Quarterback Brett Favre has thrown only one interception thus far for the Vikings, the fewest after four regular season games in his nearly two decades career. His 68 percent completion percentage is close to the team record of 69.2 by Daunte Culpepper (2004).
There’s no question Favre has been fortunate not to have a few balls intercepted but he’s thrown accurately much of the time. His minimal interception total is a result, too, of often featuring short, high percentage passes, and at times a preference to run the ball featuring Adrian Peterson.
Favre, who celebrates his 40th birthday tomorrow, has made 273 consecutive career starts. That’s a record and so, too, is being the first starting quarterback in NFL history to defeat all 32 teams. That was accomplished on Monday night when the Vikings defeated Favre’s former team, the Packers, 30-23.
The Vikings-Packers Monday Night game broke a ratings record as the watched event in cable TV history. Favre drove those ratings just as he has other popularity numbers including NFL jersey sales where he ranks No. 1, according to figures on merchandising, amount of Web traffic and ticket sales released by the Vikings. The Vikings’ Web site, www.vikings.com, is receiving four times the amount of traffic compared to recent years and he’s made ticket sales jump, too.
Favre signed a two-year contract with the Vikings on August 18 and his impact on business was immediate. In the 72 hours following his signing the franchise sold over 4,000 season tickets and more than 15,000 individual game tickets. The three Vikings Locker Room retail stores and Vikings.com sold more than 5,000 Favre jerseys. Vikings.com had over 1 million visitors. The Vikings had 800,000 page views in the first 24 hours after the signing (compared to an average of 100,000).
For Vikings fans the most important of all the numbers is the team record, 4-0. If the Vikings win at St. Louis on Sunday, they will be off to their first 5-0 start since 2003.