All the Favre That's Fit to Favre – Brett's a New Yorker Now

In the end it was the New York Jets…not the Tampa Bay Bucs, not the Chicago Bears and not the Minnesota Vikings. For a conditional 4th round draft pick, The Other New York team will have the privilege of lining up with Brett Favre behind center.

Why are the Jets doing it? They’re clearly feeling pressure to win, what with the rival Patriots dominating their division, and the Giants dominating the New York headlines (and winning the Super Bowl in case you hadn’t heard). So the Jets have gone on a spending spree. They beefed up their offensive line with Alan Faneca, snagged a linebacker in Calvin Pace, and helped their running game by grabbing former Viking FB Tony Richardson. They also signed a tight end Mr. Favre is familiar with – Bubba Franks.

The Favre trade guarantees the Jets parity in the headline wars with the Giants (especially now that news-maker Jeremy Shockey is gone to New Orleans). It gives them offensive credibility. It makes for a great story two times a year when Favre faces off against Tom Brady and Randy Moss (Favre never got Moss in Green Bay like he wanted but now he’s at least in the same division with the Freak again). And what did they give up? A 4th that becomes a higher pick only if the team and Favre reach certain benchmarks. It can become a 1st if the Jets make the Super Bowl with Favre taking 80% of the snaps.  Not a serious sacrifice.

As for the Packers…they at last got rid of whiny, waffley Brett Favre, the human headache. They never have to deal with another second of retirement speculation. They’ve spared themselves the pain of a declining Favre trying desperately to hang on. Packer fans should be grateful – they get to remember Brett as he was. We never had to watch Marilyn Monroe get old and saggy, and Packer fans won’t have to see Favre end up on his knees, shellshocked, like Y.A. Tittle. Granted, it’s sad that Favre’s last pass as a Packer had to be a season-ending interception…but in a way it’s fitting too. Yes it was failure, but it was magnificent failure…he went down shooting his load like a gunfighter at noon. So what if he’s still playing football somewhere else? The Jets won’t play in Green Bay again until 2012. Packer fans have been spared the sight of Favre walking onto Lambeau’s turf in an opposing uniform. The organization took good care of their tender cheesehead sensibilities.

And more importantly, the Packers will never have to see Favre in purple. How desperate were they to keep that from happening? They put a poison pill in their trade agreement with the Jets – if New York turns around and trades Favre to the Vikings they’ll have to surrender 3 first-round picks. The pill specifies the Vikings. Still think there was ever a realistic chance of him going to Minnesota? It would never have happened. The PR nightmare was bad enough as it was – for Favre to end up in purple would’ve been Apocalyptic. The resolution was far from perfect but the Packers and their fans should be able to live with it. And the Jets should enjoy Brett Favre – at least until he starts acting like a bastard again.