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Brett Favre: Gunslinger
by Sam Monson
27/1/2010
Brett Favre is a gunslinger. He’s just having fun out there. Brett just loves to play football. You’ve gotta take the picks with the touchdowns.
 We all know the clichs that surround Brett Favre, and like most clichs, they’re so because they’re all true. Favre loves football, and Favre throws a lot of picks. He’s made more bonehead decisions over his career than any QB to ever play the game. I know this because any other QB that’s come close to as many has been dumped from the league swiftly. Favre is the only guy who had enough talent and brought enough amazingly good plays to make it worth living with.
But that wasn’t the Favre who played all year for Minnesota. The 2009 Brett Favre signed up to something else. He agreed to get on board with the program in Minnesota because he knew if he did it could bring him another Super bowl, and the Vikings their first. Throughout the season Brett Favre threw just 7 interceptions. That’s 6 fewer than his previous low for a season, and a massive 22 fewer than his personal ‘best’ for a season, which came in 2005. His 68.5% completion percentage was a full two percentage points higher than his previous career-best, and his 7.9 yards per completion represents a career high. In 19 previous seasons Favre only eclipsed the 33 TDs he threw as a Viking 3 times, the 3 year span from 1995-7 that earned him 3 MVP awards, and only twice in his career has he thrown for more yards in a season than the 4,202 he recorded this season. His 107.2 QB rating represents the first time in his career he finished a season with a QB rating over 100.
In short, this might have been the best season of Brett Favre’s twenty-year NFL career. It was certainly his most efficient, and least reckless throwing the football.
Favre was able to reign himself in, something Mike Holmgren nearly had a breakdown attempting to achieve in Green Bay. He was able to allow other people to make plays for the team, and he was able to avoid feeling he had to force the ball. He stuck to the gameplan, one, which was often slow, methodical, and required patience to execute. The Vikings put up points by moving methodically down the field, rather than heaving the ball deep and scoring quickly like the Saints did this year. When he did that, the Vikings were a dangerous offensive powerhouse, finishing the season 2nd in scoring in the NFL.
The Vikings might have notched up 4 losses over the season, but in only 1 game did we get a glimpse of ‘old Brett’. In week 13 against Arizona Favre compiled his only multiple interception game of the regular season, and it happened because he lost patience, he forced the ball, and he threw into trouble. For one brief period all season Brett lost control of the reigns that had kept that old gunslinger under wraps and the Vikings rolling.
With Favre playing safe the Vikings were capable of dominating. They rolled over the Cowboys in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, and then rolled into New Orleans for a showdown with the Saints. They picked up where they left off against Dallas, orchestrating back to back methodical drives that ended in Minnesota touchdowns to take the early lead. But then the ball began to get away from the Vikings. Fumbles gave New Orleans the ball back and the Vikings found themselves behind, needing to score to keep the Saints in sight. This was the time ‘old Brett’ would rush to the surface. Favre was taking a beating, getting hit on roughly 1/3 of the times he dropped back to pass. Frustration could only be mounting, the gunslinger in him had to be itching to unleash one down the field, or into heavy coverage through a window only he could see.
 But it didn’t happen.
Favre threw a pick to a player he never saw as he tried to find Sidney Rice coming across the middle. Rice had beaten his coverage inside, and Favre got rid of the ball just before being buried by New Orleans linemen. He never saw Vilma coming across from the other side of the field. That wasn’t old Brett, it was a pick forced by heavy pressure, it was one of those throws that happens.
The Vikings D began to own the Saints in the second half, forcing a series of 3 and out drives and giving Favre the ball in his hands with 2.37 to play in the game. After running a play the Vikings let the clock run down to the 2-minute warning. Favre was going to get a shot at a 2-minute drill to get the Vikings to the Super Bowl. If ever ‘old Brett’ was going to show up, this was it.
But it didn’t happen.
Adrian Peterson took the ball on 2nd down and gained 2 yards. The Vikings were facing 3rd and 8, with 1.52 on the clock. Favre hit Bernard Berrian short of the first down marker, but Berrian made a move, shook off a defender and made it past the marker. The very next pass Favre threw a pinpoint pass to Sidney Rice covered in the slot by Randall Gay, 20 more yards, first down at the New Orleans 47, 1.14 and running.
Chester Taylor took the hand-off and rushed 14 yards for another first down, this time at the New Orleans 33 a FG attempt of 50 yards, inside the range of Ryan Longwell. 1.06 to play. Chester Taylor and Adrian Peterson took turns rushing on 1st and 2nd down and both had a task just getting back to the line of scrimmage. Time Out Minnesota, 0.19 to play.
Then came the start of the trouble. Minnesota came out of their time out with 12 men in the huddle, a 5 yard penalty, taking the ball back to the 38 yard line, a 55 yard FG, 2 yards outside of the 53 yards Ryan Longwell estimated to the Vikings coaches as the limit of his range before the game. The Vikings needed to make some yards to get him back in range to attempt a game winner. The call was perfect: Favre faked the handoff and rolled out to his right, the Saints D had been stretched, there was at least 5 yards of real estate in front of him to run into and get Longwell back to a 50 yard game-winning FG attempt. All Favre had to do was keep running and take what was there.
 But it didn’t happen.
Old Brett shook loose of the leash. Favre saw the window. The closing window the gunslinger in him has always felt he could fit the ball into, on the far side of the field. He let it go. Sidney Rice was waiting for the ball that never got to him. Tracy Porter, who had been trailing Rice, cut in front of him for the INT that would end the Vikings drive, and be the last time they would touch the ball in the game. The Saints managed to get themselves into FG range on their opening drive of overtime and win the game.
It happened.
The Favre that everyone knows came to play one last time. Excusing the Arizona game, the disciplined, careful, and reigned in Favre had attempted 600 throws before the one he cast off the self-imposed restraints to make.
After the game Brett Favre sat alone in the Vikings locker room in tears for a full 5 minutes. This season had taken everything he had. His body had taken a physical pounding in the game, but the year had also taken a colossal mental toll. Forcing himself to play within the system and within his capacity for the benefit of the team, and to chase the Super Bowl he wanted to sign off on took everything he had.
We’re now going to be forced to sit through an off-season of Favrewatch, and that’s going to sour yet more people on him, but Brett Favre did nothing but enhance his legacy with his 2009 season. The ironman performance at the age of 40 was incredible, yet it’s something people take for granted with Favre. The last second miracle play to Greg Lewis in the back of the end zone will be remembered, but it’s one of many for a man that holds the All-Time record for TDs, Yards, and a host of other passing feats.
What stands out from the 2009 season, is how Favre was able to completely reinvent himself as a player, as a passer, as a QB, because he knew that’s what it was going to take that for him to win. It’s something most people thought he wasn’t capable of. As it happens he was, but only for 600 throws.
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