The WSJ Needs to Stick to Business

Everyone else has had their take on the Brett Favre situation, so it's only fitting that Allen Barra of the Wall Street Journal had one as well. It was a steaming pile of poo, but it was a take nonetheless. It pisses me off when jokers like this have a massive platform. This guy clearly just tries to be controversial, he's not very good at formulating arguments, but because he's in the Wall Street Journal, millions of people are reading this and thinking "Hmm, he makes a good point."

I have to break this one down, because it's such a joke.

It would have been refreshing if at least one of the worshipful media folk at the press conference had replied, "Well, actually, Brett, you're here because after months of vacillating on your retirement and putting the Packers through hell -- and forcing them into using a valuable draft pick on an extra quarterback because they didn't know whether you'd be playing for them this season -- you tried to bully them into either making you the starter or trading you to a team of your choice. Like a prima donna, you put your own desires ahead of the welfare of the organization to which you professed loyalty. Now you've been dumped on one of the NFL's most desperate franchises because no one else wanted you."

1) Unless the Packers are full of crap about drafting BPA, they would have taken Brohm anyway. Nobody forced them to draft him. They could have signed a vet to be the backup.

2) After the Packers made it clear he wasn't going to start there, why should he have put the team ahead of his own interests? (If you believe Favre) The Packers told him "Playing here isn't an option." So what's he supposed to do? Stay retired just so the Packers aren't put in an uncomfortable situation? They were looking out for their own interests, he was looking out for his.

3) Saying "no one else wanted you" is incorrect, but why worry about facts.

It would be if Brett Favre were as good as Joe Montana. Mr. Montana won four Super Bowls and was arguably the greatest quarterback in football history; Mr. Favre has won just one Super Bowl and is probably the most overrated, or at the very least overhyped, quarterback in the modern NFL.

It's nice that he provides, ya know, some data to back his assertion that Favre is the most overrated/overhyped QB. (For the record, Mike Vick had a strangehold on that title before getting put in jail.) It's also nice of him to leave out the fact that Favre has never played with a Hall of Famer on offense, while Montana had one of the best supporting casts in history. And that Montana played pre-salary cap when it was easier to keep a great team together. Not to take anything away from Montana (because he clearly was amazing and I agree that he's arguably the best of all-time), but it's insane to say "OMG Favre only won one Super Bowl so he's overrated!" Look at what he was working with for most of the last decade. It wasn't Jerry Rice, John Taylor, Brent Jones, Roger Craig, Tom Rathman and a ridiculous OL....

Let's strip the Brett-to-the-Jets deal of the illusions the media has wrapped it in. What we have is a 4-12 team that has signed a 38-year-old quarterback who, though he made something of a comeback last season, hasn't otherwise finished in the top five of the league's passers since 2001. (In 2006 he was ranked 25th; in 2005, 31st.).

A 4-12 team who signed a slew of new players in addition to the 38 year old QB and added Gholston to the defense.

Even if he hasn't finished in the top 5 of league's passers lately, that's using the ridiculous QB rating stat. He's been runner up in the MVP voting twice in that span. Not that the MVP voting is the be-all-end-all either, but I'd use that as a gauge of performance before I'd use passer rating.

From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Favre has thrown 66 touchdown passes and 62 interceptions. If any other NFL quarterback had put up those numbers, his job would be on the line; instead, the New York Jets have chosen to delay the inevitable process of breaking in a new young quarterback -- and in fact have released Chad Pennington, who, according to Kerry Byrne of the Web site Cold Hard Football Facts, is "maybe the most underrated quarterback in the NFL."

So you've got one bad year when he got off to a good start before every player on the offense got hurt (They used like 7 starting RBs that year, including Rashard freaking Lee), one great year, and one mediocre year. But based on his career as a whole, it's pretty clear which of those seasons was a complete outlier.

And if Kerry Byrne said Chad Pennington is the most underrated QB in the NFL it MUST be true! Great support for the argument there. Never mind that in the last 3 years, Pennington has 29 TD passes and 28 picks. Worse numbers than Favre's, even with that one disaster of a season that isn't likely to be repeated. But Favre's job would be in question if he was any other QB and Pennington is the most underrated in the league. Makes sense.

And the delay in breaking in a young QB assumes that the QB of the Future is on the roster. The best bet for the "QB of the Future" on the Jets would be Kellen Clemens, guy with 5 TDs and 10 INTs in his career. Yeah it was stupid to go get Brett Favre. Clearly Clemens is a budding star waiting to take them to the promised land.

But there is also considerable evidence that he is nowhere near, as his admirers claim, the greatest passer ever to play the game or that he even ranks in the top 25. Mr. Favre's trademark has always been productivity over quality. He's been remarkably durable with the daring to throw the ball more than any other passer, but he hasn't always thrown it better. He has never, for instance, led the NFL in the league's passer-rating system, which measures effectiveness with various statistics. (In comparison, Joe Montana led the league twice; Mr. Montana's successor at San Francisco, Steve Young, was first six times, and Peyton Manning three times.)

Now he's not a Top-25 QB of all-time? What the hell? I'd love to see this joker's list. If you want to make the argument that he's not Top-5, I'll listen. I'll disagree, but I'll at least listen. But not Top-25? Even Sal Paolantonio thinks that's jacked up.

And here we go with using the passer rating argument again. The NFL's passer rating system is insane. And using Peyton Manning in support of your argument might not be the best idea (I'll get to that in a minute). But as long as we're considering it to be such an important stat, let's look at a few years:

In 1995, Favre was runner up to JIM FREAKING HARBAUGH! Favre's 38 Touchdowns, 13 INTs, 4400 yards, and 63% completion percentage lost out to Harbaugh's 17 Touchdowns, 5 INTs, 2500 yards and 63% completion percentage. Clearly Harbaugh was the more effective passer.

In 1996, Favre was runner up to Steve Young. Favre's 39 TDs and 13 INTs were pretty clearly inferior to Young throwing a whopping 14 Touchdowns and 6 INTs.

In 1997, Favre finished behind Young and Chris Chandler. 35 Touchdowns, 16 Picks and another MVP were no match for 19 TDs and 6 picks, or Chandler's 20 TDs, 7 picks and 2700 yards passing. Chandler was so good that he QB'ed his team to a 7-7 record that year.

Mr. Favre has probably been excused by fans for not winning a passer-rating title because its formula is so complex most fans don't understand it. However, in the single most important passing stat, yards per attempt (YPA), he has also never led the league and finished as high as second only once (in 1995 with a 7.7 average). Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger currently leads the league in active players at over 8.1 yards per throw.

There are a lot of things that I've defended Brett Favre for, but I've never seen someone rip him for never winning a passer-rating title. I'm sure he would have put that on his list of accomplishments right next to his Super Bowl title, 3 MVPs, and his ownership of every passing record in the books.

I don't deny that YPA is an important stat, but I think he's overrating it here. Ben Roethlisberger is pretty clearly the best quarterback in the league. Except that, uh oh, over three years (before last year when he was great) he had 52 TDs and 43 Interceptions, which means his job should have been on the line according to a few paragraphs ago. Last year, Favre finished behind Matt Schaub in that stat. Yup, it's a clear-cut indicator of how good a QB is.

Also, how arrogant is the first sentence in this paragraph? Pehaps our resident genius would like to come down off his high horse for a minute to explain the system to us mere mortals (without looking it up) and then tell us how it was derived and what we should be able to take from it. Why are we subtracting 30 points from the completion percentage before multiplying by .05? Why do we subtract 3 yards off YPA? Why not 5? Or 2.8? What the hell does it even mean? Surely Mr. Barra would have no trouble explaining this to us all.

Did I miss when a passer-rating title became important? Favre had 16 Touchdowns in the first five games of 1996, more than Young had the entire season. And a better TD/INT ratio to boot. But Young was pretty clearly more efficient. That system is stupid. And only stupid people make too much out of it.

It's true that Mr. Favre holds the all-time record for TD passes (442), but what isn't as well known is that he also holds the record for most interceptions (288). Perhaps the best way of understanding Mr. Favre's effectiveness is to compare him to baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan, who holds the all-time record for strikeouts but also for walks. Everyone concedes that Mr. Ryan was a legitimate Hall of Famer, but with a lifetime winning percentage of .526, no one argues that he was the best ever or even among his own contemporaries.

It's not well known that Favre has the interception record? Favre also holds the record for most wins and has a winning percentage far greater than .526. If Barra doesn't think Favre is better than some of his contemporaries, I'd love to hear the argument. I'm sure it's just as air-tight as the one he's making here. I'd love to see the names on his list of contemporaries that are better.

We've resorted to using different sports. Amazing.

Nor, it must be admitted, has Mr. Favre been a particularly good big game performer. His career postseason is a mediocre 12-10, including an embarrassing 23-20 loss to the underdog New York Giants in the NFC conference championship this past January. On his own home field Mr. Favre was outdueled by the previously unheralded Eli Manning. In fact, as a postseason passer Mr. Favre has never approached the record of the Packers' Bart Starr, who won five NFL championships from 1961 to 1967.

Well if 12-10 is medicore, I guess we have to consider Peyton Manning's 7-7 record downright piss-poor, especially considering he's played with multiple hall of famers on offense for almost his entire career (Faulk/James plus Harrison). He's 3-7 outside of that Super Bowl year, where he was just brilliant in throwing 3 touchdowns and 7 picks. So that's another guy off the list of contemporaries better than Favre.

No career record above .500 in the playoffs is mediocre. This isn't the regular season here. To be above .500 in any single given year, you have to make it to the conference championship game if you didn't have a bye (which requires winning on the road against one of the two best teams) or make it to the Super Bowl if you did have a bye. Think about that for a minute. That's a lofty standard to have a playoff record above .500 for a single year, let alone a career.

Yes, you read that right. This guy actually just wrote that an overtime loss to the eventual Super Bowl Champions was "embarrassing". If the loss to the Giants was embarrassing, I guess Tom Brady has some mud on his face as well. And this joker better not even think of calling Romo a quality QB.

The Giants were better than everyone thought, and Favre wasn't really as bad as everyone said he was in that game. He wasn't great, but his numbers compared favorably to every other QB that played that day (even the great Tom Brady threw 3 picks in similar conditions). The difference was that the Giants and Pats had a running game and defenses that stepped up. The Packers had 28 yards on the ground and couldn't get off the field defensively. That's not going to work in January. And if Ruvell Martin catches a pass that's right in his hands for a sure TD or if Brandon Jackson doesn't run into his blocker when he had nothing but endzone in front of him, Favre's numbers look a lot better.

I'm sick of hearing about Starr's 5 titles when people are discussing Favre. Again, I don't want to take anything away from Starr, but for two of those titles he had to win ONE WHOLE PLAYOFF GAME. For two of those titles, he won two playoff games each year. Not to say he would've lost if they played more games, but you can't compare the championship-deciding format back then to what it is now. And again, you can't compare the supporting casts. Those Packers teams were hall-of-famer laden. Favre has never had a future Hall of Famer on offense.

Football historian T.J. Troup feels that Mr. Favre's place among the all-time greats is difficult to assess: "In the modern NFL, the rules favor passing over defense, so statistics alone can't tell the story. Put it this way: Favre has won three MVP awards, but except maybe in 1995, he has never really been the best and not as good as many passers from 'the dead ball era,' like Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr and Roger Staubach were in theirs."

Favre wasn't the best in 1996? Credibility? Fluuuuuuuushed. I'd love to hear who was better that year (or in 95, since that year only gets a "maybe"). Favre had 39 TDs and 13 INTs, despite losing his top receiver for the season in the 7th or 8th game and having his #2 target miss a couple games and then play with a cast on his arm the rest of the year. There were games where they started Don Beebe and Terry Mickens at WR. One-Armed Freeman/Rison/Beebe/Mickens isn't going to make anyone shudder. His left tackle was a journeyman who was plugged in mid-season. But no, he wasn't the best that year. Not even close.

I'm not going to deal with trying to compare him to some of the greats from the past, but for every advantage modern players have with the rules, I'm guessing we could come up with a lot of things that hinder the QBs. Faster defenses, more blitzing (I assume), etc.

It's also worth pointing out that Mr. Consistency here once defended Peyton Manning's playoff record (3-6 at the time) by writing the following:

Four times--in 1999 against the Tennessee Titans, 2003 against the New England Patriots, 2004 against the Patriots, and last year against the Pittsburgh Steelers--the Colts have lost in the playoffs to a team that went on to the Super Bowl. Two of those losses were by just three points. Did the Colts choke, or simply lose to better teams?

I guess it's worth pointing out, then, that half of Favre's 10 playoff losses (Dallas in 93, Dallas in 95, Denver in 97, St. Louis in 01, and the Giants in 07) have come against a team that ended up in the Super Bowl. 4 of the 10 losses have been to the eventual champion.

Fun With Flight Tracking!

Since Rumormongering is what the internets are for, and since flight tracking was so fun and so addicting during the Michigan coaching search, I guess it should be mentioned that there is currently a flight en route from Green Bay to Hattiesburg, Mississippi that should be landing in the next hour or so.

Things are gonna get really interesting, really quickly. My guess? On board is either Ted Thompson or a hitman.

Come on back, Brett! Optimism still reigns around these parts.


No matter what team he ultimately plays for, I'm excited about the prospect of getting to watch Brett Favre play football again. I'd (obviously) very much prefer that he play in Green Bay, but I'd rather see him in Tampa or (gasp) Minnesota than not playing at all. The Packers are fools if they let him go and if they don't start him.

Edit: The image that was previously posted was of the flight as it made its way into Green Bay. The flight to MS was delayed by an hour. Apparently the shipment of crack to be placed in Favre's suitcase was late in arriving. Either that or it was the storms.

The Green Bay Press Gazette has now confirmed that it is Packers Team President Mark Murphy on board. He's going to try to talk Favre into staying away from training camp. Heckuva plan, guys. Maybe if you're lucky, Favre will just hang out until Rodgers breaks something and then he'll take the high road and bail you dumb-asses out.

The Burn That Yost Built

Two of my favorite Packers blogs, Cheesehead TV and Packergeeks, call it "Keepin' It Real Thursday". I know better than to commit myself to writing on a specific day of the week--or even doing it every well. So instead, this is the first edition of The Burn That Yost Built. I like Jim Rome more than the Dallas Cowboys anyway. Basically I'm just putting a label on the posts where I give quick thoughts about various things happening in the sports world--or whatever else has peaked my interest:

-Is there anything more WNBA than having a slap-fight "brawl" in which a star player tears her ACL? The only thing that would have made it better is if they could have somehow incorporated a player dribbling the ball off her foot or shooting a layup off the underside of the rim.

-Speaking of fighting at the Palace, the rumor making the rounds is that the Pistons are thinking about trying to acquire Ron Artest. Would that be the most unlikely marriage in sports history? I can't see the Pistons bringing in the man that almost single-handedly caused the downfall of the Indiana Pacers. We've got one nut-job on the team already (Rasheed Wallace, who I love). Adding Artest to the mix with a rookie coach--albeit one who appears to have the respect of the team already--might be pushing it. Then again, think of the promotions they could put on if everyone was willing to have a sense of humor about things.

-Round two of "The Curse of Bryan Herta" went just as well as round one. This time, ALMS-virgin Raphael Matos stuffed the car into a competitor just six laps into the event, putting the AGR machine eight or nine laps down while they made repairs. The decision to replace Herta with a pu-pu platter of drivers is going about as well as the decision to replace Marino Franchitti with Christian Fittipaldi, who lasted a whole four races. Bwahaha. The only thing better than watching the XM Acura dreadfully underachieve is watching Andretti make "Michael Andretti Face" after Marco wrecks his IndyCar. Which happened again this weekend as well.

-My ability to jinx teams/competitors by betting on them on CentSports continues. This time, I managed to lose a tennis parlay because ROGER FREAKING FEDERER lost in the first round of a tournament. Time to pimp that site again, because it's awesome: CentSports (affiliate link) is a free--and legal--sports betting site. They give you a dime to play with and if you can get above $20 you're allowed to cash out. If you go bust (as I have many, many times by betting on sports that I know nothing about), they give you a new dime to start with. They also have little bonuses to help you along the way. It should be fun to have around during football season.

-I like that Darren Haydar signing by the Red Wings. He's a nice replacement for Mark Hartigan, who will be playing in Europe to get away from those nasty Wolverines who traumatize him to this day. Haydar hasn't really had much of a chance in the NHL, but he put up 122 points in the AHL a couple of seasons ago and scored .5 ppg when he got called up this year, which isn't bad at all.

-My plea to the Packers and Brett Favre remains the same. To quote two of my favorite singers (Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson): "One more year. One more year. Let's hold our breath and give it just one more year." Use some common sense, guys. Please. I think we're past the point where this can be salvaged, but I'm still hoping.

My Take on the Favre Situation

This has been a rough week for me in the sports department. My favorite racecar driver, Bryan Herta, was let go by Andretti-Green Racing for absolutely no reason. Now we've got this mess involving my favorite athlete of all-time and the team that I love.

First off, I want to say how great it was to see the firing of Bryan Herta blow up in Michael Andretti's face this week. Since his replacement, Marco Andretti, couldn't practice due to his IRL commitments, the AGR car had to start at the tail-end of the field and was quickly lapped. Even though they were one of the fastest cars on the track, they could never make the lap back up and, after some more of the bad luck that plagued Herta this year, they ended up 3 laps down. They ended up 5th in class, but it would've been closer to an absolutely brutal 10th place finish without severe attrition amongst the other cars. Then Marco flew down to Nashville for the IRL race on the same day and promptly stuffed his car into the wall on lap 1. Absolutely hilarious. Not that I'm bitter.

As for Favre, indecision must be contagious because I've flip-flopped twice today.

It's pretty clear whose side I'm on based on my posts throughout the interwebs. I've worn a Brett Favre jersey the past four days (I have several) and I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon. I don't think he's done anything wrong by changing his mind (I'll get to that) and I think the Packers are absolutely insane for not taking him back.

Then I read some quotes in the lead up to the Fox News interview about Favre saying he didn't want to be traded because it would "cede control to the Packers" and that he "wouldn't come to Green Bay to backup Aaron Rodgers" and I started to think he was being very unreasonable; That realistically there was no way GB would release him and so he better get used to the idea that they'd trade him--and would likely let him have input into his new location.

Now, having read the transcript of the interview tonight (the situation just makes me sad, and we watch "Saving Grace" anyway, so I figured I didn't need to see it live) I'm back on Brett's side:

I fully believe that the Packers pressured him into making a decision in March and that he did the responsible thing and retired. If he wasn't 100% committed to coming back at that point, there was no way he could tell them he was returning. If he announced he was coming back and then retired at this point (rather than vice-versa), he would've completely screwed the team over. At this point, they're in an uncomfortable situation, but the option is either having Favre-Rodgers-Brohm or Rodgers-Brohm-Flynn on the QB depth-chart. Neither option is bad. If Favre announces a comeback and then goes Barry Sanders on us, our QB depth chart looks like this: Aaron Rodgers. Perhaps Rodgers-Flynn.

If Favre was, in fact, told that playing in Green Bay wasn't an option and yet they couldn't envision him playing for another team, the Packers are being even more unreasonable than Favre was when he asked for his outright release. The team should not have any control over a player's desire to continue his career. If they really wanted to, they would have the right to say "You can come back, but we aren't moving you. You'll stay on our team as the backup QB, and that's that." It would be a low move to pull against a player that has done so much for the organization, but if they really wanted to that's their right as he signed the contract. But you can't say "You can't play here AND we're not moving you." That's crap.

If Mike McCarthy did in fact tell Favre that they would have let him wait until training camp to announce his intentions, then the only thing that has changed between what would have happened and what is happening now is that the team has believed for three months that Aaron Rodgers would be the starting QB. They would have had to approach the draft and free agency as if Favre wasn't coming back. They would have gone through the OTAs under the assumption that Favre wasn't coming back. They would have added some Aaron Rodgers plays to the playbook in case he became the starter. It's absolute BS that they won't take Favre back if it's true that they were willing to wait until training camp for him to make up his mind, and just didn't inform him of that.

I love Brett Favre. People can talk about how "He wasn't the only reason the Packers were good" all they want to. That is true. Without his line, without Reggie, without Holmgren, maybe they don't accomplish everything they accomplished. He didn't win the Super Bowl by himself. But he did provide some of the greatest sports memories that I have; Memories that I will cherish my entire life. I've got DVD after DVD filled with all of our wins from the last 2 years along with some of the classics over the years that I've been able to find. I even have a couple from that dreadful 4-12 year. The reason I have them is simply so that once Brett Favre is gone, I'll be able to go back and watch him play again.

I know the Packers were around for years before Favre came and they'll be around long after he's gone. But for me, it's never going to be the same. I'll still love this team. I'll still cheer my head off for them. I'll still go to games and cherish the moment when I do. But I can pretty much guarantee that I'll never have as much fun watching football as I have had watching Brett Favre. Maybe I'm just an over-sentimental fuddy-duddy, but I want another chance to see him in the green and gold. I'm not ready for this era to end. If we were 7-9 last year I could understand wanting to move on, but we were 13-3 and 1 play from the Super Bowl. Favre had one of the best seasons of his career. Why are we so anxious to see the quarterback of the future, when the quarterback of the past and present still wants to play and is one of the top 3-5 QBs in the league?

I do understand why the Packers would be inclined to move on after Favre flip-flopped in March. What I don't understand is, if they were in fact willing to let him wait until training camp to decide, what has changed? Why not, at the point of the flip-flop, tell him, "Brett, take some more time, and talk to us again when camp gets here"? It's now training camp. The man wants to play. Sure Rodgers would be disappointed, but he's smart enough to know that Favre is a special player and taking Favre back isn't saying anything negative about Rodgers.

I'm sure Favre knows how this is making him look. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel had a poll and only like 47% of the fans want to see him back as the QB at this point. That would have been unfathomable in January. He's coming across looking really bad (though I think he helped himself in a big way tonight), but is it not understandable that they forced him into a decision, he did the responsible thing, and he now wishes he had made the other choice? He's having to swallow an unbelievable amount of pride to come out of retirement after that press conference he had. But the man wants to play. And I don't see how anyone can fault him for that.

I'm sick of seeing the fans turn on him for not doing anything wrong. Could he have handled things better? Sure. He should have spoken well before tonight and not allowed his family, friends, and text messages say it all. Could the organization have handled it better? Absolutely. They could have started by being honest with him--either by having the balls to tell him in the first place that they wanted to move on, or by giving him the time he needed to make a decision he could live with. In the end, I'm inclined to believe what Favre is saying. GMs are notorious liars. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, but I'd bet it's closer to Favre's version.

Two of the most cherished figures in the history of the Packers retired and then came back: Reggie White and Vince Lombardi. Were either of them selfish, unreasonable, or tarnishing their legacy? No. The hate that's been spewed for Favre is, to me, completely ridiculous. Yes, he's waffled and the will-he-or-won't-he game is tiresome at best and attention whoring at worst. But it's hard to blame a guy for wanting to play if he thinks he still can.

I'd hate to see him play for another team, but I understand his desire to come back. In the end, he's always been a Packer and he'll always be a Packer. He's the best thing that's happened to this organization since the late 60s and our fans would be wise to remember that.

Dammit I can't believe we're in this situation......I see clips of Favre throwing snowballs against Seattle, carrying Jennings over his shoulders, yelling "PUT ER IN THE OLD VISE" and running around like a mad-man after his TD pass to Rison, and it kills me that he wants to give us more moments like that, but the organization won't let him. Ted Thompson can say it breaks his heart when people don't like the organization, well, the idea of seeing Brett Favre in another jersey--or not being allowed to play for the Packers when he still wants to--completely breaks mine.

Aaron Rodgers might be a fine football player. But he's not Brett Favre and he never will be. I'll root for him; I hope he takes us to 14 Super Bowls and goes into the Hall of Fame. But I can't freaking believe we're not going to take Favre back so that his feelings won't get hurt. This is so stupid it makes me sick to my stomach.

Happy 4th of July!

I'm out of town until Sunday and I'll have very limited internet access, so I doubt there will be any updates unless something really major happens. In the meantime, have a safe and happy 4th of July everyone!

A couple of quick hits before I go:
-I'm absolutely elated about the Marian Hossa signing. It really speaks to the quality of the Red Wings that Hossa was willing to turn down $70 million+ in guaranteed money to sign a one-year deal with Detroit. The old saying is that when someone says it's not about the money, it's about the money. Hossa is backing it up that he's more interested in the Cup than money. And who knows, if the cap goes up by a significant amount next year, maybe this will be more than a one-year thing. I can dream.

-I'm officially on the Ken Holland bandwagon. I've been critical in the past (and at some point, I'll write an article about that and eat crow on the things I need to eat crow about) but it's hard to complain about what he's done this offseason. All Detroit has done is lock in Brad Stuart (not excited about it but he's fine...decent player for a little more than he should be making, but less than he would have gotten on the open market), sign the second-best goalie on the market for the second-least amount of money, and sign one of the top forwards on the market, all while maintaining enough flexibility under the cap to sign Zetterberg and Franzen next year.

-As excited as I am about the Hossa signing, I'm even more excited about the prospect of Brett Favre returning to the Packers. I know he's an attention whore, but it would be amazing to get to see #4 under center for another year. Aaron Rodgers will do just fine, but it's Brett Favre. He had a fantastic season last year, and the idea of him at QB with Ryan Grant for a full year (if he doesn't get stupid and hold out) and Jennings, Driver, Jones, and Nelson at WR....yes please! Do it, Brett!

My Favre Tribute

The first time I heard that Brett Favre was playing for the Green Bay Packers, I cried. I was a huuuge Don Majkowski fan and all I knew was that he was out with a severe ankle injury. This was a few years before the internet took over my life, so I had no clue who the hell this Fav-ray guy was. Where was Tomczak? Where was Anthony Dilweg. Or Blair Kiel? For some reason, the legendary game against the Bengals was on the radio in Detroit. So I listened as Favre led the Packers to a come-from-behind win including a 92 yard drive in the last 1:07. I went nuts when he hit Taylor for that famous touchdown. And spent the rest of the day with a migraine. Funny what you remember...I couldn't tell you what I had for dinner last night, but I know I had a migraine sixteen years ago.

The next week, they played the 3-0 Steelers and Brett Favre made his first career start. I don't know why, but I taped NFL Primetime that night. Over the years, I can't even say how many times I watched the clip of that game. It's finally up on Youtube, and even though I hadn't seen that video in about a decade, I could recite almost every word Berman said, the first time I watched it. The best part is how he says that Majik's injury is of the 2-4 week variety and that they're not sure there's a QB controversy just yet.

Favre took the Packers to a 9-7 record that season, losing the division on the last day of the season and missing the playoffs on a tiebreaker with Washington.

The next year, my dad was on a business trip to San Antonio. He would always bring home gifts for my brother and me. Usually they were just little trinkets from the area or whatever. Cool stuff that kids love. This time, I opened my eyes and he was holding a Brett Favre jersey. I believe he just stumbled across it in the airport. That was one of the best surprises of my life. I'm wearing that jersey right now (luckily it was a size 42 so it still fits to this day...I'm short), and I couldn't help but tear up a little when I pulled it out of the closet today. I've had this jersey since I was 10 or 11 years old. For years, I wore it every single game day (and I'd wear it to school on Monday if they'd win). It's pretty ghetto, looking at it now. Screen printed, five stripes on the sleeves (not the three they currently have), and block letters spelling out the name on the back. But I still love it.

That year, the Packers played the Lions for the division championship the last week of the season. The winner would host the loser the next week in the playoffs. We went to the game and the Lions won. The next week, we were in Ann Arbor for my brother's forensics tournament. Driving back, we were listening on the radio as George Teague ran a pick back 101 yards for a score. We got home for the final moments of the game. I honestly don't remember if I saw the touchdown to Sharpe--part of me feels that game was blacked out in Detroit and that any memories I have of it came from seeing the clip so many times--but regardless, I knew something magical had just happened--even if it wasn't Majikal as I would've hoped, just a year and a half ago.

It's been a helluva ride. I remember Favre getting knocked out with a sprained ankle against the Vikings and coming back to throw 5 TD passes the next week. I was at Laser Quest in Madison Heights (the one on John R), wearing my Favre jersey, of course, when I found that one out.

There was the game against the Steelers where Yancey Thigpen dropped a sure touchdown pass that would've given the divison title to the Lions. Favre came back from a vicious Greg Lloyd hit that had him coughing up blood to throw a big touchdown pass in that one.

The 1996 season was just amazing. I didn't get to see a ton of Packers games early in Favre's tenure, but the schedule worked out just right that I caught something like 16 of their 19 games that year. And that was really about as good as football can be played. That team was nuts. Favre was on pace to break Marino's single season TD record until Brooks, Freeman and Chmura went down in consecutive weeks. Brooks--another favorite of mine (hence the 87 in my screen name...pretty obvious where the 4 comes from)--was lost with a severe knee injury against the 49ers. Don Beebe responded that night and the Packers pulled out a win in one of the best games I've ever seen.

I can't exactly say what my reaction was when Favre threw that touchdown pass to Rison on the second offensive play of Super Bowl XXXI, but I'm pretty sure it was something along the same lines as Favre's celebration. I'll never forget that night--or getting home from school as fast as I could to catch their parade on TV.

There have been plenty of other great moments, but none even close to what happened that night in Oakland after his father's death. We were out at The Arena watching that one and it was obvious from the start that that was a special night. Watching pass after pass miraculously fall into the arms of Javon Walker and Wesley Walls would have to make even the most atheistic person on the planet question their beliefs for just a moment. 300+ and 4 TDs in the first half alone.

He was seemingly Superman. Even though he started 253 straight games, that doesn't mean that he didn't have injuries. At least 2 or 3 times I thought for sure that he was done for the season (His leg injury against Washington a few years back, Dallas this year) but every Sunday, there he was. Coming out to play again, and most of the time doing it extremely well.

Living in Wisconsin for this season has been just amazing. No one saw this team coming and they rolled to a 14-4 record and damn near landed in the Super Bowl. It was a real treat to see all these major milestones fall, especially in the midst of a winning season. More than the wins or the stats, this season was validation that he was still a great quarterback in this league. And after all the crap people in the media said about him the two previous years, that alone made this season special for me. Right, Sal Paolantonio? Douche.

People can debate for years about who is the best QB of all time. In my opinion, it just depends on your criteria. If it's championships, then obviously you have to look at the Montanas, Bradys, Starrs and Bradshaws. If it's a combination of numbers and wins, then Favre and Elway have to be right there. If you view championships as more of a team thing, then Marino is in the mix. For changing the game--or if you're old--then maybe a guy like Graham or Unitas.

Is Favre the best ever? I don't know. He won a Super Bowl, should've won SB MVP (as much as I love Desmond, Favre was the MVP in that game), won 3 straight MVPs, played very well in another, and set every passing record in the books despite never playing with a player on offense that will go to the Hall of Fame. Another ring would have really solidified it in my mind (especially if it came this year) but the truth is that the Packers organization really let him down through the prime of his career. Once Holmgren's ego took him elsewhere, they had the Ray Rhodes debacle, and screwed things up more by making Mike Sherman GM once Wolf stepped down. Sherman was a pretty good coach but he had some terrible drafts and didn't make very good decisions about free agents. I can only wonder what would've happened had Holmgren stayed--or had Ted Thompson been able to take over the team a few years earlier.

Favre is absolutely in the conversation, and beyond that you could get a different answer from everyone you ask. I think he was the best, but I also acknowledge that I'm biased, and that there are a few guys you could make a damn strong case for. He's one of them.

He gets a bad rap for his interceptions. Some were idiotic, no doubt (the one in OT against the Giants was not one of them). But a good number were when the team was trailing and he was just trying to make a play. He didn't care about that stat. He wanted to win. He played recklessly at times, but in addition to causing some picks, it was what made him great (and so fun to watch). He was successful much more often than not. And despite being the interception king, his Int % isn't so different from Elway (maybe .12%) or Marino (.26% or so). Even Manning (who is thought of as one of the best at taking care of the ball) would only average maybe 2.5 fewer picks a season at his Int % and Favre's average number of passes.

For my money, I had more fun watching him than I've ever had watching another athlete. He was one of the most likable athletes on the planet and played with a joy that few others have shown. He won more games than any QB in history. He won a ring and took a pretty average group on offense to great heights. From 1995-1997 he won MVP each year and played the quarterback position about as well as it can be played, without a game-changer around him. And every time the Packers had the ball, I felt that something special could happen. In the later stages of his career I learned to savor every second, because you never know when an athlete of his caliber will come around again. Let alone one who you're lucky enough to have play on your team. I've downloaded every win from the past couple of seasons because I know that years from now, I'm going to want to have those tapes.

I'm absolutely crushed that he retired. I really thought that he would stay around for another year or two with the talent level of the current team. Maybe it's denial, but I wouldn't be overly shocked if July rolled around and he decided that he wanted to come back and play. Even though I think Rodgers will do a good job, I'd be absolutely thrilled if he did have a change of heart. I'm not ready for life without Favre in a Packers jersey, especially when he's still as good as he is.

I understand the reasons for him leaving. I just feel sorry for myself--and the other Packer fans out there--that we won't be able to enjoy watching him play any longer. Every game was a treat, even if he pissed us off sometimes. I knew this day was coming--truth be told, I thought for sure it was coming after the 2006 season (I shelled out a ton of money to be at the last home game that season). It doesn't make it any easier to accept that it's here, though. It's been 16 amazing years, and we're truly lucky to have had him for that long. But it still breaks my heart that it won't become 17.

The other reason that I'm bummed out is that this is just another sign that I'm getting older. I was ten years old when he started his first game. He's played every game from the time I was in fifth grade. I'm almost four years out of college now. I've grown up watching him, and I'm not ready for someone else to be under center. I'm still not used to seeing a "C" on Nick Lidstrom's jersey. Now I have to accept that Brett Favre is retired? Somehow it doesn't even seem fair.

The thing that really got me when watching some of the tributes on ESPN the last couple days was seeing a clip of Favre throwing Driver up over his shoulders and then carry him off the field. It's stuff like that that I'm really going to miss. The touchdown celebrations, yelling "PUT ER IN THE OLD VICE", tackling teammates in the endzone until Holmgren made him stop, the lamest Lambeau Leap of all-time. I really can't believe it's over.

If this truly is goodbye, thanks for everything, Brett. I'll still love the Packers, I'll still love football, but it's never going to be quite the same for me. And you better believe that five years from now I'm going to be in Canton, Ohio.

But I'm still holding out hope, even just a little bit, that he'll have a change of heart and I can put this off for another year. Not that it'll be any easier then.

The excellent blogs Behind the Jersey (it makes me happy when I read stuff like this from opposing fans), Cheesehead TV, and Green Bay, Booze, and Broads have all chimed in on this as well.

Brett Favre retired. Those words hurt even just to type.

Favre Retires

Thanks for everything, Brett. Football just got a whole lot less fun.

Thoughts on Rich Rodriguez and the Sports World

1. There are others who are much more versed in the world of college football. I'm sure the usual suspects will be able to break things down a lot better than I. That said, I can't help but be absolutely thrilled with the outcome to this coaching search--thank you Mary Sue Coleman. Rich Rodriguez is one of the top coaches in the game. He's pioneered an offense that many of the top programs use. He's built West [freaking] Virgina into a kind of sort of national power. And now he's here, to take our offense out of the stone age. As offensive coordinator, he went 12-0. At Tulane. With Shaun King at QB. Read those last 3 sentences again. He made Shaun King the most prolific passer in college football history. It's hard to not get excited about this one. Especially when Terrelle Pryor might follow him to Ann Arbor.

2. I really feel for Les Miles. There have been rumblings that he was still interested in the job, and I believe it. Ironically, if West Virginia hadn't choked on applesauce against Pittsburgh, Miles would probably be our coach, with Rodriguez in the title game. People can say what they want, but anyone who loves this school enough to flirt with it, even with his damn strong football team in the national title game is someone that I will always root for. Beat those Buckeyes, Les.

3. The loss to Pitt will no doubt get brought up by Sparties trying to justify to themselves that this was a terrible hire or that he'll "fit right in". That game doesn't bug me so much. Les Miles lost to Arkansas at home with a chance at the title game hanging in the balance. Same with Tressel's team losing to Ron Zook and Illinois at home. Those two still ended up getting in. But Bob Stoops and the Sooners dropped a game to Texas Tech. Lloyd Carr and company lost to App State. St. Nick and the Crimson Tide lost to a team from Louisiana not named LSU. Urban Meyer lost at home to a ho-hum Auburn team that got beat by Mississippi State. Pete Carroll and USC lost to Stanford. Georgia lost at home to a 6 loss South Carolina team. Mack Brown's Longhorns got blown out at home by Kansas State. It was a weird year.

4. It takes a special play to get me to mention an NFL happening before talking about my Packers, but one happened today. Brian Westbrook, my hat is off to you. For those who didn't see it, the Eagles were up 10-6 on Dallas just before the two-minute warning at the end of the game. Westbrook ripped off a run for a first down and had clear sailing to the end zone. He stopped at the one yard line and took a knee, knowing that they'd be able to run out the clock with Dallas out of timeouts. It was the most heads-up play I've seen in a long, long time. Most players wouldn't have had the awareness to pull it off, and some would've been selfish enough that they would've scored the TD anyway. If there are two things that I'm strongly in favor of in football, they're a) not going for 2 before it's necessary and b) letting the other team score if tackling them means you lose. The latter is hardly ever practiced (or it's not practiced correctly, Mike Holmgren). While I don't think Dallas was trying to let Westbrook score, he was smart enough to pass up the sure TD anyway.

5. I can't wait to hear all the stories about people who lost their fantasy football playoff games because of Brian Westbrook's heads up play.

6. Congrats to the greatest quarterback in history on breaking another of Dan Marino's records, this one, the all-time passing yardage mark. That record came en route to leading the Packers to a 12-2 record, clinching a first round bye. They've got a real shot to come out of the NFC, and I think they can give any AFC opponent a game (and I'm not at all convinced that it's going to be New England).

7. It's amazing to me that after not having a return game since Allen Rossum left a few years ago, it appears the Packers have 4 guys that can get the job done. Koren Robinson gave them great field position all game today and is an ex-Pro Bowler at KR. Tramon Williams has also done well in that role, and took a punt back for a TD against Carolina. Will Blackmon has shown some sizzle on punts, including a punt return for a TD against Oakland last week. And Charles Woodson is solid as well.

8. I really do feel for Lions fans. That team is an absolute disaster, and the city deserves a lot better. It's a testament to the quality of football fans in the Motor City that they continue to show up for games after the crap that Matt Millen has put on the field for the last 6-7 years (not to mention the pre-Millen suckfests).

9. Amir Johnson: 15 minutes, six points, seven boards, three blocks. The other night he had 5 blocks in under 10 minutes. It still blows my mind that he wasn't active for the playoffs last year. No, you're not going to play him 30 minutes or anything, but his energy and ability to create exciting plays could have been the ticket to get the crowd back into a game or gain some momentum. I love Jason Maxiell as well.

10. Another great move by Joe D with the Nazr Muhammad trade. He gets two players he liked, sheds a ton of salary, creates cap flexibility in the future, acquires expiring contracts for if he feels so inclined to deal again, and lands a 7'1" player who was starting as well as a guy who was dropping 20+ a night at the end of last year when he got a chance to play. That's a good move in my book.

11. They said it's a first in team history, but I wonder if it's ever happened where an NHL team has had 2 penalties shots in a game, let alone a period. That was pretty cool for the Wings last night. That team is simply amazing. I still think they need another scorer for the playoffs, but they're playing amazing hockey right now. I'm pretty convinced that no one in the world is better at their job than Nick Lidstrom is at his.

12. I still believe in Beilein but this is hard to watch right now.

13. Congrats to the Michigan volleyball team. They were eliminated in the Sweet 16 by #1 Penn State, but that's the farthest the team has ever made it and the future is bright. Thanks to the outgoing seniors, Katie Bruzdzinski, Stesha Selsky, Sarah Draves, and Lyndsay Miller. Bruzdzinski was a pleasure to watch, and I think she could make a strong case for being the best player to come through our program. I also loved Miller's energy and how happy she seemed to be out there all the time. They're a fun group.

14. I'll get to the hockey point projection analysis hopefully sometime on Monday.

Thoughts on Packers/Cowboys

This is the first time since 1990 that two teams 10-1 or better have met in the regular season, so I have to get a few thoughts down about the Packers/Cowboys game.

It really surprises me that so many people aren't giving Green Bay a chance in this game. Maybe it shouldn't surprise me, since the media is so in love with Dallas and some people still think that Green Bay can't run the ball (Grant has 3 100 yard games and an 88 yard game in his 5 starts--he now has more 100 yard games in his career than Cedric Benson, which is kind of funny even if it isn't saying much).

For me, and I do realize that I'm a homer, I like Green Bay's chances just because I think they match up really well with Dallas. Maybe tonight's not the night due to the injuries to Woodson, Jolly, KGB, Rouse, Collins and Franks (especially Woodson) but I like how we match up (and many of these reasons are why I think GB matches up with New England as well as any team in the league).

Dallas is effective running the ball because they can pound you with Jones and then bring in Barber once the defense is softened up. Green Bay has a very deep rotation on the defensive line so I don't think they'll get as worn out as normal teams.

They've got the cover guys to neutralize Owens and Crayton as well as you possibly can, and their ability to get to the quarterback just by rushing 4 will let them drop a lot of guys into coverage.

The weakness of the Cowboys defense is their secondary. Roy Williams and Ken Hamlin simply aren't that good in coverage. The Packers have the personnel to exploit that with their Big 5 set (Driver, Jennings, Jones, Robinson, Martin). Donald Lee has the speed to stretch the field and you have to believe that's another guy they'll be looking to tonight against Roy Williams. When Bubba Franks comes back, that also opens the door for the 3 WR/2 TE set that was so effective earlier this season.

The one matchup that Dallas has which really worries me is with Jason Witten. Green Bay has only allowed one WR to crack the 100 yard mark this year, but three tight ends have turned the trick against them. They've struggled for the past couple of seasons with covering TEs, particularly good ones, which Witten is. Rouse is a guy I'd love to have in the lineup tonight against him, but he's probably not playing. They'll have to use Hawk and Bigby in coverage, which isn't the strength of either player.

This game is for homefield advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. The winning team goes a game up in the win column and takes the tie-breaker, which means that for the losing to team to still have a shot at HFA, the other team would have to split their remaining 4 games. Dallas is at Detroit, has Philly at home, and then goes to Carolina and Washington. The Packers have Oakland at home, are on the road against Chicago and St. Louis, then finish with Detroit at home. I don't see either team dropping two games, so tonight is going to decide the #1 seed.

Things I expect to see tonight:
-Brett Favre throwing the ball 40-45 times to exploit mismatches in the Dallas secondary (this is the biggest advantage either team has in this game)
-Jason Witten with 100+ yards
-A big night for Greg Jennings, not so much for Donald Driver (who should have Newman on him)

If Woodson is healthy enough to be effective, I like the Packers. If he's not, then the Cowboys take this one. But either way, I'll like our chances in a rematch.

Around the Sports World

Since today's Michigan Hockey Preview was so short, and I don't feel like doing Kevin Porter's yet, let's take a cruise around the sports world, because there's been some pretty great stuff out there lately.

Michigan Football: Michigan has now--in the words of Ed Rooney--beating Penn State niiiine....timmmmes in a row. The natives are getting restless. To BWI's credit, most of the posters over there were directing most of their anger at Joe and Jay Pa rather than the officials. I thought for sure that we'd see a lot of complaining about Hart's last touchdown (I thought it should've at least been reviewed), but JoePa was doing more bitching than their fans. At least when I popped in over there. Some people seem upset about the PI call in the endzone and I'm not sure why. That one was completely legit. He held him when the ball was in the air. Done and done. And I mean done.

Ryan Mallett deserves all the credit in the world for his performance. He was erratic in the first half, but was dead on balls accurate in the second half. Those passes on third and long in the fourth quarter were extremely impressive for a true freshman making only his second career start.

I'm officially impressed. I'm not on the "Keep Chad Henne on the Bench" bandwagon like some people seem to be, but the future is definitely bright for this kid. He has it. A lot of people compared him to Favre, and it's easy to do, what with his arm strength and the amount of fun he seems to be having. Even if it's back to the bench in another week or two, this experience will help him a ton next year when it's his team. Instead of breaking in a sophomore QB with next to no game experience, along with a freshman running back, we've got a guy who has a couple of wins under his belt, and led the team to a victory over a top 10 opponent.

And then there's our running back. Just when I think I couldn't be more impressed by Mike Hart, he has a performance like that. If you read this blog, it's 99% that you've already seen this, but Mgoblog's piece on Hart today was just perfect. It can't be said any better than that, so I'm not going to try. But I love that kid. He's officially in my pantheon of Michigan Athletes with Jed Ortmeyer, Jack Johnson, David Terrell & his B.A.D., and whoever finally replaces Billy Sauer.

I think it's safe to say at this point that our defense is pretty good, they just have that fatal flaw that they can't stop mobile QBs or the spread. So, pretty much every other year for the past decade. And after watching the Wisconsin/Iowa game, I'm pretty unafraid of going into Madison late in the season. The fear factor goes up a little bit because Donovan can move around a little bit, but the Badgers really didn't look good. And they haven't looked good most of the year thusfar. The Citadel played them even in the first half before Wiscy pulled away in the second, like good teams typically do against Division I-AA schools ::mutter:: and UNLV almost knocked em off. Ohio State is still (somehow) the team to beat, but this team can still contend for a Big Ten Title. It seems kind of weird to be saying that after the way this season started, but I guess we've done the same thing twice before....minus the whole losing to a I-AA team.

Packers: Holy shit, they're 3-0. I'm as big of a homer as there is and I never in my wildest dreams thought that this team would be sitting 3-0 right now. 1-2 was what I expected, I could've seen 2-1, but to beat three playoff teams from last year, including the Chargers, is really impressive.

People are going to hate seeing it, but Brett Favre is going to keep being slurped by the media and rightfully so. He's playing great football right now. He's taking care of the ball--both INTs he's thrown this year were more on the receiver--and the short passing game has been extremely effective in lieu of a running game.

Plus, now we get to see what having a healthy Greg Jennings can do for this offense. He had 80 yards or so and a touchdown this week, but they didn't know he could go until the day before the game, so I'm guessing they didn't have a whole lot in the gameplan for him.

Chad Clifton deserves all the credit in the world for yesterday's game. He had a rough couple of weeks to start the season, but he was absolutely fantastic against Shawn Merriman. The guy had 2 assists, no solo tackles, and more importantly didn't come near The Legend all game.

This is a far cry from previous efforts against the 3-4 defense. And even though it was the preseason last year, this same Chargers team made the Packers look like a high school squad. It just goes to show how far this team has come in a short while.

After this win, the Packers have to become one of the favorites in the NFC, along with the Cowboys. Though the Packers have been more impressive in the early going of this season: Both teams beat the Giants, though Green Bay did it by more points and on the road. The Eagles are superior to the Dolphins, and San Diego is better than Chicago (they proved that Week One).

They still need to find a running game. Currently, they rank dead last in the NFL in rushing yards, and are second-to-last in rushing attempts. The running game did show signs of life yesterday, however, but I don't blame the coaches for sticking with the pass since it was working so well. They ran effectively when they tried it though. And after the first couple of weeks, I can see why they wouldn't want to risk possessions in the name of establishing the run, especially when the data shows you don't need an effective running game to beat San Diego.

NHL: Scott Burnside had an article about the story lines for the upcoming season, and there were a couple of interesting tidbits in there: One was that the league, it appears, has finally decided that this current scheduling format has got to go. This isn't really news, since it came out last week or the week before, but I'm happy about it nevertheless. I've hammered on the schedule plenty of times on here. It's idiotic not to have guys like Crosby and Ovechkin in every market in the league at least once. Especially when the alternative is 32 games against the Blues, Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, and Predators. Yuck.

The other thing that I found interesting, however, is that it also appears that expansion is on the way to the NHL. I think it's a bad idea because the league is pretty watered down as it is, particularly in goal, but it's hard to tell all the owners to turn down a free $20-30 million in expansion fees.

The best part of this is the cities that Burnside cited as possible destinations for the two teams: Las Vegas, Kansas City, Winnipeg, Portland, Seattle, and Houston. What do all those cities have in common? They're all west of Detroit. Which means that the Wings could finally move into the Eastern Conference where they belong. And the Blue Jackets could come too, which would mean that there would be no Eastern Time Zone teams in the Western Conference.

If expansion has to happen, I'm all for it if it involves the Wings heading East. Enough of this travel BS. You can't tell me it doesn't make a difference over the course of a season that ends up being close to 110 games between the preseason, regular season, and playoffs.

Other News: It's not just football where we own! Penn State! That makes 8 out of 11 in that series, though they have a huge lead overall. I've talked about this before, but I have a hard time believing that too many sports teams have played a schedule harder than Michigan's field hockey team at this point. They're 6-4 on the year. The wins have been against two unranked teams, along with #3, 7, 9 and 16. The losses have been to #1 (ot), 2, 3, and 3. That's brutal.

MGoBlue has an interview with Bryan Hogan, our best hope for salvation this season. His family is friends with Ed Belfour. There's no truth to the rumor that Michigan had to offer Hogan $1 billion to come to school here. Though I wouldn't complain if he gave one of these to Benedict Lerg.

The friendship also led to him training with Belfour, Ilya Bryzgalov, Evgeni Nabokov, and Vladislav Tretiak for a week or so. Not bad company to be in!

All That Needs to be Said Tonight.....

149

A Tale of Two Teams

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

On one hand, you have multiple takeaways on special teams, a defense that dominated the #2 ranked offense from a year ago, and a rookie kicker nailing his third field goal of the game to lift a team that no one was talking about over a team that some described as Super Bowl Bound.

On the other hand, you have two of the most embarrassing losses in the history of the team. Both at home. In back to back weeks. Combine that with the rumblings that the starting quarterback may be done for the season (or at least at substantial part of it) and the team that many had pegged as a National Championship Contender might be fortunate to keep their consecutive bowl streak in tact.

It's amazing how fast expectations can be raised or lowered. What once looked to be a very promising season for the Wolverines has quickly turned into a disaster that actually has me looking forward to (gulp) basketball season. Or at least hockey season.

I'm not sure what more can be said about the Wolverines. I take solace in the fact that we're one of the only (if not the only) football power than hasn't ever really fallen off this cliff. Maybe it's time. And if this disaster is finally the thing that snaps the program out of the 1970s, then it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I can't imagine anyone from the current staff will even get a sniff when it comes time to find a new coach, and that's a good thing.

Mike Hart is the guy that I feel for. He's dinged up, and he's still in there with Michigan down by 30+ points in the fourth quarter. I wondered aloud why he was still in the game and my girlfriend replied, "Maybe they can't make him come out." And truth be told, that's probably what it was. Hard to not feel bad for a guy like that.

The defense was expected to be well....not as good as last year. But when the offense can only put up 7 points against a joke of a defense like Oregon's, you've got major problems. And even though Henne didn't exactly help us these last two games, it's hard to believe that Mallett will be an improvement. In the long haul, maybe it's better. Since this season is basically a write-off anyway (hard to believe I'm saying that when we haven't lost a Big Ten game yet), at least Mallett can get his growing pains out of the way now instead of at the start of next year.

The thing that kind of bugs me is that they were talking in the telecast about how much the offense would be limited with Mallett in there. That means that either Mallett doesn't know the playbook (which is kind of hard to believe since he enrolled early and all) or they're just afraid to take the kid gloves off of him. I understand that he isn't going to have as good of a command of the offense as a fourth-year starter in Henne, but shouldn't he at least know enough (or shouldn't they trust him enough) to not take the offense back to the days of Tecmo Bowl (2 passes, 2 runs)? And if not, then should he really be our backup QB in the first place? I have a hard time believing that making a predictable offense even more predictable is going to be successful. Maybe there's no other way to do it.

All-in-all, it's been a pretty depressing season and it's only two games old.

Then you have my Packers.

I'm as big of a homer as there is, and even I didn't think they could/would beat Philly. In the Eagles, you're talking about a team that has absolutely OWNED Green Bay the last few seasons. When they weren't blowing the Packers out (47-17 in 2005, 31-9 last year) they were winning in heartbreaking fashion (In 2004, the Packers trailed the Eagles for something like 13 seconds and went 0-2).

Then, when you factor in Greg Jennings and Vernand Morency being hurt and the fact that the Packers are a notoriously slow starting team (1-4 starts the last three seasons), it was easy to see why I had the same feeling heading into this game that I usually get when the Wolverines hockey team plays Minnesota.

But what a performance out of the defense and special teams. They held the league's #2 offense of a year ago to under 300 yards and to 13 points. The Eagles managed just 13 first downs on their 12 drives. Also, after being gashed by "explosive play" after explosive play last year, Green Bay gave up just two on the game.

The front four (and with the rotation along the defensive line, it should really be the front 9) were able to pressure McNabb while not letting him break contain. The sustained pressure allowed Green Bay to drop 7 into coverage for the most part and not use any of the LB or Safety blitzes that were so effective against Seattle in the preseason. Atari Bigby, starting his first game, made 8 tackles and didn't have any of the blown coverages that were all too common last year with Marquand Manuel back there.

And the special teams. Oh the special teams! Statistically, the Packers had the worst special teams in football the last two seasons. But yesterday, they won the football game. The Eagles muffed two punts (one was a horribly bad attempt at a fair catch, the other was perfect timing by Jarrett Bush), resulting in a Packers touchdown and the game-winning field goal. Additionally, rookie kicker Mason Crosby hit all three of his field goals including a 53 yarder and the winner from 43 yards out. That 53 yarder would've been good from 65.

The offense did struggle, but even in doing so, Brett Favre provided two plays that were the perfect example of why I don't care if they go 1-15 this year, I'm happy he came back: The first, his underhanded pass-handoff to Wynn while he was being sacked may have been the play of the game not involving the special teams. Instead of being forced to punt, it kept the drive alive that ended in the Packers tying the game at 13. On that same drive, Favre was being sacked and as he was falling, he threw a rope to Donald Lee (I believe) to convert another first down.

The running game is a concern. Philly isn't especially stout against the run and the Packers couldn't do a darn thing on the ground. I keep telling myself that they're still missing their starting running back, but if the offensive line doesn't create any holes, it doesn't really matter. Also concerning was the number of times Favre was hit and/or sacked. Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher, usually two of the best the NFL has to offer, were both horrible. If the problems on the offensive line aren't fixed, it doesn't matter how good the defense is.

Especially in light of the way the Michigan season has started, I couldn't be happier about what the Packers accomplished yesterday. It was a game that I truly didn't expect them to win, but they pulled it off. The division and conference are both wide open and the Packers just took down one of the NFC's best. The other favorite, Chicago, looked terrible offensively against San Diego (though SD will do that to a lot of teams....probably including Green Bay in two weeks) and lost two defensive starters for the season. I'm not drinking the Kool Aid after one week and claiming SUPER BOWL!!!!! but if the problems on the offensive line and in the running game can be fixed, it's a realistic goal given the state of the conference. They could still just as easily end up 8-8, but the window of opportunity is there.

Ted Thompson has clearly done an amazing job reworking the defense and special teams and the Packers are suddenly a young team with a load of potential. It's just a matter of how quick they can realize that potential and if the offensive line issues are a one or two week problem, or a fatal flaw in the team.

Either way, yesterday was a statement game. The Packers are relevant again.

I'm Looking Forward to Football

This has been kind of a dead time for Michigan hockey news, so I apologize for the lack of anything interesting to read about. One thing of note, Jack Johnson's official website has launched. They've got a lot of fun products in the store. They're still getting it up and running, but I look forward to seeing the features that they come up with.

Anyway, I've been toying with the idea of what to do with this blog as it relates to things like the Packers, Nascar, the Pistons, and to a lesser extent the Red Wings (they're more on topic since most of the people that read this blog are hockey fans, and I'd assume many of you are Red Wing fans as well). I like writing about those things, but I feel that (especially with the Packers and Nascar) it's not the best audience. It almost feels useless to write about the Packers, and I don't write about them enough to feel good about ever advertising this as a Packers blog.

So, as you may have noticed, I've joined the Yardbarker Network, and I'm in the process of getting the site modified to reflect that. I feel that the majority of my posts about those other teams will be over there. My "column" is linked here (and in the next round of updates, I'll add it to the sidebar).

Here are a few quick thoughts on the Packers, though, now that we're three games into the preseason:

Their defense is going to be extremely good. The changes they made at the end of last year paid off and they're looking to be successful this year as well. The defensive line is just stellar. I'm really looking forward to seeing KGB in a part-time role, Cullen Jenkins has been a beast outside, and Corey Williams looks great in the middle. And I didn't even mention the NFL's second-leading sacker, Aaron Kampman. Hawk and Barnett have been great and Poppinga looks like he's more comfortable as well. Add in two top corners in Woodson and Harris, along with a good safety in Nick Collins and they're going to be tough to score against. The only real question mark is the SS position. Atari Bigby looks to have that starting spot locked down, and if nothing else he provides an athletic upgrade from Marquand Manuel. We'll see if he can cover. He definitely can stop the run and get to the quarterback on blitzes.

The offense I'm less happy with. The running game just hasn't been there in the preseason thusfar. Granted the projected starting running back is hurt (Morency) and they've been without Miree, the top fullback as well. And granted they've played two top run defenses in Pittsburgh and Jacksonville, but the running game hasn't been good. Jackson has shown flashes, but nothing consistent. If Morency comes back, I think they could be alright in the running game though.

As for the passing game it's been pretty good. They torched Seattle, Jacksonville, and Pittsburgh's backups through the air. Apart from the Pittsburgh game Favre has been sharp. Rodgers has been wonderful the whole time. He looks like a completely different player than a year ago. James Jones has been very impressive as the slot receiver (and if you've got a big roster in your fantasy league, I highly recommend picking him up). Driver has been great, and thankfully it looks like the injury he suffered last night isn't as serious as it looked. ::exhale:: Even Bubba Franks looks better than last year.

The big areas that needed improvement from last year were the special teams and the red zone. The special teams have gotten a shot in the arm with all these new draftees the last couple of years. Mason Crosby is going to beat out Dave Rayner for the kicker job (they may keep both of them). Jon Ryan looks to be improved as well. He was (understandably) kind of a mess last year with the impending death of his father. Will Blackmon won the returner job with an 83 yard dash against Seattle. The coverage units can use some work but guys like Hunter, Hall, White (if he makes the team) and even Barbre look like they'll be a big help in that area.

The red zone is still a problem. Again last night, Favre led a long drive down the field, they got inside the 10 and it stalled. One two of the plays, Favre had guys open (Mathis made a great play on Driver and the other pass got just tipped at the line) but the result was the same as last year. A field goal (again, pick up Crosby in your fantasy league). I hope a big body in James Jones along with the resurgence of Bubba Franks will help in there, but we haven't seen it yet.

Overall though, I'm very happy with what I've seen this preseason. No one has done anything against the Packers first-string defense, and they've played three pretty good offenses. They have the look of a dominating defense. They took the ball away a lot last year (2nd in the NFL). They got sacks a lot last year (4th in the NFL). They just gave up too many big plays. A year in the system, as well as a year of experience for guys like Hawk, Collins, Poppinga, Williams and Jenkins should pay some huge dividends. They're going to be tough to score on. If the offense can get it going, they should be right in the thick of the hunt for the division crown, or at least a playoff spot.

Mike Holmgren always said that the journey is the reward. And throughout last season, and I'm sure throughout this season, it's been an absolute joy watching this team mature right before my eyes. The foundation is in place for a very good defense, which should ease the transition to the Aaron Rodgers era, whenever it happens. And unlike the last two years, I now feel that Rodgers can be a starting QB in this league, and a pretty good one to boot. He's doing his best Hasselbeck impression against the backups, and he's led scoring drives when he's been with the starters. And that's all you want to see in the preseason.

One last thing today: This is quite possibly the worst idea ever. I'm pretty sure someone should get fired for okaying this.

Pre-Draft Stuff on Patch

A couple of stories about Max Pacioretty from NHL.com and Hockey's Future have come out in the last couple of days. Thanks to the posters at The Wolverine for pointing them out.

The one from NHL.com has a couple of things that I just love hearing. It says that Patch is great in the faceoff circle and that "he models his game after his favorite player, New York Rangers' forward Jed Ortmeyer, 'because he does all the little things right on both ends of the ice.'" Gotta love a kid like that! If you have to model your game after someone, might as well model it after the best captain Michigan has had in a long, long time. Jed was awesome.

Patch sounds like a really good kid. I just hope he doesn't go Trevor Lewis on us and get drafted too high.

Here's the article from Hockey's Future.

A couple other things:
As a follow-up to my vent-session last week about ESPN ruining the IRL race at Texas by putting the results on the Bottom Line, I got an email back from ESPN's Ombudsman:

"I received many complaints like yours and forwarded them to ESPN's Viewer Response team to get an explanation. Here is what they said:

"The result was added to the other Bottom Lines when the race ended, but also mistakenly networked to ESPN2, thereby allowing it to show under the coverage until the mistake was caught. Production has been alerted and addressed the issue to make sure this doesn't happen again."

I sincerely hope that is the last time a race will be ruined in that way.

Le Anne Schreiber"

Pretty much the response I expected. Hopefully they got enough emails this time that it actually will be the last time a race is ruined like that. As I said last week, it's at least the third time in the past two years that it's happened. And there's really no excuse for it. What's the hurry to get the results up on the Bottom Line anyway? It's the fricken IRL. Anyone who cares about it is watching the damn thing. Still, I appreciate the response, and hopefully they're going to be more on the ball in the future.

Charles Woodson came to the last week of the Packers' organized team activities. Packers.com had an article about him and how he gives a lot of the credit for his resurgence to Al Harris, the guy on the other side. I love Chuck, and I love how he's basically shoving it in the face of anyone who hated on him when the Packers signed him. It sounds weird, considering the Packers pass defense wasn't anything to write home about last season, but both of our corners deserved Pro-Bowl berths. Football's coming!

Lastly, Detroit Bad Boys points out that not everyone in the organization is as enthused about Amir Johnson as I am. Dumars and Hammond think that he's going to be a special player, but there are those on the coaching staff that don't think he'll ever be more than an "end of the bench role player".

If there was anything that makes me have less faith in our coaching staff than I already had after that whole "playing Flip Murray and Lindsey Hunter together at the start of the fourth quarter in a tied elimination game" thing, this is it. If you can't find a use for a 6'11" player who is faster than Rip Hamilton (per Dumars on 1270 last week), who can jump out of the gym, block shots, energize the crowd and his teammates with dunks, makes his free throws, and actually shoots the ball better than he's given credit for, then you need to be in another line of work. How can you not find minutes for a guy like that? Hell, one of the worst coaches in the NBA can deploy a no-talent assclown like Anderson Varejao in a strangely effective manner. There's no way he's a better player than Johnson will be. Every time Johnson has gotten significant minutes, he's risen to the occasion. A guy goes for 20-12-3-4 in 37 minutes on 10-14 shooting but you don't think he'll ever be more than an end of the bench role player? He's also gone for 8 and 6 in 13 minutes, 12-10-3-6 in 35 minutes, and was only 18-22 from the field in the preseason when he got to play. Not to mention his performances last year.

Flip, you're a moron.

Playing Catchup (Yet Again)

I admit it. I'm lazy. I'm unproductive. Maybe Mel Kiper can coin me the next Alan Branch and make everyone believe it.

I really can't believe how far he fell. After our season was over, the guy was thought of as a sure-fire top 10 pick (maybe even top 5). Without even playing a game, his stock fell far enough that he slid into the second round. Maybe Gary Danielson started campaigning for Justin Harrell on CBS, I'm not sure.

Regardless, I have to believe that this was another case of GMs being guilty of looking too much at workout numbers and not as much at actual impact on the football field. Branch may not have showed up for the Combine in the best shape of his life, and he's only got himself to blame for that. But for the life of me, I have no idea how anyone got the idea that he takes plays off and doesn't have enough of an impact on the game.

Michigan doesn't have a patient fan-base. People skewered Gabe Watson over taking plays off. Hell, Lloyd Carr benched him several times because of it. Did anyone ever make a peep over Alan Branch? I sure can't remember it if they did.

I'm pretty confident that mgoblog would've caught it during "Upon Further Review" and his +/- stats were as follows: 4, 5, 7, 12 (vs. Wisconsin when PJ Hill was held to nothing), 4, 4, 7, 6, 5, 2 (injured), 3.

He did have 3 games or so games where Brian wrote, "Quieter than normal" "Surprisingly quiet", etc. but even in those games, we still didn't give up anything on the ground. Minnesota cracked 100, but that's about it. Ohio State was the only team that ran the ball with any effectiveness against Michigan this year, and that was as much of a function of horrible safety play as anything else.

If he fell because of his workout/injury question mark, I can understand it. If he fell because of anything on the field....I have to believe a lot of teams made a mistake.

Comments on the Packers Draft:
Frankly, I think draft grades are stupid. People hated the Packers' draft last year and by the end of the season, they had the Dallas Morning News's only A+ grade (Rick Gosselin is a pretty respected draft guy from what I understand) despite a C last April. The media hated their draft in 2000 and it produced four Pro-Bowlers and another solid player in Na'il Diggs. They loved our 2001 draft and the best player to come out of that draft was Robert Ferguson, which should tell you something.

There are few people out there who have seen enough tape of every player in the draft to accurately comment and I'm most definitely not one of them. I can say that apart from Wynn, I haven't seen a whole lot of any player they drafted--and when I did see a guy like Harrell, I obviously didn't know I should be watching him.

That said, after reading profiles, watching video on youtube (greatest thing ever, by the way) and whatnot, I feel pretty good about things.

Harrell is an injury question mark (and a big one at that) but he would've been a top 10 pick if he didn't get hurt his senior season. His increase in reps indicates that his arm is getting healthy. His production was similar to Branch's. And it helps to know that Denver was looking to take him at 21. If he's healthy, they helped their run defense out a lot. He'll help keep guys off of AJ Hawk and Nick Barnett, and he should free up our ends just that much more.

The two running backs are supposed to be good fits in the zone blocking scheme. Jackson scares me a little bit because of his injury history as well--and the fact that he didn't put up great numbers at Nebraska--but the last running back out of Nebraska that we had ended up doing ok.

The pick that's drawing the most venom from Packer fans is grabbing James Jones in the third round. Couldn't tell you a thing about him, except that he's big and it seems like he's got good hands. We needed a WR. I would've loved to have seen this pick moved for Randy Moss, but it seems that he wasn't interested in coming to Green Bay once the Pats indicated their interest was legit.

I do, however, LOVE the pair of players they drafted out of Va Tech. Rouse, the safety, is huge, and he ran extremely fast. They swear he's going to end up playing safety, but he could end up as linebacker as well. The WR, Clowney, has a great looking video. People complained that he got tackled easily, but most of the passes he caught weren't very well thrown. A good pass, he's waltzing into the endzone. He seemed very good at making adjustments to the ball in the air, and he can run.

They also nabbed the best kicker in the draft. Yes he kicks at high-altitude, but he also nailed one from 58 yards out at Miami, I believe. And the offensive lineman, Barbre, is said to be an "ideal" fit for the zone-blocking scheme, and one site called him the "best pure blocker in the draft".

The picks that were really puzzling to me where the two ILBs drafted in the sixth round. The one from Boise St. is supposedly moving to fullback, which explains that one. With Barnett and Hodge in the middle, it seems odd that they drafted another ILB. I thought I heard that they want to move the draftee to the outside.

Overall, I feel good about what they did--and with Thompson's track record drafting, he deserves the right to have his draftees get on the field before he gets roundly criticized the way he has been. It's possible this draft could suck, it's possible he drafted all Pro Bowlers, but it's silly to make a strong opinion either way before these guys even step on the field.

Goodbye Ahman

According to the NFL Network, Ahman Green has reached a contract agreement with the Houston Texans, to rejoin old head coach Mike Sherman.

Even though he's on the downside of his career, it's sad to see him go. I felt the same way when Dorsey Levens left. He's going into the Packers Hall of Fame, he was only 40 yards or so away from becoming the team's all-time leading rusher. I'm guessing Houston offered far and away more than the Packers were prepared to go, so he had to take the money. I think he's got a couple good years left in him, but word was he wanted $5 million per, and that's a lot of money to offer a guy on the downside who has been beat up. I would've liked to have had him back--particularly so he could get the rushing record, but once I see the final dollar amount, I imagine I'll be pretty happy that Thompson balked.

He gave the Packers some great years, and I've really enjoyed watching him. I wish him nothing but the best in Houston. Good luck, Batman.

The Packers still have some options at tailback. It's not a great free agent crop, but word is they've been in contact with Travis Henry's agent. I cringed when I read that name, much in the way Bears fans probably cringed when they saw Thomas Jones was coming to town. But I pulled up his nfl.com profile and he actually had a pretty great year in Tennessee last year. 1,200 yards, 4.5 a carry and 7 touchdowns, despite only starting 13 games. Lynch could very well be the man when Green Bay picks at 16 if they don't sign anyone via free agency. They could do a lot worse than Henry though. And I didn't think I'd be saying those words anytime soon.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed on the Randy Moss rumors. We've heard conflicting reports--CNNSI says they haven't even made contact--but I think there's way too much smoke around this rumor for something to not be going on. Either that or Randy is toking up. I don't necessarily believe the Packers will give up on Rodgers for him--unless they're convinced that he's not the guy--but a pick this year and a conditional pick next year could probably get it done. That would give the Packers a WR corps of Moss, Driver, Jennings, Robinson, and a couple guys who looked great down the stretch in Ruvell Martin and Carlyle Holiday. The latter intrigues me. He showed some outstanding hands in that game against the Bears. He caught a couple of balls that I wouldn't have blamed Driver for dropping.

Lastly, a quick comment on the Wings game today. Once again, we get killed on a typical Osgood goal. They were playing like crap for two periods, Detroit fights back to make it 2-2 and then Colorado scores a softie through the five hole on their first shot of the third period, a few minutes after we tied the game. Ridiculous. He's now 7-3-4 on the season, which means that when he plays, we're just as likely to lose the game as win it. And considering most of his games have been against the likes of Columbus, Chicago, St. Louis and LA, that's not saying much for him. His save percentage has dipped to .897 and his GAA is now up around 2.70. Again, not good when you're playing the weak sisters of the poor.

Today wasn't completely Osgood's fault. Schneider had some horrendous turnovers, our defensive zone coverage wasn't real good, and our offense failed to capitalize on some great chances (Holmstrom missed on a penalty shot, Langfeld took too long when he had a wide open net, etc.) but when we were buzzing and we had all the momentum on our side, you simply can't give up a dribbler through the five hole on their first shot of the period. That's a save that has to be made. It's inexcusable.

Frankly, the only reason he's on the team anymore is because he's Holland's baby. There was no reason to bring him back after the performance he put in last season, and there was DEFINITELY no reason to give him a two year extension.

On the bright side, Kyle Calder was an outstanding pick up. He's fast, he goes in the corners, and he works his butt off. Just what we needed on our second line. He's only been here three games or so, but I'm really impressed. I'm already at the point that I'd like to see him brought back next year. Good kid and I think he's going to do some good things for us.