Favre not the greatest

January 18th, 2008 at 03:29pm Matt Trowbridge

Brett Favre is the most important player to the NFL since Red Grange and Sammy Baugh first made the league popular a zillion years ago. In an era when the police dockets are full of Cincinnati Bengals and Tank Johnson has more guns than tackles, Favre is an icon for the league. Throwing snowballs after a playoff touchdown pass reinforces that this is still a kid’s game and makes the NFL look cool, hip and fun.

That said, Brett Favre will never be the greatest player in NFL history. That’s the exclusive province of Jim Brown. Favre isn’t even the greatest Packer. That is clearly Don Hutson, who rivals Jerry Rice and Joe Montana for the honor of second-greatest ever. I once thought — and even wrote — that Favre was the best quarterback. He flat-out carried the Packers for four or five years. The year before they won the Super Bowl, the Packers almost beat the Cowboys even though they couldn’t run a lick and Emmitt Smith ran up and down the field on them. Favre, single-handedly, had the Packers ahead until late in the fourth quarter. And the next year, when they won the Super Bowl, the pass blocking made it look like a fire drill every time Favre went back to pass early in the season. Yet teams couldn’t drag Favre down. He kept scrambling and throwing on the run and leading Green Bay to victory. Then, halfway through the season — just like this year — the offensive line jelled and began both pass blocking and run blocking with aplomb.

Again, that said, for all of Favre’s greatness and importance, he’s had too many mediocre seasons to be considered the best ever. The last seven or eight seasons before this year were simply not all-time great quality. Favre is one of the five best quarterbacks ever, in there with John Elway, Johnny Unitas and Otto Graham, but he has not been as consistently great as Joe Montana and no one can match Jim Brown.

Entry Filed under: Green Bay Packers, Brett Favre