Brett Favre and the Packers had a nasty, ugly, public breakup. They tried to reconcile, but the jilted girlfriend just couldn't get over the fact that her former team cheated on her with another quarterback and didn't jump at the opportunity to take her back when she offered herself up.
Now the jilted girlfriend has a new team, and it's the New York Jets.
That's right, Hall of Famer Brett Favre is coming to New York. ESPN's Mark Schlereth has already predicted that he'll single-handedly shutdown Randy Moss, knock Tom Brady out of the league, and unseat the New England Patriots in the AFC East.
Not so sure about that, but with the announcement that they've traded for Brett Favre, the Jets at least let everyone know that the Patriots aren't the only team in the AFC East.
My only question is this: if you're Brett Favre, why come out of retirement to play for the Jets?
While quarterback play was an issue for the Jets last season, they also lacked any type of running game, their defense was soft and barely there at the end of the fourth quarter, and they have little to no shot at the playoffs next season.
Seriously, how do the Jets make the playoffs in an extremely crowded AFC?
They're not going to beat out the Patriots. The last time Favre played the Patriots, he lost 35–0. The last three times the Jets played the Patriots, it didn't work out too well for them, either.
Let's assume the Patriots win the AFC East (given that, conservatively, there are 12 wins on their schedule). In order for the Jets to make the playoffs, they need to leapfrog all of the following teams:
The Jaguars (not going to happen), the Titans (more likely), the loser of the Steelers/Browns battle (maybe because of their tough schedule), the Bengals (assuming they stay out of prison), the Broncos (better than their record last season), the Bills (who were better than the Jets last year, and have a crazy easy schedule down the stretch), and the Texans (who were only two games out of a playoff spot last season).
That's a lot of teams vying for one playoff spot.
The Tampa Bay Bucs made far, far more sense from a "going out with a bang" perspective because the NFC is a much, much easier conference to make the playoffs in.
Don't get me wrong, if this were the Brett Favre from 1998, the Jets would challenge the Patriots in the AFC East and they'd be one of the favorites to come out of the AFC behind the Pats, Colts, and Chargers.
But this is the 2008 version of Brett Favre, who despite is statistically tremendous season last year, is not nearly the Hall of Fame quarterback he used to be.
The Jets' biggest competition, the Patriots, are a terrible matchup for a Favre-quarterbacked team. Favre is a mistake-prone gunslinger who will make a team-killing play for every great play. The Patriots feature an opportunistic defense that thrives on mistake-prone quarterbacks.
I just don't see how this helps Brett Favre extend his legacy. A 9–7 season, just barely missing the playoffs? What's the point?
You can hold me to this. It's on the Internet. Once it's posted, I can't take it back.
The J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets will not make the playoffs in 2008 unless Tom Brady suddenly retires (assuming he doesn't pull a Favre and unretire a few weeks later).
And even then, it's 50/50.
Now, that's not to say this is a bad move for the Jets. They don't have a quarterback worth a damn on their roster right now. Adding Brett Favre not only gives them good PR, but he's also a dramatic improvement over what they were going to throw out there.
Without Favre, they're a 4-to-6-win team. With Favre, they're a 7-to-9-win team. They go from the third best team in the AFC East to the second best team. They'll certainly sell more tickets, and they'll definitely score more points.
If I were a Jets fan, I'd be psyched.
Brett Favre doesn't have what it takes to lead a great team to the Super Bowl (see his overtime incredibly awful interception against the Giants last season), but he does have what it takes to make an average team exciting.
And with everything the Jets' fans have been through over the years, exciting isn't a bad thing.
Of course, cynical Internet columnists and New England sports fans like myself will enjoy pointing out the fact that the two most overrated players in professional sports (Derek Jeter and Favre) now play in the same city.
But then, who cares what I think?
The Jets are better today than they were last week, Jets fans have a reason to look forward to the season, the Packers can finally move on, Brett Favre can play football, and Packer fans can boo Aaron Rodgers for an entire season.
Everyone's happy!
Sean Crowe is a senior writer for Bleacher Report and writes a column for Sports Central every other Thursday. You can read more articles by Sean Crowe on his blog.
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