| |
 Favre is changed -- and happy
Posted: Monday October 04, 1999 12:52 PM
Week 4 Awards | Top 10 Teams | 10 Things I Think I Think Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag. GREEN BAY -- I've known Brett Favre for five years now, and pretty well for four. Outwardly, he hasn't changed one speck. West of Howard Stern, he still gets the greatest charge of any American man out of flatulence -- his own, mostly -- by pausing before ripping one, just so everyone around can hear it. That's a nice thing to hear with your grande hazelnut latte, isn't it? I do think, though, Favre appreciates his bountiful life more today than he did five years ago. Next Sunday, he'll turn 30. So a few days ago I came here to see Favre. I thought a mid-career look at a guy who I believe will go down in history as one of the top 10 quarterbacks ever -- oh, step out on a limb, Peter -- was in order for my Sports Illustrated "Inside the NFL" column this week. In a couple of days, you can read the piece and judge for yourself how fit, mentally and physically, Favre is to enter the second half of an incredible career. (Maybe I should add another weekly award to my list below. Call it Peter King's Shameless Plug of the Week .) Favre's appreciation of life and football is the first thing that hit me. "At Lambeau," he said, "when they call my name, I still get chill-bumps. Really do. Now more than ever. The first couple times I ran out, I said, 'That's pretty cool.' Now I think: 'This won't be here forever. Appreciate it.' The average player plays, what, three years? Before you know it, you're gone. I can't even tell you who played on our team last year. So I soak it in a little bit more. "When you first come in, you're invincible. You think you're gonna play 50 years. Especially here. Lambeau Field is like no other. You hear people say they've got to go to Lambeau Field before they die. It's like the Yankee Stadium of football. When we're winning here, there's something to it no one else has. That's why the feeling of our first two wins, two last-second wins, is so intense." I wondered why Favre and his wife, Deanna , spilled their guts about their marital problems to Terry Bradshaw on FOX a couple of weeks ago. "Terry's a friend," Favre said. "He's been going through some personal problems. [Bradshaw is divorced from his third wife, and there is a dispute over custody of his two daughters.] We don't plan any of these things. We talk about whether we should say anything about these things, but then you get asked the questions and you just answer 'em. We're not trying to be on Good Morning America. We're not trying to be a white-picket-fence family, because we're not one." Favre jetted to an appearance Monday night at, of all places, a Wal-Mart store in Nevada. He put on one of those red Wal-Mart vests the employees wear, with a nametag that said "BRETT." Deanna loved it. "She thought it helped keep me in line, like I should never get too big for my britches," he said. Favre the player still hadn't gotten over the Minnesota win yet. Few in Packerdom have. "On the last drive, the drive we win the game on," he said, "we go out there and we ain't done nothin' yet. It ain't lookin' good. Of course, I didn't say nothing to the guys. I just said: 'Okay, let's go. Let's do it.' "The guys are looking at me and wondering, 'Does he mean it?' Hell, to be honest with you, I didn't know. I did know I didn't think I could top the Oakland game. We were playing a team we lost to twice last year, a team that won our division last year. "People talked about revenge for last year. It wasn't about retaliation. I wasn't mad at them. They just kicked our a-- last year. They simply outplayed us. They were better. They were a great, great team, a team I have a huge amount of respect for. And coming into [the game against the Vikings], I didn't practice all week. It showed. I couldn't get anything done. But then we did it. Now, how could you not look at that game and say 'wow?'" "Two times in three weeks," Packers coach Ray Rhodes said after the game. "Some people go a lifetime and don't win a game like either one of those." Which is why Favre gets so much respect from the long-time scouts and coaches. They remember the greatness of Otto Graham and Johnny Unitas because they saw it. Now they see it in Favre. "He's the Muhammad Ali of football," St. Louis VP of player personnel Charley Armey said. "He has his own unique style that probably wouldn't work for anyone else but it works for him. He's the best quarterback in the game today, right up there with the best who ever played, but his style works against the longevity like [John] Elway and [Dan] Marino had. Emotionally and physically he gets strung out. He plays at such a fever pitch he drains himself every week. He'll go to the Hall of Fame because of it but he won't go as long as those guys because of it. People don't understand the catalyst the quarterback is. Green Bay goes the way Favre goes now. They can't survive without him." It'll be interesting to see if he can keep it up in his 30s. He's more of a student of the game now, taking on more classroom responsibilities with Mike Holmgren gone to Seattle. And, as one teammate told me last week: "Last year Brett was breaking the rules. This year he's helping make them." Away from football, Favre says he feels more in charge of his life, and he sounds like he means it. But he won't sit there and say he'll never drink again. It's a wonderful story, the one about Favre becoming the stay-at-home family man. But even he knows it's a bogus one until he does it for a few years. "Thirty," he said, "is just a number. I still feel young. Sometimes it's hard to believe. Nine years in this league. Wow. I remember like it's yesterday missing the team picture in Atlanta and everyone saying: 'Who in the hell is this yahoo?' And Jerry Glanville saying, 'We drafted the wrong guy. We meant to draft some guy from Mississippi State, not Southern Miss.' I could understand. I was always staying out all night. [When I missed] the team picture, I said I slept in. Actually, I just got in. "Now I feel more in charge of my life, and that's made a difference on the field and off the field. Used to be 5 o'clock in the afternoon I couldn't wait to get out of here. Now 7, 8 in the morning, I can't wait to get in here. Sometimes it's hard to look at players and not get mad at 'em for some of the lazy stuff they do. Laughing on the bus after we lose, talking on their cell phones. But then you think, 'Wait a minute. I was that way.' It's a phase that they have to go through, like I did. "After a while you start to care so much more about the game than the money; I don't know if people out there will believe that, but with me it's definitely true. Now I might say, 'Let's have an extra meeting to go through these signals.' It means so much more than before. Before it was just money. Now, after you're in it for a while, all you care about is winning. After we lost to Detroit, I wanted to shoot myself. Then I throw the pass to Corey [Bradford] and we beat Minnesota, and that meant as much to me as the touchdown pass to Andre Rison when we beat New England in the Super Bowl. I'd prepared for that game so much mentally that it was such a reward." I don't know where Favre will end up among the greatest to ever play the game. He's got that fate in his hands, and in his brain. But if he has a few more weeks in his 30s like he had in his very late 20s, the deal is sealed. "I think he'll be one of the all-time greats," said Atlanta defensive coordinator Rich Brooks . "He probably already is." OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: New Orleans RB Ricky Williams , whose 21 carries for 84 yards and one catch for 10 yards in a loss at Chicago showed just what a gutty player he is. Any questions about the toughness of Williams ought to be dispelled right now. On Saturday night, I was told unequivocally by a Saints player I trust that Williams was definitely not playing, and the real question in the New Orleans' camp over the weekend wasn't whether he'd play yesterday. It was whether he'd play next Sunday at home against the Falcons. The 15-day-old hyperextension of his right elbow -- with some stretched ligaments to boot -- is so painful that Williams had to shake hands with his left hand because doing anything with the right hurt so much. Thus the award, even though others had better Sundays. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Denver LB Bill Romanowski , which may seem like an odd call for a man on a losing (Jets 21, Broncos 13) team. On consecutive plays with the game on the line and 10 minutes left to play and the Jets on the Broncos' five-yard line, Romo stuffed Curtis Martin for no gain, and then picked off Rick Mirer at the Denver one to stop the rally. If Brian Griese hadn't thrown an interception two plays later, Romanowski's clutch work would have cemented a win. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: St. Louis PR Az Hakim , for, in part, his acrobatic muff, recovery and 84-yard return for touchdown against the worst Bengals team of all time in the Rams' 38-10 win. Hakim touched the ball eight times in the game: on punt returns of 8, 26, 84, 11 and 188 yards, and touchdown receptions of 18, 51 and 9 yards. Wow. And to think Hakim's the third wideout threat on the Rams, behind Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt . COACH OF THE WEEK: San Francisco's Steve Mariucci , for getting Jeff Garcia ready to play and win a vital game, for bringing the Niners back from their 38-point opening-day loss at Jacksonville and for being so unalterably positive that his players refuse to think they're over the hill. Which, in my opinion, they should be. GOAT OF THE WEEK: Referee Bob McElwee , for stupidly overturning a Denver touchdown in the Broncos' loss. Situation: Rod Smith made an acrobatic catch for an apparent touchdown in the third quarter. Clearly, Smith got one foot down in the end zone before being pushed out of bounds by Jet corner Otis Smith . The touchdown call was perfect. Then McElwee stuck his head inside the replay booth and came out a minute or so later, saying the receiver didn't have both feet down, and the call would be overturned. He doesn't have to have both feet down, sir, when one comes down inbounds and he's pushed out-of-bounds before the other foot can be put down inbounds. Replay is a good tool in the NFL, but it'll die with a few more lame-brained calls like this one. 1. Miami (2-0)
The 10 Things I Think I Think This Week 1. I think, barring some neurosurgeon telling him to quit, that Young ought to play football as long as he wants, and I also think the sudden brain experts in the sportswriting and NFL-analyst community ought to have the brains to admit they know nothing about the brain. Remember one thing, geniuses: Roger Staubach had 11 concussions when he retired 20 years ago. He is 57 now. He has all his marbles. 2. I think former Tennessee Treadmills coach Jeff Fisher (the old Oilers went 8-8, 8-8, 8-8 the last three years) could have a 5-1 team when Steve McNair is ready to return, and regardless what Fisher says now, he's going to have an awfully tough time pulling Neil O'Donnell out of the lineup to put McNair back in. 3. I think Paul Tagliabue , for the good of the game, should suspend Atlanta cornerback Ray Buchanan for his shameful display in the end zone yesterday. After Patrick Johnson scored over him in the end zone and started dancing, Buchanan body-slammed Johnson to the turf and began punching him. Commissioner, this is not a matter worth just an ejection. It is a heinous offense worthy of suspension. 4a. I think -- and I have thought about this for a full two minutes, at least -- that Philadelphia's offense is worse than Cleveland's and wins the MMQB Lousiest Offense in the NFL Award . The Eagles' first two drives: three plays, three yards, 75 seconds; three plays, seven yards, 77 seconds. Nineteen of the Eagles' first 44 drives this year were three-and-outs. 4b. I think I've underrated Giants wideout Amani Toomer a bit. The guy's a good athlete and pretty crafty. 4c. I think anything I say positive about the Giants' offense ought to get me sent to the Journalism Hall of Shame. Boy, the Giants' O smells. 4d. I think I don't know what this is doing here, but Mark McGwire 's averaged 67.5 homers a year over the past two years. We football types bow in reverence. 5. I think I was pretty surprised Saturday afternoon when, on the phone from Denver, coach Mike Shanahan told me: "We're pretty complacent." 6. I think, not to overdo the Favre-at-30 angle, here's one final note from Drew Bledsoe : "He's the most important player to his team in the league. The Packers without Brett are a pretty average team. I watch him play and it's a style I could never get away with. Nobody in the league -- and maybe nobody in history -- could play the way he does. His footwork is poor. His mechanics aren't great. He doesn't run the plays the way they're designed all the time and some guys I've talked to who play with him say at times he has trouble really reading the defense but he can run around and just create. He creates something you've never seen before and then he makes it work. He's like a great heavy metal jazz man or something. I don't know if he'll play as long as John [Elway] and Dan [Marino] but I wouldn't be surprised despite his reckless style simply because it's so important to him. People who don't know him have no understanding how important this is to him. He'll drag himself on the field somehow and to get him off he'll go kicking and screaming." 7a. I think St. Louis coach Dick Vermeil might have had a few shots of Sparky Anderson Liquor last week before he said that Kurt Warner would have a better career than any of the quarterbacks drafted in the 1998 or '99 crop. (Remember how Sparky used to say things like, " Chris Pittaro will be the next Ty Cobb ?") One question, Dick: Interested in a Peyton Manning -for-Kurt Warner deal? 7b. I think, however, that Warner may well be the surprise athlete of the year. Not just in football. In American sports. 8. I think I would have loved to make Tennessee's Fisher my coach of the week, but his team lost to the Niners on the road yesterday by two. Fisher told me he told his team the night before playing the 49ers: "If I gave you your choice of tight ends tomorrow, who would you take -- [Frank] Wycheck and [Michael] Roan [of the Titans] or [Greg] Clark and [Chad] Fann [of the Niners]? At quarterback, O'Donnell [Titans] or Garcia [Niners]? Their secondary or ours? Eddie George or their guys at running back?" The message was clear: Forget the 18-year 49er mystique. Compare the players, and we're much better. Despite having that bit of common sense pounded into them the night before the game, however, the Titans couldn't get over the hump at 3Com. 9. I think I told you so about Kordell Stewart , didn't I? 10. I think Dale Carter , after a month, has been a fraud for Denver. Click here to send a question to
Peter King's NFL Mailbag.
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
