Favre having an MVP-like season
Minnesota Sports - Vikings' quarterback Brett Favre could be adding another MVP award to his resume.
From the Duluth News-Tribune.com
MINNEAPOLIS — An already surreal season became even harder to believe, when Minnesota Vikings fans began chanting “MVP!” for former longtime nemesis Brett Favre with 10 minutes, 15 seconds left in Sunday’s 35-9 victory over Seattle.
“I couldn’t tell what they were saying,” Favre said. “It was loud. I had some guys come over and congratulate me and I was like, ‘For what?’ I knew everyone was cheering for something, but I thought they were talking about completion records or something.”
Favre completed a career– and team–record 88 percent of his passes, with four touchdowns. He has 21 touchdown passes and three interceptions on this 9-1 team. Which would be stranger: A 40-year-old winning his fourth MVP or a Green Bay Packers legend winning one in his first season in purple?
Favre’s main competition for MVP at this point in the season comes from two quarterbacks leading 10-0 teams. The Colts’ Peyton Manning has 21 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. The Saints’ Drew Brees has 22 touchdown passes and nine interceptions.
Manning also has three MVPs, while Brees has yet to win one. Favre’s most recent MVP came in 1997; he shared it with Lions running back Barry Sanders.
Sanders is just 15 months older than Favre, but has been in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for six years.
For all the blame placed on Tarvaris Jackson and the other quarterbacks, Minnesota’s past passing problems under coach Brad Childress also resulted from a lack of productivity and reliability in the receiving corps.
Guys like Travis Taylor, Marcus Robinson, Troy Williamson, Robert Ferguson and Bobby Wade just couldn’t get open — or hang onto the ball — enough. Rice was a rookie and Shiancoe struggled to grasp the offense in 2007. Bernard Berrian, who has been in the shadows this season while fighting through a nagging hamstring injury and totaling only 332 yards on 32 receptions, was a boost last year but the 2008 group wasn’t nearly as threatening as now.
“Everybody’s just running their routes, and with us having so many weapons, nobody can be double covered,” rookie receiver Percy Harvin said. “You kind of choose your poison in this offense.”
Meanwhile, Favre also weighed in for the first time concerning the Vikings’ decision to extend coach Brad Childress’ contract through the 2013 season. He gave it a verbal thumbs-up, praised Childress, and then spoke about Childress pursuing him during the offseason, even after Favre originally told the Vikings he would stay retired.
“He caught a lot of heat throughout the whole courtship, or whatever you want to call it, but I give him an ‘A’ for effort,” Favre said. “The team has thankfully welcomed me in. [Childress] had to overcome some things with the team as well as myself by the way it went down. ... Obviously, winning helps with that. It’s been everything that I expected it to be, and [Childress] has been a blast to work with.”
Tags: sports, minnesota, football, vikings
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