Favre

I am not a packers fan, and to be honest I couldn't care less about Green Bay, however with the retirement of Brett Favre the entire nfl lost a great player. Favre has been apart of the nfl for 17 years now, dominating other teams and putting on an offensive show each and every week.

At age 38 this past season Favre was still able to throw for 4,155 yards, putting him 4th overall in the nfl. AT 38. He was also able to throw 28 tds putting him at 6th place. He had a completion percentage of 66.5 % and had a qb rating of 95.7. He was great this past year leading the youngest team in the nfl to a 13-3 record and to the conference championship game. Had it not been for a untimely interception against New York/A its likely he would have played in the super bowl and in my opinion would have won it.

He was a great player and a great man. For his career, favre threw for 61,655 total yards, 442 tds, he completed over 61 % of his passes and had a career qb rating of 85.7. He also threw 288 interceptions, as Favre was never afraid to take a chance in a game. He holds the record for most mvp awards with 3 (all in consecutive seasons 1995, 1996 and 1997), most consecutive starts by a qb with 253 (275 if you include the playoffs), he has the most wins for a qb with 160. His 442 tds are a record, and he also holds the record for most passes attempted with 8,758 and most passes completed with 5,377. His 288 interceptions is also a record, as is his 63 games in which he threw for 3 tds or more. He was also voted to play in the pro bowl 9 times.

He dominated the game taking the packers to the playoffs in 11 times and won the super bowl once back in 1997. He played in 1 other super bowl, where the packers lost to the denver broncos in 1998.

Favre will be greatly missed not only in Green Bay but around the entire world. Everyone was used to turning on the tv and seeing #4 leading the packers. He was an icon around the league and was the definition of what a leader should be. He willed the packers to the playoffs many times and placed the team on his shoulders on numerous occasions. Brett Favre thank you for 17 years of excellance and I hope you have as much fun in your post football years as you did in during them. Good luck.

Let's take a deep breath, shall we?

Some of you may not have realized this, but JT is a huge Packers fan. Shocking I know. Because of this, he sometimes gets a tad carried away in his assessment of the Pack, specifically the men who occupy their Quarterback position. Recently, on this very blog, Brett Favre has been referred to as the "best qb of all time," while Aaron Rodgers has been compared to Steve Young, using fancy mathematical logic symbols to boot! Let us take a moment to analyze these respective claims.

Brett Favre = Nolan Ryan

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Brett Favre is surely an accomplished Quarterback. He holds numerous records, including the Career Touchdowns and Career Passing yards records. Obviously, he is, excuse me, was a Great Quarterback.
Nolan Ryan was a Great Pitcher. He holds the records for most career Strikeouts, fewest hits per 9 innings, and career No- hitters. He too, was obviously a great pitcher.
Favre also holds the record for most career interceptions and passing attempts, while Ryan holds the record for career Walks and Wild Pitches, while ranking second in Career games started.
Both were great at what they did, but are either the best at what they did? I say no. The fact that they both hold the record for the top positive and negative categories at their respective positions indicates longevity more than positional dominance. Yes, longevity in itself is an impressive attribute for a professional athlete, and both of these athletes rank among the all time greats, but it is difficult to claim that either was the best at what they did when they have such glaring negatives on their resumes.
Favre may be great, but to say that he is superior to players like Elway, Montana, Marino, and even Peyton Manning, is a significant stretch. Marino, for example, has a touchdown- interception ratio and career Quarterback rating that compare favorably to Favre, while throwing for less than 300 yards less than Favre on less passing attempts. Obviously, the fact that Favre can even be compared to Marino signifies his greatness, but to argue that he is better is just incorrect. And the Super Bowl argument is ridiculous, as if Greatness was measured by Championships, Trent Dilfer and Jeff Hostetler would be better Quarterbacks than Marino, and Mark Madsen would be a better basketball player than Charles Barkley or Karl Malone.

Moving on, The claim that Aaron Rodgers will be like Steve Young is plainly ridiculous. Sure, Steve Young was written off as a bust after two atrocious years in Tampa Bay, and some are claiming that Aaron Rodgers is a bust right now, but the similarities end there. Steve Young was a dominant college football player, who finished second in the Heisman voting, was a First team All- American, and is a College Football Hall of Famer. Aaron Rodgers can only get into the College Football Hall of Fame by paying the $12 admission fee. Sure, he has numerous Cal Passing records, congratulations. That makes him better than Kyle Boller, Craig Morton, and Steve Bartkowski. Steve Young also received a 40 million dollar contract from the USFL and was successful in that league as a starter before the league went defunct. He was even the first Player to ever pass for 300 yards and run for 100 in a professional game. Sure Young had it rough in Tampa Bay, but even Peyton Manning and Troy Aikman were 3-13 and 1-15 respectively in their first years in the NFL. Point is, Young had a history of success and had experience before he took over for Montana. Aaron Rodgers has completed 35 passes in his 3 years as an NFL quarterback. I am not saying that Aaron Rodgers cannot be good, because he surely can, and showed flashes of skill this past season before getting injured, but we should all let him, perhaps, START A GAME before we compare him to any great quarterbacks.
I will now return to monitoring the Kellen Clemens/ Chad Pennington quarterback controversy. god dammit.