Brett Favre is Overrated: a Minifesto

Brett Favre is a warrior. He's a Super Bowl champion, an MVP and a Pro Bowler. He's gritty. He's tough. He's a gunslinger. He wears Wranglers.

Amongst all of the praise and accolades, many times people forget about something Brett has been for years: incredibly overrated.

Now before you have a John Madden-sized stroke and start thirsting for blood, understand what I mean by overrated. It would be illogical for me to say Brett Favre isn't incredibly accomplished and one of the best quarterbacks of all-time. He is, no matter what I say over the next few paragraphs. He's won more games than any other quarterback in history. He's thrown more touchdowns and passed for more yards than Donovan McNabb and Tom Brady COMBINED. He's won a Super Bowl and been to another. No matter how I slice it, he's an accomplished, Hall-of-Fame quarterback.

But when I'm listening to the radio (Brian Billick on WFAN's Boomer and Carton Show) and someone describes Favre's final minute interception against the Saints yesterday as "vintage Brett Favre"...well something is wrong. Very wrong.

I've heard over the last week from multiple sportwriters and analysts (take this John Clayton article for example) that Brett Favre is a top 5, maybe top 3 quarterback of all-time. Wait...seriously? I know the dude has all those records I mentioned above, but Karl Malone scored more points in the NBA than anyone not named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar...and NO ONE would argue he's a top 5 or even top 10 player of all-time. The records Brett Favre owns have just as much to do with longevity as they do skill. Does longevity count for something? Of course, it has too. But it doesn't guarantee you a place amongst the top five or 10 quarterbacks of all-time. Remember, Brett Favre has also thrown more interceptions than anyone else in history, which (last time I checked) isn't a good thing. And he didn't just start throwing them as he got older, he's thrown 20+ in six different seasons when he was 24, 29, 30, 34, 36 and 39 years of age. Want to know how many time Joe Montana, Tom Brady and John Elway did that? Once, COMBINED (it was Elway).

But what about all those wins you say? Right, wins. Well, I'll admit he's won a lot of games. But he's won them at a .635 clip, very good, but not as good as Peyton Manning (.682), Joe Montana (.713), Roger Staubach (.746), John Elway (.643) and the leader, Tom Brady (.764). He's also behind another guy you may have heard of, Donovan McNabb, who's won his games at a .651 percentage. (And on a side note, if McNabb wins just 33 more games in his career, very possible, he'll retire in the top six all-time in QB wins. Wow.) So while he's won a ton of games, he also lost a quite a few and doesn't compare percentage wise with other "all-time" quarterbacks. And you can't blame that on lack of team talent, he's played with 1,000 yard receivers (Sterling Sharpe, Robert Brooks, Donald Driver), 1,000 yard running backs (Peterson, Ahman Green, Dorsey Levens) and good defenses for his entire career.

Now, let's look at what happened to his last three "really" good teams, the 2003 and 2007 Packers and the 2009 Vikings.

2003: He led the Packers to a 12-4 record and a near upset of the Eagles in the divisional round on the road. BUT...the game went into overtime, the Pack got the ball after an Eagles three and out and Brett decided to throw the ball "punt" style to BDawk. Eagles win 20-17.

2007: He led the Packers to a 12-4 record and the NFC Championship Game against the Giants...in Lambeau. The game, of course, went to overtime. And what did Brett do? Oh, well...he threw another interception. Giants win 23-20.

2009: Leads the Vikings to a 12-4 record. They stomp the Cowboys and gain a billion yards on the Saints in the NFC Championship Game. Then...well you know what happened. (Here's the Minnesota radio call, it's even better.) Saints win 31-28.

Look at that, he killed his teams seasons, three times, with terrible, terrible decisions. Each of those teams had a legitimate chance to win a title. Would Joe Montana do that? Peyton Manning? Tom Brady? John Elway? Roger Staubach? Steve Young? Troy Aikman? Johnny Unitas? Terry Bradshaw? Get the point? They might do it once, but three times? In six years? No friggin' way. (p.s. I love question marks.)

Favre has a fatal flaw, and while most athletes (especially quarterbacks) have flaws, his is KILLER INTERCEPTIONS. That isn't something a top 10 quarterback of all-time should be known for. Which means, obviously, he isn't a top 10 quarterback. Calling him a gunslinger or telling tales of his toughness won't change that Brett Favre, while great, continues to make season defining, terrible, simply idiotic decisions year after year after year.

Tell me for one second, that you were suprised when Brett Favre threw that interception to Tracy Porter? You weren't and you probably expected it. When Tom Brady threw that interception to Marlon Jackson in 2006, we were all suprised. That's how we are supposed to react when a great quarterback makes a mistake. We've never been that way with Brett Favre and that, more than anything else, shows why he is overrated.

So Brett, do yourself a favor. Retire. Go away. Play golf with John Madden and talk about how tough you were and how you were always having fun and how you have a ton of records. Because if you come back, you know what's going to happen. And if you do it again (and you know you will) I'm dropping you out of the top 15. Seriously.