Overrated, CLAP CLAP CLAP.

Imagine there's this guy at work.  He's been there forever and you're new.   A coworker pulls you aside and tells you about him . . . when he joined the corporation, everyone thought he sucked.  Took a while for him to get his chance.  And with it, he did great on a few projects.  Saved the company a few times.  Heck, in 1996, they were the best company in the country.  But for every awesome project, he would blow one.  He cost them best company status several times in the last decade or so.  But hey, he's been there forever, he's never called in sick, and he's got to retire any day now.  I mean, he's been hanging on for years . . . 

Would you call this employee one of the best ever?  

If I put up a picture of Favre, the NFL would probably fine, sue, and waterboard me.
So here is a totally random, Viking-related picture.

That sums up Brett Favre.  Full disclosure here . . . I am a Bears fan.  He has done his fair share of slicing and dicing my team up over the years.  But when I look clearly at Brett Favre's career, and his records, and how the media gushes over him, I can't help but think he doesn't pass the smell test.  He's vastly overrated.  

I'm not saying he isn't great.  But in the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) discussion, he's a nonfactor.  In the NFL, the number one way you grade a QB is how may titles they won, and how good they are in the clutch.  Brett Favre's lone title came in 1996.  He wasn't even the MVP . . . he rode a stellar defense led by Reggie White, and a special teams unit that was so good, Desmond Howard was the Super Bowl MVP.  

I don't need to quote a bunch of career numbers.  I know he's got the most of everything in history . . . TD's, completions, games in a row, yadda yadda.  He's also got the one record that the media doesn't seem to enjoy mentioning . . . INTERCEPTIONS.  And here's one stat that isn't official . . . interceptions at the worst possible time in big games.  

Look no further than last year, or his last year with the Packers, or how the heavily favored Packers got handled by the Broncos in Favre's only other Super Bowl appearance.  Or how when Favre throws interceptions it's because he is a "gunslinger" and not a bad quarterback.  Why isn't Rex Grossman a gunslinger?  How about any other guys that throw 20 plus INT's in a season? Cutler?  Eli Manning?  Because for some reason, ESPN has changed the statistic to "gunslings" for Brett Favre, and "terrible plays" for everyone else.  

When someone mentions Manning, Brady, Brees of this era . . . what comes to mind?  Titles.  Don't let them get the ball with the game on the line.  How about Favre's peers?  Elway?  Aikman?  Now think of Favre . . . bonehead interceptions.  The retirement flip flopping every offseason.  Wrangler jeans.  The occasional sext of his wang.  

Favre is a tough SOB.  He can take a hit, on the field and in the press.  He's one of the best ever for sheer longevity, and eye popping plays.  He amazes one play, only to gunsling into a loss the very next play.  The best ever just win, and because of them, not in spite of them.  

Minnesota's head coach got fired for one reason only . . . he bet the house that Favre could somehow not be himself at the age of 41.  But he is who we thought he was, and now the coach is fired and the gunslinger will ride off into the sunset, never to return.  Maybe.  Possibly.  No, for good this time.