Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff
Exploring a few subjects while trying to resist the urge to laugh at poor Vikings fans who bought into the Favre phenomenon:
Admit it...he fooled you, didn't he?
Those 33-regular season touchdown passes. The career low 7-interceptions. The stat sheet padding playoff performance against Dallas last week. You bought the act hook, line and sinker, didn't you?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
For a state that once sent a former professional wrestler to the Governor's mansion and currently seats a humorless comedian in the United States Senate, the final few seconds of regulation in the NFC Championship game Sunday night had to be the cruelest joke of all.
Brad Childress certainly saw it coming. Staring at about 51-yard field goal to win the game, the Vikings coach called consecutive running plays that picked up no yardage. No doubt a third such offering was in the works. Anything but let Favre throw the ball to the wrong colored jersey.
After all, Childress had seen "The Brett's" playoff act up close and personal in Green Bay all those years, so he knew better than anyone else what would happen if they put the ball in the air.
Alas, a stupid penalty pushed the Vikes 5-yards back, a passing play was called and the rest, as they say, is vintage Brett Favre history. A stupid pass most high school quarterbacks wouldn't even attempt, followed by that "golly-gee I shouldn't have done that face" and the inevitable Saints game-winning FG in overtime sent the Bayou into a frenzy and made the winter that much colder and unbearable for disgruntled Minnesotans.
And so, the annual offseason flirtation dance begins again. Will Favre retire or take one more shot at glory? After years of urging him to just go away, I say: "come back Brett. I'm having way too much fun!"
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
-Nice weekend for UMass-Lowell hockey, pulling off a pair of wins and climbing to fourth in the Hockey East standings. If they can hold onto that slot or better, the River Hawks would host a best-of-three opening round conference playoff series.
That could be huge, because there's another set of standings the River Hawks are climbing: Hockey East's attendance rankings.
UML is averaging almost 4,500 fans per game at the Tsongas Center, a far cry from the '06-07 season average of less than 3,000. That, of course, was the year before Marty Meehan became Chancellor and squashed talk of taking the River Hawks out of Hockey East and moving them down a level.
-Finally, for those of you who can't wait for winter to end, the Red Sox equipment truck leaves for Fort Myers Friday, February 12.
There's no truth to the rumor that Boston's Boys of Summer plan on cutting moving costs by not loading any bats onto the truck, since there aren't many qualified people on the roster to swing them anyway.
That's the view from Mt. Olympus...how do you see things? Was anyone outside of Minnesota surprised by what transpired Sunday night? Who do you like in the Super Bowl? Have you taken in a River Hawks game at the now Tsongas Center? How do you like the atmosphere? Are you excited about the upcoming baseball season?
bad luck for favre ,I am supposed to see him vs manning ,he should stay for another season.
Mr Panos,
Usually you have a well thought, insightful column; however, I must disagree with your analysis of Sundays game. You blame Favre for the loss to the Saints but make no mention of fumbles in the red zone by Peterson and Berrian which took points off the board for the Vikings. Let's not forget about the fumble by Harvin deep in his own territory leading to points for the Saints. By my calculations that's a 21 point swing. I know I look at this thru Favre colored glasses, but he should have been kneeling on the ball at that point. Instead, he has to try to do something heroic to bail his teammates out and pays the price for it.
I too hope Favre comes back next year, not to laugh at him, but to watch him win Super Bowl XLV. Besides, if he retires, what would I do with my shrine to Favre in my den. ......Hey, those aren't dolls, they're statues.
Gary
Gary, let's not forget about Favre's fumble, too.
I don't blame him for the loss....the Vikes probably would have won without all those fumbles. However, he DID resort to form at the end of a close game....trying to be a hero instead of just doing the smart thing. If you remember correctly, he also threw a couple of balls right between the numbers of a couple of butter-fingered Saints DB's, so it was only a matter of time.
Granted, it was a borderline kick for Longwell even before the penalty, but I think the fact his coach called consecutive running plays speaks volumes about what he knew Favre would eventually do if given the chance to throw.
I do hope he comes back, seriously. I haven't had so much fun rooting against someone since the days the Yankees used to own the Sox....LOL