Author: David Shama

Heroes are remarkable and tragic. Brett Favre reminded us of that during his two-year stop with the Vikings.

Favre’s NFL career presumably ended today as he watched the Vikings and Lions from the sidelines.  At 41, with a body of hurts and a head vulnerable to concussions, it’s time to permanently camp out on the ranch in Mississippi.

Favre’s life has been filled with demons but those won’t be recounted here.  Years ago Mickey Mantle captured the nation’s adulation, and if not for his injuries and alcoholism he might have been the greatest baseball player of all-time.  In the new millennium Tiger Woods’ ride to golf immortality has been slowed by his own undoing.

The greatest of heroes are human, too, and flawed like everyone else.  But oh how their performances on the playing fields can leave us awestruck and inspired.

For a long time no one in this town had reason to believe Favre would play for the Vikings.  But he showed up here in 2009 and at age 40 had one of his greatest seasons ever.  His passer rating was a very impressive 107.2, his best since entering the NFL in 1991.  He threw 33 touchdown passes and a career low seven interceptions.  No. 4 had the best season ever by a Vikings quarterback.

Favre, playing the most important position on the field, transformed the Vikings into an elite NFL team.  He resolved a quarterback mess where the always available Tarvaris Jackson and newcomer Sage Rosenfels weren’t good enough to make the Vikings special.  The truth is Favre was not only better during the magical 2009 season than any Vikings quarterback past or present, he was superior to his All-Pro teammates including running back Adrian Peterson and defensive end Jared Allen.

It was more than having a great arm and someone who could locate his receiver options, from first to last.  It was like having a coach on the field.  Favre didn’t just out pass the opposition, he dissected them with his football IQ and his arm.

It was not Favre’s fault the Vikings didn’t beat the Saints and go to the Super Bowl.  An almost unforgiveable sideline coaching snafu resulted in 12 players on the field and the Vikings lost the opportunity to set up a winning Ryan Longwell field goal.  Yup, Favre threw a careless interception after that but how many plays and how many games did the guy have to carry his offense and be perfect?

This season was flawed in so many ways.  Favre decided to play one more year but the season collapsed even before the Metrodome roof went down.  But give the guy credit for trying to make something special happen again for the Vikings by returning to the team and going about the task with a passion all of us could apply to our lives.

Favre loves to play football and his boyish enthusiasm can’t be lessened by gray hairs on his head and what seems like a million savage hits to his body.  Even this year Favre was ready to sprint half the length of the field to hug a teammate after a long pass completion.  And he was willing to throw that beat up old body at a tackler to block for Peterson, Percy Harvin or someone else.

Favre played behind a substandard pass blocking offensive line this season and except for Harvin his big play pass receiving options were limited.  Without injured prize wide receiver Sidney Rice, he might have mumbled more than once, “Can anyone here get open and then make a tough catch?”

Favre wasn’t the same player this season as in 2009 but he could have litigated for lack of support.  It wasn’t just the player personnel around him.  The coaching situation became a mess leading to a troubled locker room.

Favre put up with it all.  He took a physical beating and kept playing through injuries until the danger of a severe concussion finally sidelined him.  Favre didn’t want to go to the sidelines.  He never did but finally had to, ending his 297 consecutive starts streak.

Favre never wanted his career to end, but now it must.  In this town we’re fortunate he played long enough to take a curtain call here.

Thanks, Brett, for putting excitement back into watching Vikings football.

Former TV analyst and Gophers basketball coach Jim Dutcher was clear in his answer when asked by Sports Headliners what Minnesota must do today to defeat Michigan State in East Lansing.  “Defensively, they’ve got to stop Michigan State from getting any transition baskets, either from defensive steals or from fast breaks,” he said.

“In the half-court Michigan State struggles to score, but you let them get some transition baskets and then they can be really dangerous.  To do that (prevent transition scores), you gotta cut down on your turnovers and be pretty selective on your shot selections.

“A lot of fast break baskets come from missed threes. They (those three point attempts) rebound out and the other team scoops them up and takes the transition.  So I think if I look at Minnesota, they’ve got to stop the fast break, make Michigan State score in the half-court and just cut down on their turnovers.”

The nationally No. 14 ranked Gophers, 0-1 in the Big Ten and 11-2 overall, will go against a No. 24 rated Spartans team playing their first conference game after a difficult nonconference schedule that included losses to No.1 Duke, No. 5 Syracuse and No. 13 Texas.  The 8-4 Spartans have not only faced outstanding opponents but a busy schedule that has limited practice time.

“My little son asked me what I wanted for Christmas,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.  “I said practice.”

As of late the Spartans have been getting more of that.  While the Gophers opened their league schedule with a 68-60 loss at Wisconsin on Tuesday night, the Spartans haven’t played a game since December 22 when Texas beat them 67-55 in East Lansing.

“…Texas really kicked their behinders,” Dutcher said. “I think they will be fired up to play (today). They don’t lose often at home.  I would guess going into the game the spread will be…Michigan State by three or four.”