some money off of Brett Favre this year, so shame on you if you’re going to blast him for taking his sweet time. Just like he has for the last few summer, Brett will enjoy the summer golfing in flip-flops with his waffle iron in tow.

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