Former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre recently spoke about the team’s disappointing loss in the 2009 NFC Championship.
When looking at the box score of the 2009 NFC Championship, it’s difficult to understand how the Minnesota Vikings ended up losing to the New Orleans Saints.
The Vikings finished with 475 total yards compared to the Saints’ 257, Minnesota possessed the ball for almost 10 minutes longer than New Orleans, and the Vikings had four fewer penalties than the Saints.
However, Minnesota did end up committing a total of five turnovers while New Orleans only had one. That seemed to be the difference in the Vikings coming up a game short of playing in Super Bowl XLIV against the Indianapolis Colts.
Brett Favre reflects on Minnesota Vikings losing 2009 NFC Championship
Following Minnesota’s loss in the 2009 NFC Championship, details were released about the Saints placing illegal bounties on opposing players. It became known as the “Bountygate” scandal and New Orleans was handed some pretty significant punishments for their involvement.
When info on the scandal was released, it turned out that former Vikings quarterback Brett Favre was one of the players who the Saints attempted to intentionally knock out when they faced the legendary passer in the 2009 NFC Championship.
Favre endured some brutal hits during the matchup and the combination of all the blows to his body ultimately resulted in the Minnesota quarterback throwing a game-changing interception instead of scrambling for a few yards near the end of the contest.
Favre recently appeared on the “Pardon My Take” podcast and he talked about what he remembered from that infamous matchup with the Saints.
"“I think they called five roughing the quarterback [penalites], but they should’ve called 12. I don’t hate Gregg Williams. It is what it is. We still had a chance to win the game with all of that in mind. When I think about that game, not for a second do I think about how they played against me. It’s more what I didn’t do at the end of the game. I still had a chance to make a play to give us a chance to win and I didn’t make it. That’s what I think about.”"
Even after more than a decade since the 2009 NFC Championship, Favre doesn’t really blame anyone other than himself for the Vikings coming up short.
It’s fine that he doesn’t hold any grudges or anything like that, but he has every right to be mad at the way Williams had the New Orleans defense playing during the matchup. If not for the Saints attempting to intentionally injure Favre, his unfortunate interception at the end of the game might not have even happened.
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The former Minnesota quarterback was never really been one to place blame on anyone other than himself for a loss during his NFL career. So maybe we shouldn’t be so shocked by his recent comments about Williams and the Saints.