NFL Team Capsules: Favre going where few QBs have gone before
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — The aches and pains simply never go away for Brett Favre anymore.
Nineteen NFL seasons have taken their toll, and when he gets out of bed in the morning he feels every one of the hits he’s taken. His ankle barks at him as soon as his foot hits the floor, his knees creak as he stands up and his back groans as he stretches to get loosened up for another day as a 40-year-old quarterback.
“There’s nothing on me 100 percent,” Favre said. “There wasn’t anything on me 100 percent last year or the year before. The surgeries, I think, have made me a little better, but I’ve played 309 straight games, I can’t complain.”
He can’t quit, either.
As he prepares to enter his 20th season in the league, Favre is going where few quarterbacks have gone before him. And he’s looking to lead the Minnesota Vikings to a place even fewer QBs have taken this tortured franchise — to the Super Bowl.
According to STATS LLC, 17 quarterbacks in NFL history have started a season in which they turned 40 by Nov. 1. The vast majority of those players spent the waning days of their careers watching from the sidelines. George Blanda played until he was 48 as a kicker and backup quarterback who did complete 119 passes after turning 40.
Favre is the only 40-year-old quarterback to win a playoff game and one of only three to start more than six games in his 40s. He joins Warren Moon and Vinny Testaverde, who each made 25 starts in their 40s.
How does he do it? And what makes him want to leave a cushy life on his 465-acre spread in Hattiesburg, Miss., where he has more money than he could spend in two lifetimes, to endure another season of punishment?
“I look at him and he’s a competitor,” former quarterback Len Dawson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “He loves the game. He loves the competition. He probably gets bored. What’s he going to do when he’s down on that farm in Mississippi? Run around on that tractor? That would get old real quick.”
If anyone can speak to the mentality of a 40-year-old quarterback, it’s Dawson. The Hall of Famer and Super Bowl winner is one of the select group to play the position at that age, when he started five games for the Kansas City Chiefs in his final season in 1975.
The Chiefs were rebuilding then, which made that final year painful in more ways than one for Dawson. He recalled taking a hit so hard in a game against Baltimore that he knew he couldn’t go on much longer.
Still, he managed to play in 12 games during that transition season, completing 66 percent of his passes for 1,095 yards, five touchdowns and a solid 90 quarterback rating.
“At age 40, you’re not as quick and as agile as you are in your late 20s, but you can rely on your ability to think because you’ve been through it and know what it takes,” Dawson said.
Favre leans on smarts, instincts and gut feelings today more than he ever has, but that right arm of his still has plenty of juice.
“My arm felt like it was 21 last year,” Favre said. “Amazing.”
Yet as good as he felt physically for most of last year, Favre still had serious reservations about signing up for year No. 20. He had surgery on his ankle this summer for the third time in his career, but it wasn’t the physical demands of the job that played the biggest role in his indecision.
The loss to the Saints, especially the interception he threw at the end of regulation, ate at him like few others have.
“Everyone wants to talk about the physical toll in that particular game,” Favre said. “The mental toll is really what is hard to deal with.”
It certainly wasn’t all pain and suffering for Favre, though. He quickly bonded with the Vikings in a way he hadn’t connected with teammates for a few years, and his unbridled enthusiasm and playfulness made him a favorite in the locker room.
That’s what three of his closest friends on the team — Steve Hutchinson, Ryan Longwell and Jared Allen — emphasized when they took a private plane to Hattiesburg to persuade him to come back.
The gray-haired Favre will turn 41 in October and his daughter gave birth to the family’s first grandchild this spring, so there is plenty of ammunition for the court jesters in the Vikings locker room. Teammates put a rocking chair in front of his locker last year and endearingly dubbed him the “Silver Fox.”
But when it was time to suit up, the old man put up numbers that would make any 28-year-old jealous.
He doesn’t hesitate to call 2009 the best season of a nearly unparalleled career. Coming off surgery to relieve the pain from a torn biceps tendon in his throwing arm, Favre threw for 4,202 yards and 33 touchdowns while setting career bests for completion rate (68.4), quarterback rating (107.2) and fewest interceptions (seven).
He started every game to keep his treasured streak at a record 285 regular season games — 309 including playoffs — intact and led the Vikings to the NFC title game.
“He’s still got the tools. He can still play,” Hutchinson said. “Everybody just has to step up around him and give him the opportunity.”
The Vikings are banking on it. Favre came back last year in large part to show his former team — the Green Bay Packers — that he still had something left. He beat them twice in convincing fashion and was one play away from taking the Vikings to the Super Bowl.
“It’s amazing what he has done and what he’s continuing to do. It really is,” said Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who came into the league with the Packers 13 years ago, when Favre was in his seventh season as a starter. “The streak that he has going is just ridiculous.”
So what is the motivation this season? Favre said he’s got nothing left to prove, but Dawson isn’t so sure.
Toward the end of his career, Dawson kept going in part to show all the younger guys in the league that he could still play.
“Certainly, and I could,” Dawson said. “And so could (Favre). I’m sure that’s part of it. Sometimes you have to prove it to yourself. It’s in your blood and that’s all you’ve done all your life to age 40. Maybe it’s a little frightening to think about finishing and going out in the real world.”
It’s going to feel pretty real to Favre when he walks into the Superdome on Sept. 9 to begin his 20th season in the same place his 19th came to such an excruciating conclusion against the Saints.
“You should always be on your toes,” Favre said. “You should always be looking over your shoulder, especially when you’re soon-to-be 41 and a new grandfather. You should really be because everyone’s writing you off.
“It just seems like at 40, the guy’s a has-been. So in saying that, it’s motivation for me.”
Haynesworth’s nice act is win for Redskins
WASHINGTON — For the Washington Redskins, the absolutely, positively best moment concerning their preseason win over the New York Jets came when Albert Haynesworth opened his mouth and didn’t say anything to stir up trouble.
Haynesworth even cracked a joke after the 16-11 victory Friday night, saying he was heading to coach Mike Shanahan’s house for dinner and a cigar.
“What I said last week is behind me,” Haynesworth said. “I don’t even remember what I said.”
Haynesworth had used the first two exhibition games to express his displeasure with Shanahan, adding fuel to the tit-for-tat that has overshadowed the Redskins for months. It’s safe to say that coach and player aren’t anywhere close to being best friends, but at least there will be no new fires to put out when practice resumes Sunday.
Instead, the Redskins for the first time have a tangible feel for how Haynesworth will probably be used in the regular season. After being relegated to backup nose tackle duty in the first two games, he was out there with the starters for much of the time Friday night, playing quite a bit at defensive end as well as the nose in a 3-4 alignment that he had been previously reluctant to embrace.
“I’m just trying to get down the end, and the 3-4 defense, to where I can be dominant in it,” Haynesworth said. “My body feels great, as far as the wind and the power. ... I can definitely improve a whole lot.”
Haynesworth’s play was one of the few interesting highlights in a game that didn’t reveal much about the Redskins’ prospects heading into the regular season. The offense didn’t start its projected starting backfield because quarterback Donovan McNabb is nursing a sprained ankle, fullback Mike Sellers has a sprained knee and running back Clinton Portis was given limited work so the coaches could see what Willie Parker could do.
One possible concern is that Portis sprained an ankle in the game.
“I don’t think it is serious,” Shanahan said. “I don’t know how bad it is, but that’s just guessing.”
The offensive line still looks like a mixed bag — better at pass protection than run blocking. The defense looks significantly stronger and is producing turnovers, including DeAngelo Hall’s second interception of the preseason.
Starters will play sparingly — if at all — in next week’s game at Arizona, so the focus now is firmly on the Sept. 12 regular season opener against Dallas.
“We probably have a lot of stuff we have to improve on,” receiver Santana Moss said. “But that is why we play preseason games, so that we can see these things and go and try to tune them up before Week 1 comes.”
-- Joseph White
AFC
Polian: Problems with umpire are solvable
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Colts president Bill Polian understands why the NFL decided to move its umpires into a safer location. Hey, he even voted for it.
After watching his franchise quarterback, Peyton Manning, get called twice for illegal snaps and become visibly frustrated with the pace of Thursday night's preseason game, Polian said Saturday the solution may be only some minor tweaks.
"I don't think there are many (problems with it). I think they are mechanical in nature," he said during a rare in-season news conference. "I don't think we'll see the full import of it until we get well into the regular season and certainly get a full season's worth of work. My concerns right now are simply mechanical and very easily solvable."
The architect of four Super Bowl teams in Buffalo and two in Indy put aside his sometimes fiery demeanor in an effort to downplay an issue debated at great length on Friday's local sports talk shows.
Polian has never been afraid to speak his mind. He helped lobby for a rules change about defensive contact with receivers after a playoff loss to New England and has used his weekly radio show to critique Indianapolis' offensive line and explain why the Colts decided to pull their starters when they were 14-0.
Now Polian finds himself playing a different role — mediator and spokesman for the competition committee, which approved the position switch.
"It was the intent of the committee and the officiating department that we make sure that we created a situation that was as safe as possible for these guys (umpires)," Polian said. "It reached the point where the league office thought that the physical danger out there and the safety of the umpire was becoming an issue, so we changed his position. We recognized that there would be, A, mechanical issues, and B, issues with respect to certain penalties that might or might not be called based upon the new position."
Manning didn't like the results Thursday and even called one penalty "ridiculous."
But Polian also explained the Colts intentionally pushed the tempo at Green Bay to see what problems might occur under live, regular-season conditions.
The new rule calls for the umpire, who had been positioned near the linebackers, to line up behind the deepest running back. A legal snap cannot occur until the umpire is set.
Polian also clarified that the umpire will line up in his normal spot, near the linebackers, during the final two minutes of each half.
So what needs to be fixed?
Polian did not offer specifics or advice, though he acknowledged, as league officials did Friday, that the rule will stay, possibly, with some minor changes.
"If we do the mechanics right, I don't think that it (penalties) ought to be an issue," Polian said. "If I thought that would be a byproduct of it, obviously, I would not have voted for it. There are certain times of the game and certain downs and distance where it's going to become more of an issue, and they've got to be aware of it.
"I'm sure there are some tweaks that they will make and we'll move forward."
-- Michael Marot
Turner happy with Chargers' first-string offense
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Chargers coach Norv Turner said he's pleased with the performance of his first-team offense as the exhibition season winds down.
Although the Chargers lost 36-21 at New Orleans on Friday night, Turner said the first-string offense was sharp.
"That was a good example of what we can be," Turner said Saturday. "There are things we can clean up, but I'm happy with how we've played. That was as close to a regular season game as you can get through 2½ quarters, and I thought we were sharp."
The defense, however, allowed the Saints to gain 552 yards.
The focus remained on the progress of rookie running back Ryan Mathews. While his numbers were down, the No. 12 overall draft pick showcased physical skills and an ability to learn from his mistakes. He turned a few broken plays into positive gains and made strides in pass blocking. He sealed the pocket by blocking a linebacker on a play similar to one a week before, when he missed an assignment that got quarterback Philip Rivers sacked.
"Even though his numbers weren't as good as they've been in other games, I thought he gave his best performance," Turner said. "He's really getting comfortable with our group and has an understanding of what we're doing. New Orleans was geared up with a complicated blitz package. They treated it like a regular-season game early. It's clear he's growing comfortable with what we want to do."
Left tackle Brandyn Dombrowski's performance has also been heavily analyzed. The second-year pro is under the microscope while succeeding Marcus McNeill, a restricted free agent who's holding out in protest of his contract status.
"I think it's going to be an over-evaluated position," Turner said. "If Marcus played left tackle last night like Brandyn did, everyone would've said we got a good game out of our left tackle. I'm going to look at his production alone. He got beat inside on a couple plays, but nothing was major and there was nothing that can't be fixed. I thought he played well."
