Favre's Legacy On The Line This Weekend

Brett Favre's return to the NFL to play for the Vikings will likely be viewed as a success. It wasn't a "win the Super Bowl or bust" situation; Personally at the beginning of the season I figured it would be enough to get the Vikings a few extra wins, but I didn't see them being better than the Giants, Panthers, or Saints.

Well, I was right about one of those teams, wasn't I? (The Panthers) We'll see if I was right about the Saints this week.

Favre didn't need another playoff run to cement his legacy though. He's not Kurt Warner, he's Brett Favre. What Favre needs, and has needed since 1997, is another Super Bowl victory.

Favre currently is the NFL leader in almost every important career achievement at QB besides two important ones, most MVP's, and Super Bowl rings. Favre will need at least another ring to retire as "the greatest QB of all time." With two rings, his tremendous stats and starts-streak will his name over legends like Unitas, Elway, and Montana. It will also separate him from that pesky Manning kid who is already inching in on every major record of Brett's.

If Favre can beat Manning, that would be even bigger. Kind of like when Elway beat Favre in Super Bowl XXXII. Having a head-to-head win in a Super Bowl against a statistical nemesis does wonders for ones legacy.

It's arguable that Favre can even afford to get to the Super Bowl as lose this year and still cement his legacy. There's a strong chance that even with a second ring, people would still consider Elway, Montana, Unitas, and eventually Manning better than #4. A Super Bowl appearance at age 40 would guarantee Favre's name be in the debate at the very least.

But if Favre doesn't win this week, then his decade of "choke" will always be solidified. Losing to the Saints will join "4th and 26," "6 INT's in St. Louis," "Losing at Lambeau to Vick," "Randy Moss mooning the crowd," "collapsing down the stretch on Broadway," and "OT interception" as the defining moments of Brett Favre in the 00's. Despite getting to the conference championship at age 40, he'll be more remembered as the QB who got zero rings in six playoff appearances in the 00's. Only Donovan McNabb can herald those sort of numbers, and he at least went to a Super Bowl this decade.

Brett Favre can not afford to have an entire decade in the league without going to the Super Bowl and be considered the best QB of all time. Without another Super Bowl appearance it will be hard to even consider Favre top five all time, with greats such as the aforementioned Unitas, Montana, Elway in his way, along with the legacy of Otto Graham and the rising legend of Peyton Manning. Unfortunately for Brett Favre, with only one Super Bowl win, and only two appearances in the big game, Favre will be stuck somewhere in the same sentence as guys like Dan Marino (all numbers, no rings), Tom Brady (three rings, some numbers, system quarterback), Terry Bradshaw (four rings, no numbers), Bart Starr (plenty of titles, lives in the shadow of Unitas' legacy), and Sammy Baugh.

There's about 50,000 quarterbacks who give their right arm to hear their names called in the same sentence as those quarterbacks, but not Brett Favre. He didn't start all those games in a row, come back four times, and almost ruin his legacy in order to be considered all-time tier 2. No, Favre did it to cement himself as the greatest of all time. The Babe Ruth of football.

Brett has his opportunity to get there this Sunday. A win and he's in the top tier, a loss and he's second tier.

No matter what tier Brett ends up on, enjoy watching him play this week. Because as always, it may be his last game.

The Golden Age of the Quarterback

I recently read this article contemplating whether or not this was "the greatest QB era in history?"

If you're going to ask me for a one word answer it'd be "no." Two words "no way." Three words "not a chance." You get where I'm going with this?

Right now the state of the QB position in the NFL looks as good as it's looked all decade. Probable Hall of Famers Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Donovan McNabb, Kurt Warner, and Brett Favre all have their teams playing at .500 or better, while other talented QB's such as Carson Palmer, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan, and Jay Cutler are all looking like QB's who will stick around the league for the next 4 to 5 seasons.

Another positive trait this current QB situation has is a slew of young guns who could potentially develop into top tier talent, QB's such as Chad Henne, Matthew Stafford, Mark Sanchez, Joe Flacco, Aaron Rodgers, Kyle Orton, Tony Romo, and Matt Cassell. And let's not yet write off Jason Campbell, Alex Smith, Matt Leinart, Vince Young, JaMarcus Russell, Kellen Clemens, Chris Simms, Brady Quinn, Trent Edwards, and Brodie Croyle as busts. Odds are at least one of them will turn it around and become a Pro Bowl talent.

And while some QB's like Kerry Collins, Jake Delhomme, and Matt Hasselbeck look like they're on the back 9 (more like 3 to 1) of their careers, they're still names that we'll hear about for a long time, and it's good to see them play.

All of this taken into account, I strongly doubt this will go down as the golden age of the QB; the sole reason being that the decade of the 1990's existed.

At one point in the 1990's, more specifically 1994 (as the article mentions) we were blessed with seeing Dan Marino, John Elway, Warren Moon, Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Brett Favre, and Jimmy Kelly all in their prime, or something near it. Joe Montana was also in the league at the time, though he was nearing his end, but was still a winning QB. That's 7 QB's who were hall of fame bound all playing competitive football at the same time.

Take into account that Drew Bledsoe was beginning his reign as a passing machine, Boomer Esiason was still pretty good, Phil Simms was ending his career (which should have ended in Canton), Dave Krieg was still hauling the ball around, Vinny Testaverde was starting to develop, and Mark Brunnell was was sitting on the bench somewhere behind Brett Favre and you had 14 of what I consider to be (as of this second in time) the 50 greatest QBs of all time all in the same NFL at once. Expand this time frame as a window from 1993 to 1998 and you could easily steak the claim as the mid 1990's as the premiere time for the QB.

How many QB's from today, let's say the window of 2004 to 2009, will be in the Hall of Fame? Well, Manning, Brady, and Favre are certain. McNabb and Warner are likely, that's 5. Throw in Roethlisberger and you have a confident 6. After that there are a lot of potential Hall of Famers; Eli Manning already has a great shot and due to the numbers game he'll probably end up there. Steve McNair, who retired after the 2007 season may have a chance, but the way his life ended will probably overshadow the way he played in the NFL. Drew Brees and Philip Rivers, forever tied at the hip, both have impressive numbers but zero rings. There's a good chance that can eventually change.

(Note: from 1993-1998 there would be 9 Hall of Famers, because you'd have to include Peyton Manning and Kurt Warner who both came into the league in 1998. The means that Manning, Warner, and Favre double count for both era of the mid to late 90's, and the era of the mid to late 00's.)

So how many players from this era will be enshrined in Canton? Who knows? The number may blow the mid 1990's away, but it will likely come up short. Don't forget, there was a time in the mid 1990's when it looked like Bledsoe, Brunnell, and maybe even Neil O'Donnell were on their way to great careers. It's usually hard to make it to Canton, just ask Boomer and Simms.

No matter how many players from this decade make it Canton, I still don't think it would compete with the early 90's. Maybe it's nostalgia, but for me personally, the way that John Elway, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Warren Moon, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman, Brett Favre (in the 90's), and Steve Young played signified the way the QB position should be played. The inter-competitive nature between these players helped create the Quarterback Club, and gave Peyton Manning and Drew Brees records to fight with. When John Elway raised the Lombardi Trophy after Super Bowl XXXIII, proclaiming the end to the 1998 season, the Golden Age of the QB also came to end.