The following are my last thoughts on Brett Favre until the season is underway.

I live in New York City and my brother is a die-hard New York Jets fan.  Throughout the day, on ESPN, I kept hearing that Brett Favre’s 2008 was hampered by a terrible injury.  These words were echoed by Rick Morrissey in the Tribune:

…he is one year from looking awful after hurting his arm with the Jets. That’s a roll of the dice the Vikings had to take. 

When exactly did this injury take place, I wonder?  The team was 8-3 before a humiliating loss to the Denver Broncos:

Brett Favre struggled in the sloppy conditions, finishing 23-of-43 for 247 yards and an interception.

“We
got outplayed,” Favre said. “We had plenty of opportunities. It wasn’t
like we played our best football and we just lost. I thought Denver
played outstanding.”

Then they traveled across the country to San Francisco.  And lost to a 4-8 team.

Brett Favre went 20-of-31 for 137 yards and ran for a score, but didn’t throw a TD pass…”I don’t sense desperation,” Favre said. “We’re still in decent shape
… but if we continue to play the way we have, we won’t be.”

The Jets moved to 9-5 on a miraculous play by Shaun Ellis against the Buffalo Bills.  Favre’s response:

“That play that Shaun makes and Abe makes, who knows?” Jets quarterback Brett Favre said. “At the end, we may look back and say that could be one of those plays that catapulted us into something great.”

Seems like a player with tremendous confidence to me.  The Jets – season on the line – went to Seattle.  The opening line of the recap says it all:

Brett Favre
spoke softly and shrugged his aging shoulders, saying for perhaps the
last time in his legendary career: “I don’t have all the answers.”

Suddenly the player is “aging” and the media is writing epitaphs.  Bound for greatness has turned to reflective nostalgia.  After losing the final game of the season and performing horribly for a month and a half, Favre drops the bombshell:

Monday, he said he’ll have
an MRI exam on his ailing right shoulder, saying it would affect his
decision on whether he’ll come back for another season. Favre said he
has been feeling discomfort in the shoulder for quite some time.

“It
hurts in the back (of the shoulder), hurts down in the biceps and,
occasionally, in my neck,” he said. “Other than that, it’s fine.”

If Brett Favre’s injuries kept him from performing at top level and
subsequently kept the Jets from making the postseason, then he is even
more selfish than I first believed.  A coach was fired because the Jets
failed to make the postseason.  A family was upended and moved across
the country.  A fan base – a loyal and true fan base – was left with
their hearts shattered.  Why?  So #4 could continue a streak that
Peyton Manning is going to break before his career his out?  So the
“iron man” could prove to a former employer he’s capable of performing
the entirety of his job?  If Favre was incapable of winning ballgames
for physical reasons, didn’t he owe it to the organization to say
something and not save it for the year’s final press conference?

The answer is of course he did.  But don’t expect the shills at
ESPN to bring that up.  Don’t expect Favre apologists around the media
world to even consider the thought.  What Favre did in 2008 was heroic,
don’t you get it?  And maybe Favre is a hero.  Anyone who saw today’s
press conference knows that his 10 year-old daughter wants him to win
another Super Bowl.  “Another” one?  Is she still excited about the one
you won when she was negative three years old, Brett?  If you saw the
presser you realize that teenage boys on a high school football field
cheered when they heard of his returning to action.  He’s a hero, damn
it.  Can’t you hear him telling you that?

I used to think Brett Favre’s biggest flaw was the media’s
overhyping his fading ability.  It’s not.  Brett Favre’s biggest flaw
is much simpler than that: he’s a self-obsessed, paranoid liar.  He can
see the end of the tunnel and there are no cameras or sycophantic columnists.  That horrifies him.  Who is going to photograph his worn baseball cap?  Who is going to write about his enthusiasm for the game?  Who is going to ignore his throwing another season into the hands of a defensive back?  Who will be left but himself? 

And then he’ll learn the lesson of life.  You can’t blame a receiver for running the wrong route when you’re the only one on the field.

Buried in a day where the Minnesota Vikings have stolen the headlines was some pretty substantial, if predictable news from Brad Biggs.  It appears Lovie Smith & Co. have settled on Peanut Tillman and Zack Bowman as their starting corners. 

“[Tillman and Bowman] don’t have to come out here and prove to us
that they can play,” Smith said. “So we’ll just do what we need to do.
Everything we do in general is to set up our play for [Green Bay].
Yeah, we would like to have them out here practicing, but as long as we
can get them back around in time, we’ll be OK.”

Asked if he was endorsing Bowman as a starter on the spot, Smith continued.

“I speak of Bowman based on what he’s done since [offseason team
activities], and he’s played as well as any of the defensive backs.
That’s how I am looking at it.”

Lovie Smith knows what we all know.  He knows Nate Vasher is finished as a top tier defensive player.  He knows Truman McBride is nothing but a respectable backup.  And he knows that D.J. Moore and Woodny Turenne are D.J. Moore and Woodny Turenne.  So now the issue for the Chicago Bears is not finding their starting corners.  It’s getting their starting corners healthy.

According to the Associated Press, “The NFL asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to clear the way for the suspension of [Kevin and Pat Williams] for violating the league’s anti-doping policy.”  Oral arguments are being made this morning to the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul as the NFL attempts to overturn of Judge Paul Magnuson; who had decided that issues pending usurped the league’s collective bargaining agreement. ProFootballTalk gives a more in-depth analysis:

At issue is the May 22 decision of Judge Paul Magnuson, a federal
jurist who decided that the claims made by Kevin and Pat Williams under
Minnesota drug-testing laws supersede the Collective Bargaining
Agreement between the NFL and the players union.

If the
three-judge panel on the Eighth Circuit agrees with Magnuson, the
state-court case will continue, and the Williamses will be able to play
until the litigation is resolved.

If the Eighth Circuit
disagrees, the state-court case will be scuttled.  Barring the
intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court on an emergency basis, both
players will serve four-game suspensions arising from the ingestion of
StarCaps, an over-the-counter supplement that secretly had been spiked
with a banned substance.

The league is not going to allow these two players to escape this situation without a suspension and it would be wise on their part to simply take the hit now.  The Vikings open with Cleveland, Detroit, San Francisco and (the now legendary matchup with) Green Bay.  They should go 3-1 through that phase of their schedule in their sleep.

ESPN just reported, on Sportscenter, that Favre boarded a 9:10 AM plane to St. Paul.  Favre commented that the media “may know something by dinner”.

ADDENDUM: ESPN is now reporting, per WCCO-TV, that Favre and the Vikings is a done deal.

ADDENDUM #2: Favre to make $12 million this year.

ADDENDUM #3: Two straight hours of coverage and not ONE PERSON has questioned Favre’s ability to compete at a high level.  Considering he has ended both of the last two seasons on a completely disastrous note, that seems a bit strange.

ADDENDUM #4: I fucking hate the Minnesota Vikings.  I don’t think I’ve ever hated them before but right now I really hate them.  Passionately.  Rooting against them weekly will become second only to rooting for the Chicago Bears.

Before I get to the other teams in the division, a note.  Jay Cutler’s Chicago Bears #6 is currently top selling jersey in the National Football League and the Bears are second overall.  Now let’s take a look at the rest of the division in the aftermath of the first preseason game.

Detroit Lions
It seems to be all about the starting quarterback in Detroit, where first overall pick Matthew Stafford and Daunte Culpepper are competing.  Ernie Sims is quoted in the Free Press:

“It’s a
toss-up between No. 9 and 11. Daunte Culpepper is a good veteran. But
you saw what I saw when No. 9 came out there and made some very
impressive throws.”

If the Lions don’t start Stafford Week One, they are simply lost as an organization.  The kid is going to make mistakes and often look like he doesn’t belong.  But you’re dealing with an organization that will consider four wins a massive success.

And, as always, the Lions’ broadcasters can sure put things in perspective:

“You know, Brandy, I got to admit, you look at these games and you
try to take something out of them,” Miller said. “And I think forever,
Lions fans are going to be a little bit more careful after a 4-0
preseason last year and then the year that everybody had to endure.”

“Not to mention their announcer. Me!” Brandstatter said. “I learned my lesson.”

Green Bay Packers
Am I the only one totally shocked by the fact that Matt Flynn has completely outplayed Brian Brohm for the backup quarterback job?  There was a time, when Brohm was at Louisville, that some believed he’d be the top pick in the draft. (And some of you were downright angry the Bears did not select him in the second round.)

New name to know: Jermichael Finley.  The second-year tight end is set to usurp Donald Lee in the starting lineup and the Bears have found themselves ultra-susceptible to tight ends for the past few seasons.  The last thing we need is for the Packers to find another weapon in their deep, pretty damn terrific passing game.

Good news!  The Pack are shuffling the deck with their offensive line.  Outside of left tackle Chad Clifton, nobody knows where they’ll be lining up against us on the 13th.  What this means is we’ll get a good read on Marinelli’s “rush men” right at the start of the season.

Minnesota Vikings   
Great post by Mark Craig about the shear boredom that is the NFL preseason.  I hate it.  Every single snap. And so does he.

Apparently, Jay Glazer is still convinced that Brett Favre is going to join the Vikings this summer.  And, according to him, so are the Minnesota Vikings:

“…I’m absolutely convinced. Why?
For starters, because everyone else on the Vikings seems to be
convinced of the same thing. I mean damn near everybody! During my two
days in Mankato, nearly everyone I talked to within the team talked
about Favre joining not as an ‘if’ but rather a ‘when.'”

I’m quite surprised that this story isn’t gathering more attention from those clowns at ESPN, who normally salivate at the very mentions of Favre.

Good story about John Sullivan, the man replacing the great Matt Birk at center.  Apparently Sullivan was so nervous about making his Vikings’ debut, he vomited a lot.  Nice to know this who playing professional football thing still means something to some of these guys.

Here is the quote, currently causing controversy among the must-be-bored Chicago Bears beat writers:

“Devin is more of a go-get it guy, he is not really a back shoulder or
jump up and get it [guy],” Cutler said. “You learn from it. We made
some mistakes. It’s the first preseason game. Luckily enough, we have
some time to correct them and keep going.”

This quote – those very same words you’ve just read – are being depicted as Jay Cutler throwing Devin Hester under the bus.  Those words.  Nothing else. 

Jay Cutler is not saying “the interception was Devin Hester’s fault.”  Jay Cutler is saying that he threw the wrong kind of pass to the wrong kind of receiver.  He’s not giving the vanilla, untruthful answer that reporters seem to want.  They want Cutler to say, “I threw a bad pass.  My fault.”  I want Cutler to tell the truth. 

And the truth is that Devin Hester is a speed receiver.  He’s not Randy Moss.  Or Steve Smith.  What Cutler should have done is thrown the ball five-to-ten yards beyond him.  But he didn’t.  He made a mistake.  And he threw an interception in a fake game.  You know what?  I’m not too worried about it.      

Just wrapped up watching the entirety of this ballgame and here’s five thoughts.

1. On the quarterbacks.  (1) Don’t worry about Jay Cutler’s performance.  Without Matt Forte and Greg Olsen (the team’s other two dynamic weapons), it is nearly impossible to gauge how this offense is going to look.  (2) I was quite impressed with Caleb Hanie.  He has a solid arm, good vision down the field and seems to be comfortable when scrambling outside the pocket.  (3) Brett Basanez should not make this or any other club’s 53 man roster.

2.  Trent Edwards went 10-for-10.  Trent Edwards looked an awful lot like every quarterback the Bears faced in 2008.  If Green Bay runs the ball fifteen times on opening night, I’ll be surprised.

3. Nathan Vasher needed a solid performance last night and he certainly did not provide it.  Vash looked tentative in coverage and slow to the football.  Won’t someone tell me what’s happened to this player since signing a lucrative contract extension?

4. I think the speculation can end.  Rashied Davis is going to be on this team.

5. Even though Al Afalava (how about ‘Volcano’ as a nickname) and Craig Steltz Bomber are not starting players, I think we’ve got some depth at the safety spot.  Both players looked confident and – more importantly – made plays.     

David Haugh presents the five players he believes need to play well on Saturday night against the Buffalo Bills.  They are Adrian Peterson, Craig Steltz, Marcus Harrison, Rashied Davis and Frank Omiyale.  Peterson is a coach’s favorite and a stellar special teams performer.  Steltz and Harrison will be on this roster but need to prove they’re ready to contribute on a regular basis.  We know Rash can get open but can he catch the ball, especially thrown with Cutler’s velocity?  Omiyale may not earn the starting job but he’ll become the first man off the bench – essential with an aging left tackle.

Here are three more players I believe need a solid performance Saturday night.  It’s not a make or break opportunity but it is essential they begin to show something against real life competition.

Caleb Hanie
Forget about Caleb’s individual performance.  Davis, Iglesias, Rideau, Aromashodu and Knox are going to see the bulk of their action when Hanie is in the game.  If he’s throwing ducks around the field and scrambling like an Asian kid at a video arcade, the evaluation process will be worthless.  Hanie must be poised and he must be accurate.      
Nathan Vasher
I’ve written about the demands on Vash this summer and they begin Saturday night.  If I’m Lovie Smith – and at last check I am not – I am lining Nate up in front of Terrell Owens on every single snap.  If a nagging toe injury keeps T.O. sidelined, then Lee Evans.  Send a message to Vasher that he needs to earn the right to be on the field come Green Bay.  Test not only his ability but also his resolve. 

Chris Williams
Chris Williams has done nothing as a professional football player except cash very large paychecks and most media members and fans are treating him like a foregone success at right tackle.  He’s not…yet.  Williams needs a couple solid efforts so as not to ring the alarm inside Halas Hall.  Once the left guard is selected, this unit needs a few weeks to gel.  If Williams plays with the dominance he showed at the end of his college career, the Bears can enter the 2009 season with one of the better right sides in the league.

So the question is…who do you think needs to make an impact Saturday night?

I wrote earlier in the year that I thought the acquisition of Jay Cutler would move the Chicago Bears into the modern age – finally shifting the balance of power away from the overpaid, under-performing defensive unit.  Now Jay Cutler, simply by putting on the navy and orange, has become the face of the franchise.  He has become the Chicago Bears.  And if he remains so for the next ten years, it shall be the decade of decadence around Halas Hall.

Vaugh McClure quotes Cutler in the Tribune, regarding the selection of wide receivers: 

“If they don’t ask me [my opinion], I’m going to tell them what I
think,” he said Wednesday. “I have to be the one throwing to them on
game day. I have to trust them. But [offensive coordinator Ron Turner] and I have been on the same page since the start of training camp with what guys we wanted to see work in with me.”

Take a step back from your computer and read that again.  Now, think.  What would Kyle Orton have answered that question with?  Something like, “I’ll throw to whoever they put out there.”  What would Rex Grossman have said?  Something about New Year’s Eve?

The truth is…
…those guys did not want the Chicago Bears.  They wanted to fit in.  They wanted to be good locker room guys and not rock the firmly-established boat.  Cutler doesn’t give a shit about Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs and Tommie Harris and Lovie Smith because he shouldn’t.  Cutler looks around and sees that the young talent on this team is on his side of the ball.  His side, not Ron Turner’s.  You can discount these comments today all you want but make no mistake about it…

Jay Cutler knows he’s the Chicago Bears.  He knows winning opens the vault and fills the bags.  And he knows that the only person responsible for that is wearing #6.  If you ask me, that’s something the Bears have lacked at quarterback since the Bears first fielded a quarterback.  That’s something that makes me wish today was September 13th, instead of August 13th.  And that’s something that wins championships.