Favre’s streak deserves nothing but respect
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
Brett Favre will not start for the Minnesota Vikings on Monday when they play the New York Giants, an injured right shoulder sidelining him for the first time in 19 seasons.
So, for a moment, forget the text messages and voicemails. Forget the tearful retirements that lasted only a few months after endless speculation. Forget the drama that seems to hang on every move Brett Favre makes.
Even forget all the debate about why he’ll end his streak of 297 consecutive starts.
For a minute, let’s just focus on the 297.
In a sport defined by toughness, Brett Favre’s NFL-record ironman streak is one of the most amazing things we’ll ever see.
Favre took the field on Sept. 27, 1992, as the starting quarterback of the Green Bay Packers (he had subbed in for Don Majkowski the week before). He went 14-of-19 for 210 yards and two touchdowns in his first start. The Packers beat Pittsburgh 17-3.
And Favre never came out.
A vicious hit last week by Buffalo linebacker Arthur Moats will end this run, leaving Tarvaris Jackson to start, and Favre to watch. Not even an extra day of rest courtesy of a weekend snow storm that collapsed the roof of the Vikings home stadium – the Metrodome – was enough to get Favre back on the field. The game was delayed 30 hours and moved to Detroit, but it wasn’t enough to get the shoulder in shape. Monday night, Favre will hold a clipboard.
The entire streak is so big, so absurd, it’s almost impossible to appreciate. The average NFL career is less than four years. Favre is 41; only nine position players have ever played at an older age.
Favre holds the record for starts among any position player in NFL history. His 297 number doesn’t even include 24 playoff starts, two of those coming last year at the age of 40.
Minnesota’s great defensive end, Jim Marshall, is second with 270 consecutive starts. Among quarterbacks, it isn’t even close. Favre is like Secretariat at the Belmont. Peyton Manning (205) is his closest competitor and, conceivably, could catch him – in 2016. Through last weekend, only three other quarterbacks had started 100 or more games in a row and none of those streaks are active. However, Eli Manning, who opposes the Vikings on Monday night, joins the 100 club.
Favre has played through countless broken bones, torn muscles, concussions, battered ankles, banged-up knees and every other calamity that would fell most mortals. For years on end, the best (or easiest) job in football was Brett Favre’s backup. You collected an NFL check, you got your own uniform and you never got hit while you held the clipboard.
Favre has been so consistent that throughout this season as various injuries and ailments caused speculation to mount that Favre might sit, a lot of people thought it was just build up for a another triumphant return.
Even as Favre missed practice Wednesday and Thursday, few were convinced. Favre has been injured before only to miraculously recover on Sunday. So it’s partially understandable.
He’s been so tough that even a massive body-slam onto his shoulder didn’t earn him the benefit of the doubt.
This time there was more, though.
QBs with 100 or more consecutive starts
Player Span Starts
Brett Favre 9/27/1992–12/5/2010 297
Peyton Manning 9/6/1998–present 205
Ron Jaworski 9/18/1977–9/25/1984 116
Tom Brady 9/30/2001–9/7/2008 111
Joe Ferguson 9/18/1977–9/23/1984 107
Eli Manning 11/21/2004–present 100
Favre is a walking soap opera, and that played into it. The talk this week hasn’t simply been about whether his shoulder would heal but the “real” reason he finally succumbed.
Some speculated that he’d sit due to injury to save the embarrassment of an NFL suspension for inappropriate behavior in 2008 with a then-fellow Jets employer. Jenn Sterger’s representation has been pushing for action, and many will see this as a convenient injury. Others thought he’s just frustrated with the Vikings’ poor season, which won’t end with a postseason berth and has included the firing of coach Brad Childress. The decision to return this year has been a disaster, and this was the dignified way to end it.
And that’s kind of the problem with Favre.
Here’s a thought: Maybe he’s just hurt. Favre seemed so close to the nice, round number of 300 – if he could’ve finished the season he’d have started 301 times – that ducking out now didn’t make sense.
Besides, all season he’s been complaining that he doesn’t heal as fast, which makes sense considering his age. Would he have even played this season had three teammates not showed up at his Mississippi doorstep in August pleading with him to return?
It’s understandable that he wanted to keep playing, but this season hasn’t gone as planned. He hasn’t looked as strong – and hasn’t played as well – as he did last year when he led the Vikings to overtime of the NFC championship game against the New Orleans Saints. He retired then only to return. The Vikings kept losing though. The headlines have been ugly (some self-inflicted). His own family has told Sports Illustrated that this last year was a mistake.
The streak should cause a pause in the turmoil, however. If you love football, you should appreciate what Brett Favre has done. He got up every time. He came to play every week. He, without question, gave everything he had in every game.
Fans should appreciate that for 19 years, if you bought a ticket to see Brett Favre play football you got to see Brett Favre play football.
Manning may one day pass Favre, although it won’t be easy. He’s 34 and will have to play straight through to 40. What’s most amazing though is how Favre did it. Manning is smart; he rarely takes a big hit. He averages just 1.1 sack and 1.7 rushing attempt a game.
Favre has been sacked 560 times including the playoffs, an average 1.75 per start. For his career he’s averaged two rushes a game, and during the early part of his career he averaged more than three rushing attempts. There’s endless film of him barreling into linebackers and colliding with safeties.
He earned this record. There were no shortcuts. He never just played the first series and then hobbled off. He competed with reckless abandon, exactly the way someone protecting his streak wouldn’t do it.
The guy was a gamer. Week in, week out, nothing stopped him from playing. No matter how Favre’s image has changed over the last few years, no matter whether you love or loathe him, no matter the punch lines or annoying storylines, it’s one accomplishment that deserves respect.
