Class Column

Brett Favre is a jerk.

Not because I cheer for the Packers on Sundays. Not because Favre flip-flops on his retirement decisions almost as much as Junior Seau. Not because he plays for the Minnesota (expletive) Vikings.

“This is the best team I have ever been on,” Favre said recently.


That’s why Brett Favre is a jerk.

Does being 6-0 for the first time in your career really merit the “best team ever” label, Brett?

If at the end of the season (God forbid) the Vikings stand on the podium at Landshark Stadium in Miami and the old man hoists the Lombardi trophy, then Favre may be right. This may be the best team he has ever played for. Jerrod Allen is probably the best pass rusher in the NFL. The Williams brothers in the middle of the defensive line are ferocious. Bernard Berrian was a good receiver on Bears teams that had a pretty bad quarterback (Rex Grossman).

But if the Vikings fail to win the Super Bowl, hell, if they fail to make the Super Bowl then Favre has affirmed to the public that he is the biggest jerk in professional football.

Instead, he will be the man hell bent on spitting in the face of Ted Thompson and the rest of the Green Bay Packers’ organization for something as simple as not overwhelmingly welcoming him back to the team with a month before the start of the regular season with a young quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, already in place.

While 6-0 may be an example of a team on its way to the postseason, it doesn’t guarantee a week seven (or eight, or nine, and so on) victory, regardless of the opponent.
The NFL, which means Not For Long.

Remember last year, when the New York Jets were 7-3 and Favre had thrown the team on his old, faithful back?

Then recall why the Jets finished 9-7 and didn’t make the playoffs in a Tom Brady-less AFC East. Because Favre faded down the stretch. It may have been poor play or an injury, but who’s to say he doesn’t get hurt again this year? He is 40.

But that isn’t the most peculiar thing with the Jets – now Vikings – situation.

How is it that Favre had such a hard time bonding with his teammates last season when he was with the Jets? Why did Thomas Jones come out at the end of last season and say to the public that Favre was just never around and that he, “didn’t really make an effort to get to know his teammates,”?

Yet, in Minnesota, everyone seems to be riding the Favre train, particularly head coach Brad Childress and rookie wide receiver Percy Harvin.

Favre simply used the Jets as a way to cool the heat from Packer fans after asserting he wanted to play for the Vikings. Then after telling the Jets he was done, he took a two liter filled with gasoline and poured it on the still hot embers.

What is this charade you continue, Brett? Who is the real you?

After watching Favre for the first six weeks of the season, the guy looks like he’s still got it. The Vikings’ play and record reflects that. With a two-and-a-half game lead already in the NFC

But lest we forget this “best team” of who Favre speaks.

The Vikings.

The team with a Super Bowl track record about as good as the Buffalo Bills (0-4). At least the Vikings’ four Super Bowl losses weren’t consecutive.

Minnesota is a place where championship-level teams rise and fall about as fast as the New York Stock Exchange.

1998: the Vikings, behind another infamous fading quarterback, Randall Cunningham, went 15-1 before falling the NFC title game at home to the Atlanta Falcons.

2003: Daunte Culpepper, Randy Moss and company were rolling at 6-0. Four weeks later – after losses to the Giants, Green Bay, San Diego and Moss’ future team, the Raiders – the Vikings were reeling at 6-4.

Didn’t the die-hard Vikings come back and salvage their once-promising season?

Somebody cue Jim Mora on this one (Playoffs? Playoffs?! Don’t talk about... psh … playoffs).

Then there’s this year’s team. The so-called “best ever” by a Hall of Famer and former Super Bowl champion.

The 2009 Vikings are not that different. A streaky quarterback who most people are tired of hearing about (but apparently still’s got it), surrounded by a bunch of young studs.

The team has a 0-4 Super Bowl record. Like it or not, the goal of every team in the League at the beginning of the season is to win the Super Bowl. Only one team can do it, the other 31 are failures.

Sure Dorsey Levens, Ahman Green and Ryan Grant are not Adrian Peterson by any means.

Favre is just an unfair guy. He will do whatever it takes to win, even if it means marring his once golden name in the city that made him a legend.

Just so you can play inside in December and January, Brett?

But what does 6-0 really mean? Nothing – if you start losing. No team has ever won the Super Bowl after a week six win. And they never will.