Too Good to be True

I knew it was too good to be true!

For anyone who ever questions my objectivity in analyzing sports, as I do for a living, I need only point to the fact that I have been a long-suffering Minnesota Vikings fan my entire life and my favorite football player of all time built his Hall of Fame career playing for the Vikes’ biggest rival, the Green Bay Packers. Yeah, I know it doesn’t make much sense. However odd, it made all the sense in the world (at least in my world) when my team started flirting with Brett Favre months ago. It was a perfect fit: favorite player on favorite team, one of the best quarterbacks of all time on a team that’s a quarterback away from being a Super Bowl contender, a West-Coast quarterback in a West-Coast system, etc.

Then yesterday, fate stepped in and snatched the ball away just as Charlie Brown was about to kick it. Favre decided not to un-retire. How’s that for a double negative?  A “double negative” summed up how I felt, and how many Vikings fans felt, when they heard the news yesterday.

Favre knows he can still play. Some part of him wants to still play — he still has that “itch.” Any reasonable football observer knows there aren’t 10 people on the planet who can throw the football better than he still can…just look at the NFL rosters for evidence.  However, Brett doesn’t want to play enough to endure the mental and physical grind that is an NFL season. He especially hates training camp. The fact that his agent Bus Cook even today is saying that Favre is remaining retired at this time and Favre still plans to go down to the local high school and toss the ball around with the kids fuels the fire for conspiracy theorists who believe it’s all part of a big master plan. Favre will skip training camp and then come calling when the Vikes break camp and start preseason games. It makes too much sense, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’m done waiting and I’m done hoping. It’s time to move on.

It’s time to see what Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson are made of as they battle for the starting job in camp.  I favor Rosenfels because he is a much more accurate thrower than T-Jack. That’s faint praise, though, because Jackson is not exactly known for his ability to make all the passes. Jackson has a superb arm, good mobility, and knows the Vikings playbook. He’s probably the favorite to start in Week 1 because of his experience in the Vikings system. However, I’ve seen what he can do and remain unimpressed. Either Jackson takes several strides forward and wins the job convincingly, or Rosenfels should be given the chance.

What happens if one of them gets injured or looks completely and utterly inept? Well, then the Vikings will have their choice of No. 4s, either the guy currently sitting on the sidelines holding a clipboard with a 4 on his purple jersey, John David Booty…or the “retired” guy sitting on a tractor down in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.  My money in that scenario is on a Booty call, but as much as I’d like to turn the page I’ve learned to never say never when it comes to Favre.