Still Fuming Over Brett Favre

Thompson’s ruthlessness is kinda what got the team where it is.

You want to see the head coach chew out his players on the sidelines? I don’t. That looks like a coach who’s losing his team.

I never said that at all. Neither Holmgren nor McCarthy chewed him out on the sidelines but they got different results. You can hold players accountable by different methods than simply chewing them out. Holmgren always had intermediaries like Andy Reid, Marty Morningwheg, and Jon Gruden discuss things with Favre because he knew that he had too much of a temper to try to talk to Favre after a bad play. Thats good coaching. There are different coaching methods besides chewing someone out on the sidelines.

Now in the Rams game Brett threw 3 picks that were returned for TD’s, including the first one score of the game and the other two coming when we were already down by 21 or more. That Rams team was great but we’ll never know if we would have had a legitimate chance against them because Brett was a wild man that game. He had to take risks alright but once we were down 21+ we weren’t coming back no matter what.

Now the Falcons game I don’t see how you can say that Favre didn’t get outplayed by Vick. Yes Vick only had 117 yds passing but his 64 rushing yards are as much a part of Vick’s game as his passing. Favre’s two picks may not have led directly to any Falcons points but it did take away chances for GB to score. He also had another pick called back because of a penalty and two fumbles. Our inability to run the ball was more damning than Brett’s play in that game but Favre did play a factor in the loss.

In the Vikings loss, yes, they were down 14-0 and Favre threw his first pick on the very next possession. It was very early on in the game that they fell down 14-0. I recall a game last year in the playoffs that we fell down 14-0 very early on and Brett realized that he had a lot of time left in the game and didn’t start forcing throws. If you want to see a difference between McCarthy and Sherman look no further than these games. Then, to start the second quarter Brett throws a TD to bring us within 7. After we block a FG attempt and get some momentum, he throws a pick on the first play and two plays later the Vikes score and we are back down 14. Our next missed FG was setup by Brett throwing an illegal forward pass for a TD. Two picks in the 3rd quarter (including one on the first drive of the half) finished us off.

In the 4th and 26 game, he played well until the OT pick.

You are right that all of these losses were the fault of the TEAM (with the exception of the Rams game, imo. He beat the Packers himself with his 3 INT’s for TD’s. The Rams didn’t even need to play offense) and not solely Favre or Sherman’s coddling of Favre so I’m not pretending that everything would have been great if we didn’t have Sherman as our coach. But we can’t give Brett credit for every win and say that every loss was because the team didn’t play well.

The thing about coddling Favre was that he was treated differently than others on the team. There was a set of rules for Brett and a set of rules for everyone else. If Gilbert Brown, or Chad Clifton, or Ahman Green, or Mike McKenzie wanted to rest more and miss minicamps then they were held to the normal expectations. Favre wasn’t. I’m not saying that it was the worst thing in the world but it was the beginning of Brett thinking that he was bigger than the team and could work with a different set of rules than everyone else. And Favre never had a problem chiming in on other players contract situations, which I know rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. I remember hearing veterans around the league and ex-players on the radio being ticked off that Favre was interjecting himself into someone else’s negotiations because Favre never had to worry about getting his money. He was Brett Favre. He couldn’t understand what it was like to have to negotiate to get the money that he felt he deserved or to set up his family for as long as possible so why was he telling players to show up to camp, essentially siding with management instead of his fellow players.

You make a very good point about the 70’s through the early 90’s GM’s being much worse than Sherman. I moved to Wisconsin about 1985 and immediately started following the Pack and they were horrible. He did take them to the playoffs four straight years and did bring in some good talent. I disagree with you on the flukiness of the 4th and 26 play and the game in general. His coaching decisions in that game led directly to that game still being in question during that drive that led to 4th and 26. And on that play, I still see no excuse for not bringing the house against McNabb. Force him to get rid of the ball quick and make the receiver gain 20 yards on his own. Instead they layed back allowed a completion that sucked all of the air out of the team. I put that loss squarely on Sherman and still have no idea what the hell Favre was thinking on that last pass.

I understand being emotional about the loss of Favre (as I am too) but I refuse to let emotions cloud my rational thinking about the situation. My emotions feelings about the split and my reasoned thinking about the situation are two different things.