Wow, do I really despise the NFL today with its water-downed competition, playing too many Sundays (and Mondays and Thursdays), with too many franchises, spread over too many divisions, and with too many playoff spots. Only the return of Brett Favre to the NY Jets has given me any pause this year to watch and follow a sport I used to love to play and kill weekends watching colleges and professionals compete. But the crappy products that are on display is not the worse of it. It is the fantasy football gamers and the Monday morning office chatter that follows that farce of a show.
A work colleague made this claim last week that if he had to pick, today, between NFL quarterbacks’ Kerry Collins and Brett Favre, that he would take Collins. Naturally, I thought, because this particular armchair QB is the biggest fan-boy of the (world champion) G-men that I know. But on this ridiculous subject, I thought he was just being over-the-top silly. How can you compare Brett Favre — an iron man, a household name, 3-time MVP, Superbowl Champion, a legend destined-to-the-Hall — to Kerry Collins, just your prototypical journeyman QB playing his 14th season on a fifth team?
I will not bother to list Brett Favre’s statistical worth, noting only that he started his 268th straight game and broke another Dan Marino passing record today of 14 seasons with 20+ TD throws. Ho-hum, just another day at the office.
But one cannot argue that Collins’ breadth of work puts him in the upper echelon of journeyman QBs, The man played in 173 games with 159 starts, and has amassed over 36,000 yards and 180+ TDs. I am told he is in the top 15 passers of all time in yardage, but what does that say? I saw a list showing him 93rd all-time in passer rating entering this season, right behind (89) YA Tittle and (91) Eli Manning. And the ultimate journeyman QB Vinny Testaverde is still 14 spots ahead of Collins.
But screw the stats I say: Collins could not keep his job on perennial loser teams like the Ain’ts and Da Raiderz. And Collins has been given plenty of chances, and has consistently come up small. He lost Superbowl XXXV with his 4 interceptions and a pitiful 112 yards — while his opponent was led by Trent Dilfer, who was asked to only “manage the game” by completing less than half of his 25 pass attempts for 153 yards. I guess the Giants could not steal signs from the Ravens as they did against the Vikings, which allowed them to advance to the Big Show in the first place.
My only explanation for this colleague to even bring up this incomprehensible topic is that he just enjoys debating over things that can never be proven right or wrong. It must be a kind of behavioural issue, just taking free swings at Boston-based workers with his New York tunnel vision. Honestly, I have high tolerance for subjective opinions, but this one is just plain wrong.
So Collins has this chance today to prove himself, pitted directly against Favre, with his undefeated Titans team to back him up. But again, Collins was a no-show with a 7 of 21 for 54 yards in the first half. That trend continued, except for garbage time in the 4th quarter where he completed 9 of 10 pass attempts to bloat his personal stat line again. Undefeated no more are the Titans, and Brett Favre wins his 169th regular season game.
Well, here’s my own subjective opinion, and I will go way out on a limb here and just say that Brett Favre can only be compared with winning football — and that is just plain right.
