Stop me if you've heard this one before: Veteran QB ponders retirement, gives the indication he'll be back for one more year, begins to hedge with doubts about his body's ability to handle the rigors of another season in the pros, only to ultimately return and deliver a stellar performance.
The NFL draft is a week past, teams have begun mini-camps and other such functions, so it must be time for another annual rite of spring, Brett Favre Wafflepalooza. Those of you holding April 30th tickets in the pool for the "First ESPN story casting doubt on Favre's return", please see the cashier to my left.
In a not-so-stunning twist, today also featured the "First non-denial denial of a story casting doubt on Favre's return", as posted on his website. If you were bold enough to anticipate both events on the same day, my hat's off to you, I myself had May 10th for the former, and didn't expect the latter to occur for at least 24 hours after that. It's almost as if #4 was anticipating the original report and had his response ready to go beforehand; if a person didn't know better, they could almost get the impression that Brett is somehow manipulating the media, which we all know is a ludicrous thought.
On a related note, we really need to get a font for conveying sarcasm.
So what does this mean to the average Vikings fan? As usual, only The Big (Former) Cheese himself can answer that, and he's not talking...at least not until late June/early July, and then only if you have a national talk show.(I wonder if he's ever used the phrase "need-to-know basis" when talking with Chilly?) My gut tells me this is the same drill as last year, setting up an excuse to avoid training camp under the guise of soul-searching about his return. Last year I made the mistake of taking him at his word when he said he was done, and won't be repeating it again. As eager as all of us are to resume the promising Tavaris Jackson Era, we probably should assume it will be delayed for at least one more season (Pretty sure no font is required for that one).
The more pressing question in my mind is, what is the ceiling for this team if he does come back? It's getting tough to be a Vikings fan after so many near-misses, because only one end result will be truly acceptable, it's Super Bowl or bust. Obviously this is a good team that was very close to that goal last year, but life in the NFL is not the linear progression that we see in other sports, where young teams progress from Competitive to Playoff to Contender to Champ. Things are more schizophrenic in pro football, one minute you're a contender coming off a great season, the next your QB is writhing on the ground as your season slips away or inexplicably losing his fastball and dragging the team with him down the tubes; look no further than the 2008 Patriots or 2009 Panthers if you doubt this.
Coming back strong in this league requires a delicate balance of players not regressing, draft picks contributing and above all, avoiding injuries. The Vikings did exceedingly well at the first two last season, and although they got a bit banged up, had relatively good luck with injuries as well. All in all, it was a pretty charmed life, and although I'm rarely confused for an optimist, from where I'm sitting it seems like pretty long odds that the dominoes are going to fall in place so well a second time around. At the end of the day, you'd have to be nuts to argue that the Vikings are a better team without Favre, but the more pressing question is, Are they good enough WITH Favre? All the double-talk and hand-wringing we're sure to see over the next few months could simply be the difference between 10-6 and 8-8, but hey, when you're the hot shooter, you've gotta keep tossing those dice, right?
It just feels like last season was the party and now we're dealing with the hangover that will be the lost 2010 season/Childress contract extension. Now I'm not one to complain, because it was one hell of a party, it's just a shame we couldn't close the deal and get laid, cause this hangover is going to be a killer for sure.
Maybe the annual Brett Favre saga is a microcosm of the Vikings franchise itself. Every year we get our hopes up that he will finally call it quits, often times getting so very close, only to be let down with disappointment.
ReplyDeleteAfter the infamous “I don’t know why you all showed up today…” press conference in 2004, (for those that may have forgotten, Bus Cook called the conference, saying Brett will “…make a major announcement about his future…”) I vowed never to be fooled again. Since then he has even filed retirement papers twice, and both times I had zero doubt he would be back.
But now this year, when it seems almost a foregone conclusion that he will return, when he is actually on our side during this saga for the first time, when we actually know he is still capable of playing at a high level, when we actually know his presence will be the difference of at least five games in the standings…well, it seems like the perfect time for the rug to be yanked out from under us.