Remembering Brett Favre’s 500th TD: Minnesota Vikings vs Jets in 2010

On a rainy Monday night almost exactly eight years ago, the Minnesota Vikings, led by 41-year-old Brett Favre, traveled to the Meadowlands to play the New York Jets. Inside both the numbers and the player history of that hard-fought game, there was a lot to remember.

The 2010 Minnesota Vikings didn’t turn out like the 2009 version, who came within one win of playing in the Super Bowl.  Instead, they struggled from the beginning of the season, and going into Week 5, the Vikings were 1-2 and looking for ways to win football games.

The Vikings had lost their young receiver, Sidney Rice, to a hip injury in the off-season, and in a dramatic move, then Vikings’ head coach Brad Childress, (somewhat of a de facto general manager at the time under new owner Zygi Wilf), decided to rock the world of the NFL and trade for New England wide-receiver and former Viking legend Randy Moss.

Moss had been disgruntled by a lack of contract talk in New England and had requested a trade from the team. Much to the chagrin of Patriots’ fans, he got one, almost immediately. The Patriots got a 3rd-round pick and gave a 7th rounder back.

Moss then returned to Minnesota after six years. He would suit up in the purple-and-gold, wear number 84 again, and get prepared as quickly as possible to play with the Vikings in New Jersey against the Jets on Monday night.

Viking Nation–going through the closet for that one jersey most of them still had–was absolutely elated by this impossible story coming true before their very eyes. Despite the dearth of positive feelings about Brad Childress (with whom QB Favre was reported to have consistent conflicts with), fans in Minnesota and the rest of the country were revitalized with hope.

For a team with young stars like Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin, quarterback Brett Favre and defensive standouts like Jared Allen, Kevin Williams and Antoine Winfield, the thought of adding the game’s greatest long-yardage threat, even at 33, was electrifying.

To add to the melodrama of that 2010 season–and that game in New York– was the fact that Favre had thrown a league-history leading 499 touchdowns in his career and was on the brink of being the first quarterback to throw for 70, 000 yards.

The game itself was delayed by rain and lightning for over an hour.  When the teams took the field, the Vikings were offensively sluggish and out-of-rhythm for nearly three quarters, while a plodding Jets’ team, led by QB Mark Sanchez and running back LaDainian Tomlinson, used four field goals to take a 12-0 lead.

Then, with the Vikings’ facing third-and 17 around midfield, it was time for history. Randy Moss flanked right, looked at Jets’ corner Antonio Cromartie facing him, checked back at Favre, then ran the ‘play’ that had made him famous around the world since 1998.

Bomb To Moss.

Favre’s throw wasn’t a Randall Cunningham or Daunte Culpepper sky-scraper, but it was a beauty of a rainbow shot that came from the swollen arm of a one aging legend, over the shoulder and into the gloved hands of another.

Number 500.  Favre then sprinted forty yards, dove into the arms of Moss, and Viking Nation turned their headlights on.

“When I threw that touchdown to Randy Moss, I had been thinking about that for eight to 10 years,” Favre said afterward.

For their careers, it was Randy Moss’ last ‘bomb’ touchdown caught, and Brett Favre’s last thrown.  For a rainy night in New Jersey, it was very cool and very special for the fans of both the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Jets.

For the 41-year-old QB, in his 20th season, Favre also went over the 70, 000 yards passing mark on the same drive.

Making It A Game

Down 12-7 into a what became a furious fourth quarter, Favre threw a touchdown pass to tight end Visanthe Shiancoe and two to wideout Percy Harvin, making the score Jets 22, Vikings 20, with just three minutes remaining.

With just two minutes and change for the New York offense, the Viking defense stiffened and forced a punt. With 1:48 left in the game and a chance to win it from their own red zone, Favre and the Vikings took the ball.

On first-and-ten, the legendary pair tried again, with Moss running a deep-right fly pattern. The long pass from Favre flew out-of-bounds.

Then two plays later, facing a 3rd-and-five from their own 21, Favre’s pass to Shiancoe was a miscue and Jets’ corner Dwight Lowery stepped in front of it, taking it 26 yards into the Viking end zone and clinching the New York victory.

The game that could have become a truly tall tale became a harbinger for the Minnesota Vikings’ 2010 season.

On Nov. 1, less than four weeks after being traded for, Randy Moss was waived by head coach Childress. Apparently, Randy didn’t think a team buffet was up to the standard of what he had become accustomed to in New England, and rather vulgarly spoke his mind about it.

Minnesota Vikings

Apparently, it embarrassed Childress tremendously. It was a deft and stunning end to Moss’ time in Minnesota, and Vikings’ fans’ were both perplexed and angry about the swiftness of the transaction.

Because Childress cut Moss without a word to the team or players, the head coach watched several Vikings almost mutiny afterward, including Percy Harvin, who had quickly grown close to Moss. Not surprisingly, Harvin soon began to develop ‘migraine’ problems which made him miss significant playing time.

Team owner Zygi Wilf was also irate at the move and quickly soured on Childress.

Weeks later, Favre, who may have still been suffering from injuries that occurred in the infamous ‘Bountygate’ NFC Championship of 2009, was knocked out of a game, which soon ended his extraordinary run of regular season games started at 297.

Childress, leading a growing disaster of a season, went 3-7 until he was fired in week 11.

No one–and I mean no one–was sorry to see him go.

In one last insult on the year, the roof of the Metrodome in Minneapolis caved in on December 12 and forced the Vikings to play at TCF Bank Stadium to end the 2010 season.

A perfect metaphor to tragically complete the almost magical odyssey of 2009, when Brett Favre came to Minnesota.

Eight years later, this Minnesota Vikings team doesn’t have the legendary pedigree nor the precarious nature as that one, but they certainly do add up to a better football team, not only as a unit but under a coaching staff they follow eagerly.

There will be no blockbuster trades, no firing of coaches, and US Bank Stadium should remain intact.

There also will be no historical records set in New Jersey on Sunday, but perhaps Minnesota can at least get their first win, considering they are 0-5 when visiting the Jets’ since the Vikings’ were founded in 1961.

That would most likely please Brett Favre, Randy Moss, and scores of Viking fans looking forward to this season and the future.