Welcome to the Throne and Favre-apalooza!

Hello fans of the Minnesota Vikings, welcome to the Throne. I hope to be able to bring you lots of Vikings news, takes, opinions, and rumors as well as inspire thoughts, emotions, laughs and hopefully only happy tears as the team in purple brings another division title home.

Oh yeah, him…that whole situation is definitely enough to make you cry. If you’re a fan of local Twin Cities sports radio as I am, then you’ve heard the endless Favre talk. It’s been dubbed Favre-Watch ‘09, Favre-athon, and my personal Favre-ite…Favre-apalooza. I hate to say it, but I love this whole situation. It spices up the early part of the offseason, which is normally pretty uneventful, and it is one of those things that make you ponder what is really going on in Brett Favre’s head.

That’s not nice of me! I’m sure there is plenty going on in that head…”Which pair of Wrangler jeans should I wear?” “How much of the lawn should I mow?” “Who should I call and tell one story to only to call someone else the next day and contradict it?” Wow, these are rolling off the tongue extremely fast. Maybe I have some bitterness inside? Yeah, possibly, but who can blame me? I want answers! I don’t like not knowing who is going to lead the Vikings this year. I don’t enjoy having Brett Favre dangled in front of my eyes only to be yanked away each time I reach out. I’m beginning to think the Vikings feel the same, and I’m not alone in thinking the team feels that way.

According to Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, the Vikings wanted a decision by the end of this past week. His article can be viewed here. Now I think they want an answer, but I also know it’s a little hurtful to your cause to try and force Favre to make a move. He hasn’t done well with that in the past. Favre will do what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants to do it. That’s it. If the Vikings push an ultimatum on him, then I feel that Favre would just tell them “OK, then my answer is no” and save his reinstatement papers for next year. I wonder if he paid a lawyer last year for a bulk supply of retirement letters and requests for reinstatement with blank dates just so he has some extra on hand.

Sorry, again the bitterness. I can’t stand indecisiveness.

I think I’ll go in a different direction with this. From what I’ve been hearing either through the local sports radio station or through talking with fellow fans myself, there are definitely strong opinions on Favre. There are the naysayers that hate Favre because he was a part of a storied Green Bay Packer team that, for the most part, handled the Minnesota Vikings while he was there. But there is a good majority of people that say they will embrace Favre if he comes here and would love to have the enemy’s icon on our team to put it to the Packers this year. I’ll put my thoughts on both sides and see if I can play devil’s advocate to both.

The Naysayers
To the people that hate Favre, hate the Packers, hate anything having to do with Favre coming to the Vikings, and would rather have the Vikings go 0 and 16 than win the Super Bowl with Favre…wow! Really? You’d really rather have one of the worst seasons in NFL history than win it all with the enemy’s Boy Wonder…scratch that…Old Man Wonder? (I really have heard this take a number of times.) I understand you bleed purple just as much as the next crazed fan, but I certainly don’t think you should be opposed to giving the team the best chance of winning.

Now, if you’re on this side because you have the opinion that Favrecan’t give the team a better chance to win, then I have to respect that. It’s your opinion. He does have a banged up arm right now. Also, his downward progression in performance and stats from start to finish the last two seasons has to worry people. Let’s remember, though, that last year he was having a Pro-Bowl season through 11 games. His shoulder started bugging him and his performance suffered because of it. This is extremely evident in looking at his overall completion rate through the first 11 games, in which the NY Jets went 8-3, compared to the last 5, when he claimed his arm was hurt and the Jets went 1-4. Through the first 11, he held a respectable 73% completion rate. During the last 5, that number fell 17 points to 56%. That’s a considerable drop. This also helps prove your point though, showing how much this injury hurt Favre’s performance. His TD to Interception ratio also fell dramatically, and is probably the most telling stat of his decline. Through the first 11 games, he had a TD to INT ratio of 20-13. That’s roughly 1.5 TDs for every INT. In the last 5 weeks however, the ratio fell to 2-9 which means he threw 4.5 INTsfor every TD. Those are some nasty stats, and definitely give some validity to your opinion.

The Favre Lovers
So you love Brett Favre and would just love to have him in purple taking John David Booty’s jersey for the number 4? You just can’t wait to see Favre throwing a streak to Bernard Berrian down the left side for 80 and a score, can you? Well, he has to sign first, and I’m not completely sure that’s going to happen.  I’m sorry to break your hearts, but it’s not a sure thing. I think a lot of people on this side are way ahead of themselves and have forgotten that Favre has yet to even say anything to the public about his interest or disinterest in coming back. Well, except for his supposed “NO” text to Trent Dilfer. But, I can’t blame you for getting excited about the possibility of having a first-ballot Hall of Famer in purple. I will be excited as well, if it happens.

When I try to think of what Favre can bring over Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels, the obvious comes to mind with his experience, skill, proven track record, and his knowledge of the game and how to win. But I also think of the games the Vikings have lost because they have no 2-minute offense whatsoever. How many games have you watched where you just know it doesn’t matter if the Vikings have the ball last and are down by less than 7, because you know the guy they have behind center probably won’t get the job done? I can recall plenty. Then you go back and place Favre behind center. At that point, your opinion changes and all of a sudden you feel the team has a chance. That’s what Favre brings to the table. At this point in his career, I don’t think he will necessarily put up extremely bigger or better numbers than who they currently have at QB, but I think he can help them win a couple more games just with his knowledge and experience in winning close games.

I hope I was able to show each side what the other side is thinking and why they feel a certain way about this. I do understand both views and definitely see validity to both. Whatever your opinion on Favre, I’m not sure you’ll have an answer any time soon. It’s anyone’s guess as to when he will make his decision, but from a fan’s perspective, I hope it’s sooner rather than later. From a writer’s perspective, I hope this gets strung out until the day before Week 1 starts. I’ll keep you posted each week on the latest Favre developments.

Thanks for reading! Watch for more posts soon!

If you have any comments, concerns, compliments, or complaints, feel free to comment and I’ll respond back as quickly as I can.

Tags: Brett Favre, Favre-apalooza, Peter King, Vikings, Vikings QB