Brett Favre: Will He or Won't He?

One month before the end of the NFL's regular season, the New York Jets were looking like geniuses and Brett Favre was looking like a Pro Bowl-bound quarterback should look. He was throwing touchdowns and leading the Jets to wins over teams like the then unbeaten Tennessee Titans.

Fast forward to the end of December. Favre was still a Pro Bowl-bound quarterback, but he sure didn't look like one. The only touchdowns he was throwing were to opponents, and the Jets had skidded out of contention and out of the playoffs. Brett Favre is a major, though not the only, reason for the Jets late season nosedive.

And now the trash talk starts. The Jets screwed up. They should have kept Chad Pennington, who went on to lead the abysmal 1-15 2007 Miami Dolphins to the AFC East Division Championship and a spot in the playoffs. Brett Favre screwed San Diego's Philip Rivers out of a well-deserved Pro-Bowl berth. Favre should have stayed retired if all he was going to do was throw passes to the other team. The Jets would be going to the playoffs if they had kept Pennington.

Spare me.

Look, I've been a Brett Favre fan since he first came to the Green Bay Packers from the Atlanta Falcons oh those many, many years ago. I like Favre. He's got the ability every time he is on the field to lead his team down the field to a touchdown or a field goal. I often question some of his playmaking choices, but you gotta admit, he gives any team that he belongs to several different ways to win.

Did the Jets make a mistake bringing Favre in and shipping Pennington out? Who knows? The Jets were 4-12 in 2007 with Pennington and without Favre. Would Pennington have been able to lead the Jets to the 11-5 record that he led the Dolphins to in 2008?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Big-mouthed and foul-mouthed Jets' running back notwithstanding, nobody can say for sure that Chad Pennington would have led the Jets to a better record than the 9 wins and 7 losses that Favre led them to. And somebody needs to remind said running back that having a guy like Favre under center keeps the safeties and corners just a little bit further away from the line of scrimmage. A quarterback who is a serious threat to air it out on a regular basis keeps a couple of defensive bodies from keying in on running plays at the line of scrimmage. That gives the running back the freedom to make some yards that said running back may not have made with a quarterback that is not a serious bomb threat.

That said, it would have been nice if Favre had brought some of Chad's game management skills with him from Green Bay to New York. Heck, it would have been nice if Favre had brought some of Favre's game management skills from the Holmgren years with him.

And that may be the biggest problem with Favre's New York Jets incarnation. He and Coach Mangini were not a good match. I don't know whether Coach Mangini wanted Favre. I don't know whether he was happy letting Pennington go. I just don't know. But, I do know that Favre and Mangini were not a good match. And both parties can be blamed for that.

Brett Favre was used to a certain offensive situation. He forced a trade. That trade was to a team with a completely different offensive set-up. Guess what? Somebody has got to adjust. The way I look at it, Favre should have done the majority of adjusting. Unless the Jets were re-tooling their entire offense in the wake of the disastrous 2007 season, then the new guy should have adjusted, even if he is a legendary quarterback. That's what being a professional athlete is all about.

I think Favre could have done it. Favre is at his best when he's got a running game and a mix of long and short passes. Did the Jets have the horses to do that? A certain running back seems to think so. Maybe. Maybe not. What we do know is that what Favre and the Jets did do.....well, it really didn't work for the last five games of the season. The other teams adjusted.

That's not all Favre's fault. When you are the head coach of a National Football League team, it is your job to adjust to your opponent's adjustments. You make those adjustments with the players you have. It really doesn't matter whether you like the players on your team. It really doesn't matter whether the players were forced on you. It really doesn't matter whether the players fit your system. You adjust. When you negotiated your contract, you obviously agreed with the Jets organization's philosophical approach to football. You obviously agreed that you could coach within that system. You obviously knew you weren't going to have the final say on player personnel. You took big bucks believing that you could bring success within that system. Do it.

Should Favre retire? That's up to him. This is America. If he wants to play another year, and he can find a team to pay him for another year, then he should do it. And if an owner wants to pick him up for his team, then he should do so. And if the fans don't like it, then for crying out loud, vote with your wallet instead of your mouth. Unless you want to vote with your mouth. This is America, after all. You're free to do what you want.