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Bad sports, good sports: Favre blows it again

Posted By Alan Spoll On In bad sports, good sports | 3 Comments

Wow, did I enjoy Sunday night’s NFC championship game. It was a back and forth game that went to overtime, with the New Orleans Saints outlasting the Minnesota Vikings, 31-28. The best part of it for me was late in the 4th quarter, with the game tied and Minnesota driving for what would have been a game-winning field goal. Less than 30 seconds remained, and the Vikings were at the New Orleans 38-yard line after a bad penalty for 12 men in the huddle. Favre rolled to his right after being flushed from the pocket. He could have run, improving the Vikings’ field position. Hell, he could have just fallen down. Instead, he remembered he was Brett Favre [1]. He tried to do way too much, throwing across his body and back toward the middle of the field, and it was an easy interception for Tracy Porter of the Saints. Seeing the Vikings lose because Favre screwed it up at the most critical point in the game was quite enjoyable, I must say.

I have beaten the I-hate-Brett-Favre drum all year. If I had to break it down, I would have to say that what I really hate is the Favre love-fest that I have to put up with on a weekly basis as an avid football fan. I had hoped that some of that would go away with John Madden’s retirement from the broadcast booth in early 2009, but it didn’t. The constant off-season drama surrounding Favre over the last couple of years has led to an even greater amount of attention during the season, which I am sure is a big reason Favre has made us sit through all of that. To his credit, he played exceptionally well this season, leading the Vikings to the brink of Super Bowl, and throwing the fewest interceptions of his career. With the biggest game of the year on the line, though, he reverted to his old ways.

Is Favre to blame for the constant coverage and weekly drooling by the sports media? To some extent, certainly. Like I said, he seems to create the drama, and I don’t think that’s any kind of accident. I can’t absolve the sports media itself, though, particularly ESPN. More than ever before, they seem to thrive on the personalities and off-the-field stories as much or more than they do on the sports themselves. I assume people like that stuff, or it wouldn’t sell.

Late in regulation, when it looked like the Vikings would win, I stated to the friends I was watching with that I simply couldn’t take the two-week, Super Bowl-sized Brett Favre extravaganza that was about to occur. The very thought depressed me. Fortunately, Favre did what he has done so often in his storied career.

Good sports, continued:

2) Abby Sunderland, a 16-year old girl from California, left Saturday on a sailing trip that will take her around the world [2], if things go as planned. She is attempting to become the youngest person to ever make the trip alone.

3) Every once in a while, a player hits a half-court shot in a basketball game. In hockey, you occasionally see a goal from center ice. I am not a big soccer watcher, so I don’t know how often this happens, but Jamie Milligan, a midfielder for Fleetwood Town, an English soccer club, scored from mid-field [3] on a wildly out-of-place goalkeeper in a match against Farsley Celtic. Very cool.

Bad sports:

1) I am not a religious person, but I do my best to respect the beliefs of others.  Still, I am having a hard time understanding the choice made by Grant Desme, a top pitching prospect in the Oakland Athletics farm system. He has decided to leave baseball to become a priest [4]. I don’t get it.

2) Prince, who became irrelevant years ago, apparently decided to support his hometown Minnesota Vikings [5]last week, penning a song called “Purple and Gold.” Wonderful. Please don’t let me ever hear that song.

3) This was awesome. Earlier this week, the Buffalo Bills hired Chan Gailey [6] to be the team’s new head coach. I was surprised by the choice, since Gailey didn’t seem to be a very good coach when he was head coach for the Dallas Cowboys in the late 90s. He was named offensive coordinator for the woeful Kansas City Chiefs last season, and was demoted before the 2009 season even began. Buddy Nix, the Buffalo general manager, was defending his choice of Gailey to reporters, but chose a very odd way to do it. He was attempting to explain that lots of people wanted the head job in Buffalo, despite the team’s bad season, but this is how he said it:  “Trust me, it’s a good job. Don’t ever think you can’t fill coaching jobs even if they’re bad. Oakland gets a lot of calls.”

Wow. Not sure I can add to that.

Bad Sports, Good Sports appears every Monday

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Alan Spoll [10]

Alan Spoll is a software quality assurance director from the suburbs of Philadelphia where he lives with his wonderful wife and children. He has spent his entire life as a passionate fan of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and Penn State. Recent Phillies success aside, you will understand his natural negativity. Follow me on Twitter - @DocAlan02