|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Favre will gut out another painful year
Week 1 Awards | Factoid ... Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag. First, a prelude: I must say I've missed MMQB. I haven't missed the head-bobbing-because-I'm-so-tired 5 a.m. "I-have-nothing-left-to-say" moments when I'm stuck on No. 5 of 10 Things I Think I Think. But I have missed the concept of saying anything I want to say however I want to say it, and I have missed planning for the column, like I did this Sunday morning, standing in line at the Caribou Coffee at Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, waiting for my latte. Onward, then, with another year of pro football blathering. That having been said, I am a state away from Brett Favre, but I can feel his pain. Last weekend, I sat eight feet apart from Favre in the Packers' media library at Lambeau Field. This was a few days before he returned to practice, hoping his right elbow wouldn't hurt too much after his month-long bout with tendinitis, hoping he'd be healthy enough to play in the opener against the Jets. He gripped a football in his right hand. He tossed it in the air. I held my hands out. He spiraled it to me. I threw it back. He threw it again. "No pain," he said. "I grip it now and throw a short one, it's fine. But a 40-yarder, in traffic, where I really have to let it go? I don't know." That day he used the words "I'm scared" when talking about the prospect of throwing his customary line shot 40 or 50 yards downfield. In fact, in the Packers' three preparatory practices last week, Favre never let it rip. Not once. "We didn't have him throw one Brett Favre laser -- you know, the 50-yard downfield bullet," offensive coordinator Tom Rossley told me. Rossley said he wouldn't hesitate calling any play in the game plan, and he said Favre's condition didn't affect their game plan, but I'm not buying it. And Favre's pedestrian opener against the Jets -- 14 of 34, 152 yards, one touchdown, one interception -- showed his chemistry with some new receivers was off, as was his fastball. When he let loose and hummed that long-lost hard one, you could see it on TV. He grabbed his arm in pain. As Phil Simms pointed out on the CBS telecast: "Even when he celebrates, you can can see him hold back."
There is no way this just goes away and doesn't plague Favre this year, just like the thumb problems stemming from the 1999 opener bothered him all last year and contributed to a 24-pick season. Does that mean he'll be the inefficient player he often was last year? No. Because like every good player as he gets older, Favre is getting smarter. He'll know this year he can't do what he did five years ago, can't grip it and rip it. He'll adjust. He won't be the classic Favre, but then again coach Mike Sherman certainly won't ask him to be. Sherman is a smart man. Why am I so concerned about Favre? Because he's not just one of the game's best quarterbacks, he's one of the game's true characters, a breath of fresh air in a league of carefully planned quotes and media events. For everyone's sake -- his, the media's, his team's, his town's -- I'd like to see him take two weeks right now, shut it down and come back to play the final 13 games raring to go. But whatever he does, he will accept his fate. Favre is building a house on 440 pine-tree-laden acres in Hattiesburg, Miss. More than a house, actually. It's a community. Some 18,000 square feet, including a 1,500-square-foot home gym. Recently, Deanna Favre told her husband: "This costs too much. And it's too big." Said her husband: "It is what it is." This is not a complicated man. He will play football for as long as he can, as well as he can, and then he won't play anymore. It is what it is. That goes for Favre's arm, his house, and his life. Week 1 AwardsOFFENSE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: (tie) Two NFC East running backs -- Tiki Barber of the Giants and Duce Staley of the Eagles. With every eye focused on the 252-pound savior, Heisman winner Ron Dayne, Barber snuck in under the radar and stole the opening win over Arizona with 13 carries, 144 yards and two touchdowns. "Just what we needed," said coach Jim Fassel. And Staley had the best rushing day by an Eagle in 51 years, dicing the Cowboys' very good front four for 201 yards. "Duce, wow," said Philadelphia safety Brian Dawkins. Indeed. DEFENSE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Green Bay LB Nate Wayne. Thirteen tackles, three assists. Not bad for a guy not even on the roster entering training camp. Every time I looked up at this game, there was Nate Wayne making a play -- and keeping the Packers in a game where their offense struggled. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Carolina KR Michael Bates. Part of any game is momentum. Part of any season is momentum. The Redskins had a huge head of steam heading into Sunday's opener with Carolina. And then Stephen Davis got them an early lead with his first touchdown of the season. The FedEx crowd rocks. The Redskins jump all around. The ensuing kickoff lands in Bates' hands at the 8. He swerves, breaks through traffic, gets by LaVar Arrington -- and he's gone. He should have had another long return later in the game, but for a stupid official's call (a phantom illegal block) that brought it back. Great day for Bates. COACH OF THE WEEK: Philadelphia's head coach Andy Reid. Easy choice here. A month ago, he saw a flaw in the Cowboys' kick coverage team and decided he'd onside-kick the first kick of the season, at Dallas. And so he did. The Cowboys were shocked. Philly recovered and drove for the first score of the game. "He showed us he's not going to hold anything back," said Staley, "and players love that." Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only MeDrew Bledsoe was knocked down 28 times in the Patriots' loss to Tampa Bay. (Season-Opening) 10 Things I Think I Think1. I think the player who surprised me most in Week 1 was Miami running back Lamar Smith, whose 145 rushing yards led the Dolphins to a shocking 23-0 win over Seattle (someone please explain that one to me) -- unless, of course, the player is Jon Kitna, who seems to be disintegrating before our very eyes. Six of 13 for 54 yards? With four picks? Jon, that seat on the bench is beckoning. 2. I think these are the things I think about the Monday-Nighter: a. I think Kurt Warner will find Torry Holt eight times for 122 yards and two scores. b. I think Terrell Davis will gain 112 yards and say after the game: "I never thought about the knee." c. I think Rams rookie first-round draft pick Trung Canidate will make a difference-making play to help the Rams win. Mike Martz tells me the spunky Canidate ought to play special teams tonight, plus about 10 or so plays from scrimmage spelling Marshall Faulk. d. I think Dennis Miller will read at least one thing to the national TV audience off a cue card. Or sound like it. 3. I think Chicago cornerback Thomas Smith, the free agent pickup from Buffalo, did one heck of a job on Randy Moss on Sunday. "Thanks, man," he told me after the Vikes-Bears game. "It means a lot." Clingy, physical, feisty, and totally unintimidated. Except for one fourth-quarter play -- a 66-yard bomb -- that Daunte Culpepper threw perfectly, Smith was textbook all day. All you scouts and secondary coaches and coordinators, pick up the end-zone tape from Vikes-Bears this week and see how a real pro plays the best receiver in the world. 4. I think -- in fact, I know -- that Dan Hampton, the Bears' radio guy, has no use for Dave Wannstedt, ex-Chicago coach. The other day, I heard Hampton say this of Wannstedt's roster-building acumen: "He built this team like the first little pig built his house." 5. I think I would like to say this to the guy sitting in 26D on the American flight the other day who saw me typing away on my Macintosh Powerbook G3 and said, "Write something good about the Giants," in an impassioned voice: Okay, Barber and Dayne combined for 222 yards against a weak Arizona front, and if they run 70 percent as well every week, the Giants will make the playoffs. How's that? 6. I think before this season is over that Graceland (Iowa) University's own Herbert Goodman, a running back I wouldn't trade for Curtis Enis, will win a game for the Green Bay Packers. 7. I think this is a measure of how far we have come in Football America: Seven black quarterbacks opened this season as starters (I count Charlie Batch, because he will start this coming week, and I do not, obviously, count Kordell Stewart), and I have not heard one word about the topic all preseason. That's progress, especially considering that there were but two black starters as recently as five years ago. But imagine if Daunte Culpepper had come up in Florida in the '60s, not the late '80s. His coach might have turned him into a tight end or a linebacker. "The myth about black quarterbacks has been exploded," Dennis Green told me in the Vikings cafeteria the other day. "Why? I think it's because the coaches who came into the game in the '60, '70s, and '80s basically came into the game in an era of integration, where the color of your skin didn't matter. It was just whether you could do the job. But there's no question it's a major milestone for the NFL, to have this behind us." Now if the league could do the same thing about the coaches. It's still shameful that two of the NFL's 31 head coaches are black. 8. I think these are my questions about the NFL on TV yesterday: a. Am I wrong in thinking that the CBS "NFL Today" outdoor experiment is an absolute sideshow. Why are they doing it? Why? b. How many more ex-NFLers can ESPN hire? Nate Newton on the radio, Steve Young on TV, Tom Donohoe on the Internet. Isn't that TV set getting a little crowded? Where's my buddy Mort? c. ESPN did a heck of job last night reliving the Home Run Throwback. Great interviews, great production. 9. I think the Vikings did a dumb thing, shooting off fireworks indoors on the opening kickoff yesterday. Ridiculous. What if a player had lost the kick in the bright fireworks? The game is good enough, folks. You don't have to be doing all that garbage to spice it up. 10. I think I will be covering Daunte Culpepper many, many more Sundays. Cade McNown, too. He was gutsy and great Sunday, other than three or four horribly thrown passes. Click here to send a question to Peter
King's NFL Mailbag.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
