Brett Favre, QB, Southern Miss.So the Packers didn't draft Favre, the Falcons did, and the rest was just little surprises along the way. Whoopsie!!!! Except that the Packers and then general manager Ron Wolf actually wanted Favre, while Falcons coach Jerry Glanville was quoted "It will take a plane crash for me to put him in the game." Unfortunately for Glanville, he was not aboard oceanic flight 815 and now he looks like the biggest boob to ever coach a legend. (Certain recent Vikings coaches aside)
Southern Miss was the only college to offer Brett Favre a football scholarship. That might come as a shock or maybe you knew that ages ago, but the fact remains that Favre was an unknown going into college. In high school Irvin Favre, Brett's dad, coached the football team. Despite being the coach's son, Irv's gameplan and offense was the wishbone so Brett never got to chuck the ball around the field despite his natural ability. Most high school games he only threw five or six passes. Mike Martz and Dean Coolbaugh shudder at the thought of such wasted talent.
On a side note, did Irv Favre repress Brett to the point that he began to compensate in the NFL by forcing the ball into coverage just to prove he could? How about audibling out of runs to throw game losing wounded ducks in the playoffs? We'll let Freud figure that one out I guess.
Once at Southern Miss, they wanted him to play corner, but Favre insisted on playing QB so he was relegated to 7th string. 7th string at Southern Mississippi. There are definitely some zero to hero stories in the NFL such as Samkon Gado (2nd stringer at Liberty to starter for the Packers), Willie Parker(his time is up), James Harrison (his time is now after years in NFL europe and the practice squad). Nevertheless, that Favre came from 7th on the depth chart to 33rd overall draft pick remains impressive.
Looking at Favre's college resume coming out of Southern Miss, 33rd overall does seem a little high for what amounted to a seemingly good player on a historically poor team. That Favre did as well as he did at Southern Miss is impressive in itself, but the NFL draft is often a matter of appearances more than football talent and Favre didn't have the pedigree or hype to overcome the lackluster reputation of the Southern Miss Golden Eagles.
Killer logo, but still a pitiful football team.
Coming out of college, Favre was somewhere between zero and hero, but still no one was willing to commit to him in the first round. There are always pre-draft storylines for the upper-echelon players and Favre's centered around his off the field problems. Only they weren't "problems" in the conventional sense. Favre had been in a near fatal car accident prior to his senior year. He survived, although doctors reportedly removed 30 inches (that's 3 shiancoes or 26 coolbaughs for you dick-counters at home) of his small intestine. Really this was just an irrelevant yet interesting story about a lesser known QB. It does not excuse the Falcons' actions in any way. Why the Falcons would ever draft any player, let alone a player high in the draft at the quarterback postion that their coach disliked is beyond me, but Ron Wolf of the Packers intended to draft Favre with the very next pick in the draft. That little tidbit would come to be quite relevant down the line, but for now Favre was a Falcon.
Coming out of college, Favre was somewhere between zero and hero, but still no one was willing to commit to him in the first round. There are always pre-draft storylines for the upper-echelon players and Favre's centered around his off the field problems. Only they weren't "problems" in the conventional sense. Favre had been in a near fatal car accident prior to his senior year. He survived, although doctors reportedly removed 30 inches (that's 3 shiancoes or 26 coolbaughs for you dick-counters at home) of his small intestine. Really this was just an irrelevant yet interesting story about a lesser known QB. It does not excuse the Falcons' actions in any way. Why the Falcons would ever draft any player, let alone a player high in the draft at the quarterback postion that their coach disliked is beyond me, but Ron Wolf of the Packers intended to draft Favre with the very next pick in the draft. That little tidbit would come to be quite relevant down the line, but for now Favre was a Falcon.
Favre began his time on the Falcons in horrid fashion. He would ultimately throw 2 interceptions on 4 attempts with no completions in his first year in the NFL. Quite the start for one of the best QBs ever.
The interesting part about Favre's time on the Falcons is not actually his play on the field or even in practice. Ron Wolf, the man who is forever legend in titletown for swinging the Favre deal, had coveted Favre since he missed him on draft day. Typically general managers are all too objective, and for good reason. If a GM becomes infatuated with a specific prospect he can end up staking his entire reputation and job security on a 21 year old man who really just wants to get paid. In the GM business it makes sense to be cautious and make every attempt to remain level headed about player evaluation and transactions. Football is a business from a GM standpoint and it is easier to avoid error and remain consistent if you treat it as such.
Bill Polian, current Colts GM is a perfect example of this. He drafts consistently well and almost never gets caught up in the hype of draft prospects be it good or bad. Ron Wolf was the opposite of Bill Polian, but he made it work by landing guys like Favre and Reggie White. Unfortunately for Wolf, his opinionated style cost him the shot at Randy Moss and he has continually stated that it still bothers him to this day that he passed on Moss.
Because Wolf was so unconventional, he never forgot about Favre and still wanted him even the season after his dismal rookie year. Wolf was daring enough to trade a first round pick (no 19) for a QB who had shown nothing and was originally drafted at 33. Only the infatuation of a GM with a player could cause such a deal to go down. The Falcons were ecstatic, and with any other player they probably laugh all the way to the bank. Call it great player evaluation, bad player evaluation by the Falcons, overvaluation of draft picks, luck, whatever. This time the rest really was history.
Ok, so maybe his first completion as a packer wasn't ideal, but he picked it up after that.
Perhaps it's because people would rather celebrate the forsight of Wolf than admonish an already mediocre franchise, but the Packers and Wolf get all the credit and the Falcons none of the blame. Well, I'm here to blame them because it was a stupid stupid move. ESPN did an entire documentary about how dumb it was to trade Wayne Gretzky. At least Edmonton got a few good years and some championships out of the guy! The Falcons got squat. That's right, they used the 19th overall on ANOTHER guy from Southern Miss.
How you can even conceptualize trading away what you must clearly believe (again, 33rd overall) is young talent at a position where you are starting the worst pro bowler of all time!!!? 53.3% completion percentage in the modern era is atrocious, and making the pro bowl with those stats is a travesty. Mike Vick never even got as low as 54% in his three pro bowl years and he makes chris miller look like he's playing women's ultimate.
Of the worst moments in Falcons history, this Favre trade should rank just below the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal. Instead it is chalked up to Favre's "Lost Falcons Year" or something like that. Have some accountability for trading away the best NFL player ever to be traded.
No comments:
Post a Comment