Fucking Brett Favre

I'm sure that this phrase came out of the mouths of many Vikings fans after last nights crushing NFC Championship Game loss to the Saints. Perhaps it was deserved. Maybe it was fucking Brett Favre that lost the Vikings a chance of playing in Miami with that gunsling with his team in potential field goal range. Maybe it was fucking Brett Favre that caused so much pain for another fan base. But if it wasn't for fucking Brett Favre the Vikings would never have gotten this far. Without fucking Brett Favre the Vikings would have been done in the first round, if they made the playoffs at all.

I was going to write something on the Vikings last night but decided against it, mostly because I wanted to watch the rest of season one of Dexter (more on this later) but also because I wanted the loss to sink in a bit. I wanted to sleep on this one and see if my thoughts were any different a day later. To see if my feelings towards the game have been skewed by sleep and lots of blood (again, there will be lots of Dexter references in this one. I guess I might as well get it out of the way now that we are on the topic. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, it is a show that is on Showtime and is about a serial killer that kills other serial killers. The show is awesome, I recommend it to all of you as I finished one season this weekend.)

Morning came and I was still feeling the same. It wasn't broken heartness (yes, I made that up) because the Vikings lost. It wasn't anger because Brett Favre threw a classic gunsling. It wasn't even stupidity as I believed Brett Favre turned over a new leaf this year only to be reminded of how he really plays. I felt a sadness. Not for me. Not even for any of the Vikings players. I was sad because one of the last text's I got last night from my father after the game was "I hope I see the Vikings in the Super Bowl before I die".

Minnesota fans are notorius for expecting the worst and getting the worst. It's in our blood. Bill Simmons summed it up best with this Conference Championship Preview, "Jets/Bills/Vikes/Browns fans expect to get punched, contort their faces into a giant wince, wait for a punch that never comes, say to themselves, "Cool, I'm not gonna get punched, it's gonna be OK!" ... and then they get clocked." It happened in '98 and it happened again last night (the '98 season was the last time that I genuinely cared about the Vikings as my NFL team. They set records for points in a season and blew everyone away until the somehow lost to the Falcons in the championship game and I cried as a very sad 10 year old. I haven't shed a tear for the Vikings since because I learned to get out while I still could. To distance myself from the looming heartbreak that is always around the corner for Vikings fans.) So when Chester Taylor had a 14 yard run down to the Saints 33-yard line I couldn't help but start to worry.

My initial thought was that the Vikings were going to go the the first Super Bowl in my lifetime but I should have known better. I should have known that Championship Game Favre was going to show his ugly head eventually. I should have known that the football Gods don't let road teams win while turning the ball over four times (road teams really don't win turning the ball over five times, which would happen moments later). I was being too naive. I fell back into fandom for that split moment and I was let down. Again. In heartbreak fashion. Again.

You all saw how the rest of the game played out. The Saints drove down and kicked the game winning field goal sending Nawlins' into a frenzy and deservingly so. They were a good team but if anyone says that the Saints beat the Vikings were obviously not watching the same game I was. While the Saints did make plays on defense, fumbling the ball as much as the Vikings did is inexcusable and I had never seen anything like it before in a game. It was like the Vikings (namely one Adrian Peterson) were playing hot potato with the ball and the kicker was that they could have had more then the five turnovers they ended up with. The Vikes turned the ball over twice inside of their own redzone (easy points) and Favre threw both of his picks while in Saints territory (likely points). The Vikings beat themselves and choked in another big game. There's nothing else to say.

Which brings me back to Brett Favre. Was the interception in the 4th quarter with 10 seconds to go really stupid? (yes) Was it his fault that after a time out there were 12 guys in the huddle causing Brett to pull a Chris Webber of sorts? (no) Brett was doing what he always did and that is try and make plays with his arm and eventually throw some gunslings. Packer fans warned us the entire year but we were too enamored to listen (or we didn't want to listen because "this year is different"). Brett had his best statistical year of his Hall of Fame career because he didn't do the things he did last night. At the same time it would be very hard for me to trust my running backs when they had put the ball on the ground so often in the game (Percy, really. You had to fumble on back to back plays? Really) so I would try and make plays myself if I was old #4. And the toughness and courage that he showed throughout the game is stuff of legends. He got hit more then I'd ever seen a QB get hit and every time he winced like he had popped a rib out of place. It was inspiring to see a man battle through that much pain just to win a game. We all knew that Brett had heart but just in case you had never seen him play before, it was like he had to prove it to you.

That will be my lasting memory of Brett Favre. Not the last int he ever threw as a Packer. Not the wasted year in New York. Not the last int he ever threw as a Viking (maybe). It will be his toughness. His will. His desire. All for the game of football. People will point the finger at Brett but not this guy. You can't point the finger at a guy that left it all out there, which is what Brett did. And Vikings fans, there is always next year...