My idea weeks ago, send him home:
Here is my prediction. Favre to New Orleans, this city and franchise needs something to rally for. Right now tied for the 3 spot they can draft lienhart or Young and have them watch Favre for a year. Favre will be a part of the community down there no matter, you might as well get him some ties to that organization.
Time for a hero to march in
Favre should return to Big Easy, give Saints new life
Posted: Wednesday January 4, 2006 5:18PM; Updated: Wednesday January 4, 2006 5:35PM
The year 2005 was especially unkind to the New Orleans Saints. Whatever lofty goals the team carried into the season -- whether that was .500 ball or, loftier still, a berth in the playoffs -- were summarily wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. And while the floodwaters have since receded and civil unrest with it, the Saints, like their city, remain a franchise in decay, their future awash in uncertainty. The team's coach for the past six years,
Jim Haslett, was shown the door on Monday. Its corroding Superdome lords over a pockmarked cityscape like a zit on prom night. Most of the team's fan base has relocated to higher ground.
And the Saints, by turn, could be doomed to a similar fate. While owner
TomBenson will excitedly welcome his team back to its practice facility in Metairie, La., in two weeks and expects the Saints to resume play inside the Superdome by mid-September, the NFL's outlook on the team's future by comparison is far less enthusiastic. So grim in fact that commissioner
Paul Tagliabue has even wondered aloud whether New Orleans will be able to support the Saints beyond 2006. "We think it can," he said in a five-hour meeting with Saints players and coaches last week, "but it's not a slam dunk" -- in which case San Antonio (which hosted five Saints "home" games at the Alamodome last season), Chicago (wanting of an 80,000-seat domed stadium and second NFL team before the Olympics in 2016) and the ever-thorny Los Angeles market become evermore viable options.
Naturally, all this impermanence has tested the patience of veterans such as the 28-year-old
Aaron Brooks (who'd begin entertaining thoughts of retirement late last season) as well as the team's overall free agent pitch. With no home, no (bright) lights, few motorcars and not a single lux-ur-ee, the Saints have been reduced to the NFL equivalent of
Gilligan's Island, only uninhabitable (compared to more practical NFL destinations like San Francisco and Houston). It would take a miracle to keep this franchise in New Orleans -- let alone competitive -- beyond the next 18 months.
Enter
Brett Favre, equal parts iron man and Superman and no stranger to the miraculous. There was the 402-yard passing clinic against the Bears in '95, the he-did-whaat?! hurl to
Antonio Freeman against the Vikings in 2000, the four-touchdown barrage against the Raiders in '03. The three MVPs, the Super Bowl ring -- certainly there's no questioning Favre's place among the all-time greats. Where he has waned, his critics allege, is in his overall effectiveness. A two-interception night against the Ravens in which he'd begrudgingly yield the Monday Night stage to rookie
Aaron Rogers in Week 15 served as the exclamation point on a 4-12 season -- Favre's first losing campaign in nearly 1 1/2 decades.
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While Packer diehards are inclined to dismiss Favre's 2005 nightmare as an aberration, those of us outside Titletown know better. Most of us are wondering how much longer Brett Favre will remain Brett Favre before he turns into
VinnyTestaverde. With
Mike Sherman fired and
MikeHolmgren's line of succession exhausted in Green Bay, Favre, wisely, is leaning toward the door.
But knowing his knack for the comeback, his flair for the dramatic, who could expect Favre to give into retirement just yet? What better place than New Orleans to stage a second act?
A return to the Bayou would bring the football odyssey full-circle for Favre, who grew up an hour northeast of New Orleans in Kiln, Miss. He wad in awe of Saints quarterback
Archie Manning before going on to lay the groundwork on his own legend at Southern Miss. Favre in black and gold would make for a natural attraction for the displaced Saints fans, the promise of "a farewell tour" returning revelers to the beleaguered area in droves and infusing the city with a buzz it hasn't felt since the team last made the playoffs in 2000. Favre's star power would likely not only prove effective in drawing large crowds back into the city but it would lure prospective free agents as well.
Of course traditionalist will cite
Johnny Unitas and
Joe Namath as the cautionary tales for what happens when an aging athlete switches uniforms, conveniently forgetting what a financial boon
Michael Jordan was to the Washington Wizards in his final two years on the court. Or how instrumental the defection of another Packers great, Baton Rouge native
Jim Taylor, was in forging the Saints early identity when they first expanded into the league in 1967. But unlike Unitas (who bolted from Baltimore to San Diego a husk of a man), or Namath (who arrived to Los Angeles Rams from the New York Jets, but lost most of his knee cartilage in baggage claim), Favre is still young enough (36) and healthy enough to play quarterback. He can still sling it, evidenced by his 3,881 passing yards, 20 touchdowns -- and career-high 29 interceptions.
It wasn't so much that his skills were eroding in his latest year in Green Bay insomuch as the talent around him. Injuries would bedevil most of his supporting cast in '05:
Javon Walker, a Pro Bowl wideout, tore his ACL in the season opener, backup runner
Najeh Davenport broke his ankle in October. Feature back
Ahman Green was gone not long thereafter with a ruptured thigh tendon, while wideout
Robert Ferguson missed significant time with a torn LCL.
But even at full strength, the Packers' offensive ensemble yields the edge to the Packers.
Joe Horn is the sure-handed receiver Walker someday hopes to be.
Donte' Stallworth, like the Packers'
Donald Driver, is the speedster who gives Favre occasion to show of his rifle arm.
Deuce McAllister is the better ball carrier, the Saints' rusher fumbling once every 70 carries to Green's 52 (or about a game's difference). All of it adds up to a rededicated Favre giving the Saints the veteran leadership long lacking from their offensive huddle.
Of course, there are details still to be ironed out. New Orleans isn't any closer to settling on a coach, but with so many West Coast coaches looking for work (
Steve Mariucci, Favre's old quarterbacks coach, comes to mind), the right match is a mere phone call away.
Still, no one would be foolish enough to suggest Favre could lead the Saints to the Super Bowl. But ending a five-year playoff drought would be a welcome consolation for a city starving for a winner and helpful to coaxing taxpayers into paying for a new or refurbished home -- something the Saints badly need.
Oh sure it might seem crazy, taking arguably most recognizable player in pro football over the last decade and slipping him inside a different jersey. But so would leaving this cherished franchise for dead or letting it escape to L.A. And while Packer fans might declare Favre selfish for jilting them without so much as a hug or a proper good-bye, a move to would be saving a lot more than Favre's career. It'd be saving a city.
