Two Point Conversion: Episode 1

(editor's note: This is the first installment of Two Point Conversion, an updated-at-random question-and-answer column written by rising young sportswriting wunderkinds Luke Peacock and Brian Vidrik. Please feel invited to ask questions -- even and especially non-sports-related questions if need be -- of these two brilliant young men, and maybe you'll see yours answered in a TPC edition in the near future. Enjoy.)




BUT WHAT ABOUT BRETT...FAAVV-RUUH?


Samantha D. from Cuyahoga Falls, WI:
I am a huge Brett Favre fan, and every year I pray for him not to retire. Then, every time he throws an interception, I cringe. Is it time for Number 4 to hang it up?




BRIAN:

Retire? No. Settle down, Samantha. Favre is not nearly as bad as we are making him out to be. This is a guy who, at his age, has more talent for what he does than almost everyone in the world, with the possible exceptions of Peyton Manning and Superman. It is not true that Brett Favre would play for football for free, or would keep playing just to play the game, as ESPN would have us believe. Brett wants to win, plain and simple. And he can win. He just needs the team to do it.

Favre’s playmaking ability is still there, he just lacks the playmakers to help him compete. Favre needs a similar situation to what John Elway had in his final years, a fantastic team built around a legitimate young star. His leadership and competitiveness could be the driving force behind a team’s success were he put in the right place. Elway had Terrell Davis, Shannon Sharpe, Rod Smith, Ed McCaffrey, and an amazing offensive line. Favre has…has…umm…Donald Driver? Look, no offense to Samkon Gado and the rest of the Packers, but this is not what you would call a talented football team. Let’s face it; this Packers team is so young and inexperienced that Favre is more or less a glorified babysitter who is one dirty diaper away from doing his British nanny impression, and giving the “shaken baby treatment” to the entire team. What am I trying to say? Favre should be done in Green Bay.

So what do you do? You trade him to a team that could use a veteran quarterback. You trade him to a team that has playmakers. You trade him to a team that will reignite interest from both the players and the fans by adding a player like Favre. You trade him to team that is so aged with veterans that it could win a wine and cheese competition. You trade him to the Oakland Raiders, or what I like to call “The Senior Circuit.” Think about it. Oakland has Mike Vick’s cousin Aaron Brooks, who might be living proof that talent is not hereditary as we think, playing quarterback. What’s worse is that they just recently signed Jeff George to play for them too. I am no talent scout, but when your potential starting quarterback looks like the “before” picture in a Rogaine advertisement, you should start panicking.

Favre’s recent poor performances come from trying to make plays that are not there, not from a lack of talent. In Oakland he won’t have to make these plays. In fact, by joining Randy Moss and Warren Sapp he will be one of many stars on the team who no longer makes plays on his own. Just think though, who better to go up and grab his errant throws than Moss? And who better to plug the ball up the middle for him than rising star LaMont Jordan? Even Favre’s best feature, his competitiveness, should help to fire up Jerry Porter, and might even entice Sapp to come out of his hibernation cave to actually play a few games this season.

Wouldn’t that be nice? A real football team in Oakland led by Brett Favre? With some proven veterans? That would be incredible. His jersey would fly off the shelves, and he would have a chance to prove that he still is the gunslinger that we all knew him as. Or I could just be crazy, but hey its worth a shot.




LUKE:

Well, Brian, I agree with you on one account. 2006 is not the year Brett Favre should retire. Unfortunately, neither is 2007 or 2008. The year Brett Favre should have retired was 2004, before he embarrassed himself with 2005’s dismal performance and this ill-advised comeback tour in 2006.

I can understand Favre’s eagerness to return in 2005. His team was coming off a 10-6 season in which they won the admittedly terrible NFC North, and seemed ready to make a credible title run. Then came Javon Walker’s and Ahman Green’s injuries. Then came the interceptions. Then the losses, and the missed postseason, and the offseason during which the team did more to hurt itself (letting Pro-Bowl guards Marco Rivera and Mike Wahle walk in free agency without attempting to replace them) than to help itself return to its former prominence.

In 2005, Favre posted career-lows in yards per completion and passer rating, while posting a career-high in interceptions, besting his previous mark, set 12 years prior in his first full season as a starter, by more than 20 percent. Watching his performance in the 2006 preseason, he may set new career lows and highs in those categories yet again this season. He’s skittish in the pocket, throwing off balance and forcing throws he can no longer make into coverage he can no longer see.

And please, trade Favre to another team? If ever there were an untradeable player, Favre is it. Remember how painful it was to watch Montana finish his career as a Chief? Or Emmitt Smith as an Arizona Cardinal? How about Jerry Rice flip-flopping among the Raiders, Seahawks, and Broncos before finally returning to San Francisco to retire? Favre has a legacy in Green Bay. He has championships; there are roads named after him. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and will rest among Curly Lambeau, Vince Lombardi, and Bart Starr as the best to ever don a Packers uniform. You want him to taint that by playing a lost season in a Raiders uniform? That’s first-degree blasphemy.

Samantha, your creeping suspicion that the great Brett Favre has seen his better days is absolutely correct. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it but Favre. Green Bay spent a first-round pick two years ago on a guy they expect will succeed Favre in the near future. It’s time for the NFL’s ironman to pack up his cleats and spend more time with his family in Mississippi. Let the Aaron Rogers era in Green Bay begin.