The Vikings have enjoyed the good fortune of competing against mostly ineffective quarterbacks in their first three games. Atlanta’s Joey Harrington, Detroit’s J.T. O’Sullivan and Kansas City’s Damon Huard won’t be headed to the Hall of Fame in this lifetime. The Purple’s luck ends Sunday, though, when Brett Favre comes to town, tied with Dan Marino for the all-time NFL record for touchdown passes, 420.
Like a good movie script, it seems appropriate that Favre, who has already broken Marino’s league record for pass attempts, is within one touchdown pass of setting the record when Green Bay comes to Minneapolis. The Viking-Packer rivalry is one of the best in football and provides a little more theater for Favre.
Favre and the Packers won both games against the Vikings last season. Green Bay has won three of the last four games at the Metrodome. The Packers are 3-0 while the Vikings are 1-2. Favre has six touchdown passes, 861 yards and a quarterback rating of 93.4 in three games, according to www.nfl.com.
Favre’s 38th birthday is next month and some people didn’t think he would still be playing, or at least performing at such a high level after all these years in pro football. When the Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers out of California in 2005 it was a signal to some that Favre’s days in Green Bay were coming to an end. Rogers, a No. 1 draft choice, has played in five games in three seasons, with no starts.
Viking kicker Ryan Longwell played with Favre for nine seasons in Green Bay. He was asked about the crowd that’s wanted to move Favre out of the way because of his age. “I don’t know what they’re thinking,” Longwell told Sports Headliners. “I think he could still play for a long time. I think unfortunately in this position and this job everybody is going to have an opinion there’s always something (someone) better.
“A lot of times in this business it’s not the case. Brett is certainly an example of a guy that can take anyone around him and make them better. And there’s not many of those guys in this league that can just bring the whole team, the whole organization up. And he happens to be one of them.”
Favre threw a league-leading 29 interceptions during 2005, but through three games has only two. Peter King wrote in last week’s Sports Illustrated that the Packers have asked Favre to be “more card shark than riverboat gambler.” The emphasis on shorter passes and more completions is likely to limit interceptions and give the overall mediocre Packers a better chance to win.
Longwell said Favre is very coachable and that a more conservative approach can make sense in the NFL where there is more parity than years ago. “Yeah, he’s bought into it,” Longwell said. “There’s no doubt, but at the same time he’s one of those guys that can go outside the play if it breaks down and make something happen. …
“I think he does a good job of kind of straddling both sides. Staying in the scheme and…if it breaks down he’s the guy you want back there scrambling and throwing the ball around.”
A lot of NFL quarterbacks have played up to age 40 and beyond, according to the NFL Hall of Fame Web site (www.profootballhof.com). Only three have played at 44 or older, Warren Moon and Steve DeBerg played at 44 and George Blanda was still on the field at 48.
Longwell was asked how much longer his friend will play. “Who knows? I think only he knows, and sometimes I am not even sure he knows. … It’s tough to sit through the meetings, it’s tough to go to the mini-camps, and the training camps, but come Sundays in the fall there’s no place you would rather be. I think you start weighing I don’t want to go to all this off-season stuff and all the stuff you have to sit through, but then it comes game day. Man, it would be hard to give this up. Certainly his talent has not decreased and he can still win games with the best of them. So who really knows?”