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Week 11 Was About as Goofy as the NFL Can Get.

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The National Football League might be the most successful, most prominent sports league on the planet. It makes nothing but money and is on television in just about every country in the world.

But every now and again, there comes a week when the craziness just gets bigger than the biggest league on the planet.

For instance, take the Sunday that was:

1. Tennessee quarterback Vince Young doesn’t like the fact that his head coach Jeff Fisher took him out of Sunday’s game against Washington. Seems Fisher was told by the team doctor that Young had injured his thumb and the doctor worried that he would have no control over his passes. Young disagreed, but Young apparently didn’t make his own opinion known to the head coach. So the coach takes Young out of the game. Young blows up. Not only does he throw a temper tantrum, he tosses his jersey and shoulder pads into the crowd and bolts the stadium before the coach’s post-game address to the team. Kids don’t do that at the bantam level.

2. The worst offensive line in the history of professional football killed the Minnesota Vikings once again. Of course, everybody in football wants to blame Brett Favre for the fact that nobody on his team can block. The defense gives up, the coaching staff mails it in and the Vikings get waxed 31-3 at home by Green Bay. Monday morning Brad Childress is fired as Vikings head coach. Leslie Frazier is named interim head coach. Why? Frazier’s defense quit on him on Sunday. Will he fix the offensive line? No. Will players re-sign because of Frazier? No. Wilf fired Chilly for the sake of firing him.

3. Now with the Dallas Cowboys, quarterback Jon Kitna faced his former team, the Detroit Lions on Sunday. Dalls blasted Detroit 35-19. The Lions should never have released Kitna.

4. Halftime: Cincinnati 31, Buffalo 14. Game over: Buffalo 49, Cincinnati 31. Oh, my goodness. And IN Cincinnati, no less.

5. Raheem Morris might be right. The 7-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers might be the best team in the NFC.

6. There will be no Disney sports movie. Brian St. Pierre, the stay-at-home dad who was signed off the couch last week, started for the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. The Panthers lost 37-13 to Baltimore. St. Pierre completed 13 of 28 for 173 yards and a touchdown. Not bad for a guy who couldn’t play at the UFL level this season. And against that Baltimore defense. It still might be a Disney movie.

7. Michael Vick wasn’t as good as he was in Week 10, but he was calm, cool and collected as he beat the New York Giants 27-17 with a late comeback. He’s still on pace to be NFC MVP.

Let’s take a close look at what went on in Week 11.

Sunday night…

Philadelphia 27 NY Giants 17

LeSean McCoy rushed for 111 yards on 14 carries, the big run was a 50-yarder for a touchdown late in the game that gave Philly a comeback win. The Eagles led 16-3, fell behind 17-16 and won late.

Sunday afternoon….

Green Bay 31 Minnesota 3

Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers went 22-for-31 for 301 yards and four touchdowns. Greg Jennings caught seven passes for 152 yards and three touchdowns. It was Minnesota’s worst home loss since 2001 and it’s expected that Brad Childress will be fired as head coach soon.

Pittsburgh 35 Oakland 3

The Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger went 18-for-29 for 275 yards and three touchdowns.

Dallas 35 Detroit 19

Former Lions quarterback Jon Kitna completed 18-of-24 passes for 147 yards and three touchdowns as Dallas won its second in a row under new head coach Jason Garrett.

Baltimore 37 Carolina 13

This was surgical. Joe Flacco completed 24 of 33 passes for 301 yards and a touchdown.

Jacksonville 24 Cleveland 20

The Jags’ Maurice Jones-Drew followed a 75-yard reception with a one-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter to win it. Jones-Drew rushed for 133 yards and caught three passes for 87 more yards.

Buffalo 49 Cincinnati 31

Cincinnati led 31-14 at the half and were outscored 35-0 in the second half. Buffalo’s Freddie Jackson carried 21 times for 116 yards and two touchdowns. Steve Johnson caught eight passes for 137 yards and three touchdowns.

NY Jets 30 Houston 27

Mark Sanchez, who had three TD passes, hit Santonio Holmes with a six-yard touchdown pass with 10 seconds left to win it. Holmes caught seven passes for 126 yards and two TDs.

Washington 19 Tennessee 16 (OT)

Graham Gano kicked a 48-yard field goal in OT to win it. Tennesse’s Vince Young is no longer the starter and Randy Moss didn’t catch a pass.

Kansas City 31 Arizona 13

Dwayne Bowe caught two touchdown passes, giving him a team-record six straight games with at least one score, and Kansas City remained unbeaten at home.

New Orleans 34 Seattle 19

The Saints Drew Brees completed 29 of 43 passes for 382 yards and four touchdowns. Marques Colston caught eight passes for 113 yards and two TDs.

Tampa 21 San Francisco 0

The surprising Bucs improved to 7-3 by winning in San Francisco for the first time in nine tries. Josh Freeman threw two TD passes for Tampa.

Atlanta 34 St. Louis 19

The Falcons Matt Ryan threw two TD passes and Michael Turner carried 28 times for 131 yards and another TD.

New England 31 Indianapolis 28

The Pats improved to 8-2, but had a 31-14 lead in the fourth quarter, but Manning, who threw for 396 yards and four touchdowns, almost brought the Colts back.

Tonight, in the Monday Nighter, it’s the Denver Broncos in San Diego to face the Chargers.

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Minnesota Falls in Chicago, Brady Great in Pittsburgh Again

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

This morning on Streetz 104.7 here in Winnipeg, co-host Big Will had an astute comment about the Minnesota Vikings: “They look and sound like the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of America.”

Indeed. Sunday afternoon the Vikings went into Chicago and were beaten 27-13 by the Bears. While the local Twin Cities media continues to whine about Brett Favre’s interceptions, Brad Childress’s coaching shortcomings and struggles in the red zone, here are the real problems:

(1) The Vikings have no receivers. Randy Moss was released. Sidney Rice didn’t suit up. Bernard Berrian was hurt in the warm-up (gawd???) and Percy Harvin was hurt in the game. Greg Lewis, Greg Camarillo and Hank Baskett just won’t cut it in big time pro football.

(2) The Vikings might have the worst offensive line in NFL history. Bryant McKinnie plays like he’s on roller skates and Phil Loadholt couldn’t block my wife. When you have no time to throw and you’re throwing to people who can’t get open, you will lose. No wonder Brett Favre says this is his last season — absolutely, positively.

Meanwhile, Detroit lost because they couldn’t score, Cleveland lost because they couldn’t match last week’s performance against New England and New England won because Tom Brady just beats Pittsburgh.

Here’s a fond look back at Week 10:

Sunday Night…

New England 39 Pittsburgh 26

The Pats’ Tom Brady threw three touchdown passes to tight end Rob Gronkowski and ran for one himself. Brady has beaten the Steelers in six of the teams last seven meetings. The Steelers simply stink against New England.

Sunday afternoon….

Chicago 27 Minnesota 13

The Bears Jay Cutler went 22-for-35 for 237 yards and three touchdowns. The 3-6 Vikings have to run the table if they hope to make the playoffs.

Miami 29 Tennessee 17

The Dolphins used three different quarterbacks to stop a five-game home losing streak.

NY Jets 26 Cleveland 20 (OT)

Jets QB Mark Sanchez hit Santonio Holmes on a TD pass with 17 seconds left in overtime to win it.

Buffalo 14 Detroit 12

The Bills Fred Jackson carried 25 times for 133 yards and a touchdown while Detroit’s Calvin Johnson caught 10 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown. It was Detroit’s 25th straight road loss and Buffalo’s first win of the season.

Indianapolis 23 Cincinnati 17

The Colts Kelvin Hayden returned an interception for a touchdown. Cincinnati had five turnovers.

Jacksonville 31 Houston 24

The Jags’ Mike Thomas scored on a 50-yard TD pass with no time left to win it. David Garrard who threw that pass completed 24-of-31 passes for 342 yards and two touchdowns while Maurice Jones-Drew ran for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

Tampa Bay 31 Carolina 16

Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman completed 18-of-24 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown as Tampa improved to 6-3.

Denver 49 Kansas City 29

Kyle Orton threw a career-high four touchdown passes. Matt Cassel completed 33-of-53 passes for 469 yards and four touchdowns and he lost.

Seattle 36 Arizona 18

Matt Hasselbeck threw for 333 yards and a touchdown.

Dallas 33 NY Giants 20

Jon Kitna threw for 327 yards and three touchdowns and Jason Garrett won his debut as Cowboys head coach.

San Francisco 23 St. Louis 20 (OT)

Joe Nedney’s 29-yard-field goal in overtime won it.

Tonight, in the Monday Nighter, it’s the Philadelphia Eagles at Washington to face the Redskins.

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It’s Been Quite a Week… And There is a Game Thursday Night

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It’s been quite a week in the National Football League.

Minnesota Vikings’ wide receiver Sidney Rice will return to the lineup in Chicago on Sunday after recovering from hip surgery that kept him out of the lineup for the first nine weeks of the season. Detroit Lions quarterback Matt Stafford is out for the season after re-injuring his throwing shoulder. And Indianapolis Colts wideout Austin Collie has a concussion from that massive hit he took in Philadelphia last week and he won’t play against Cincinnati this week.

Brad Childress is still coaching in Minnesota, but Wade Phillips is no longer in Dallas. The new coach in Cowboy Town is Jason Garrett, who does have a slight connection to Winnipeg. In 1991, the year after Blue Bombers head coach Mike Riley led the Bombers to their last Grey Cup, he left town to take over as head coach of the World League of American Football’s San Antonio Riders. His quarterback was Jason Garrett. After the Riders and the WLAF folded, Garrett went on to play QB in Ottawa. The connections are weak, I’ll grant you, but they are still connections.

This week, the NFL schedule starts on Thursday night. Tomorrow I’ll post all of our picks for Week 10. In the meantime, here’s Dr. Football with a look at Thursday night’s game in Atlanta:

Baltimore Ravens (6-2) at Atlanta Falcons (6-2) Line: Falcons by 1.5

The NFL kicks off its Thursday Night Football series with a very good game featuring two 6-2 teams coming off wins in week 9 and playing on a short week. The Ravens have it double tough; the Falcons are dominant at home and the Georgia Dome crowd will be its usual raucous self. Ravens QB Joe Flacco who had a strong game last week, completing 20-of-27 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns,  will once again have to go to the air, a task made easier by the fact that Atlanta’s secondary is lousy (ranked 31st in the league). Flacco won’t have much success on the ground as the Falcons are very good against the run; no opponent has rushed for more than four yards per carry against them since Week 2. The Ravens had problems once they got into the red zone last week only coming away with one touchdown against the Dolphins. Atlanta is an impressive 17-3 on its home field since the beginning of the 2008 season, including a perfect 4-0 this season.

Dr. Football: FALCONS TO WIN AND COVER.

The Coach: FALCONS TO WIN AND COVER

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Brad Childress Running Out of Chances, but Not Miracles

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. – In the end, it might have been one of the greatest football games I’ve ever seen. If only the Super Bowl was that exciting.

Trailing 24-10 with 3:39 left in regulation, the Minnesota Vikings stormed back behind the incredible Brett Favre, put up two late touchdowns, and then went on to beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-24 in overtime.

For 56 minutes on Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings were awful. For the final four plus overtime, they were unstoppable.

“It was a great effort by our guys,” Vikings head coach Brad Childress said after the game. “With three and change to score two touchdowns and pull it off, it says a lot about our team. That’s probably as good a game as I can remember. It was a good team win. Our guys are always capable of playing the game like that.”

It was a remarkable comeback by the Vikes and it all falls at the feet of a quarterback who was hit eight times in the football game and still bounced back up to put yet another W on the board. With the victory, the Vikings improved to 3-5 on the season and are still alive in the NFC North with a trip to Chicago coming up next week.

In the process, Favre saved Childress’s job, who was rumoured to be out if the Vikings lost. He also made true believers out of 64,000 fans who were starting to doubt the Vikings, and more importantly, were convinced that Favre no longer had the ability to pull off miracles.

Favre led the Vikings down the field twice in the closing minutes of regulation. He got a short touchdown run from Peterson and then, in the final minute he threw a TD pass to Visanthe Shiancoe. It was a beauty, too, Vintage Favre.

In extra time, after the Vikings defense stopped the Cardinals, Favre used Peterson to get his team into field goal range and in the end, Ryan Longwell kicked a 35-yard field goal to win it.

Favre threw (36-for-47) for a career-high 446 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. It was a remarkable performance by a man who had very little time to throw all day. In fact, it’s hard to imagine this guy, playing on a broken ankle, is 41-years-old. Percy Harvin and Bernard Berrian each caught nine passes. Harvin had 129 yards. Six Vikings receivers caught at least four passes. Peterson finished the game with 81 yards rushing and one touchdown and 63 yards receiving and one touchdown. Hi 30-yard run in overtime put the game away.

“For me this is the beginning of a new season,” said Peterson. “This win wipes the slate clean. We can now just start over. I think the best is yet to come.”


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Childress Has to Go 8-1 to Save His Job

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress said on Wednesday that he thought the acquisition of wide receiver Randy Moss was a mistake.

“It was a poor decision,” Childress said at his Wednesday news conference. “I’ve got to stand up and I have to make it right. When it’s not right, you need to make it right.”

On Monday, Childress — at least in his own mind — made it “right.” He cut Moss, the goofball wideout who had the audacity to rudely rip a catered meal at the Vikings compound last week. I’ve always thought that anyone who complains about free food is little more than your every-day moron, especially a clown as rich as Moss, who can buy restaurants as easily as he can buy meals.

Moss’s remarkably boorish attack on the help just showed what the Vikings got for a third round draft pick: A tremendous athlete with a brain the size of a walnut. I quite like to watch Randy Moss play football and I must admit, in the Vikings locker room, he’s never been anything but co-operative with me. However, when you tear into a caterer, you’ve pretty much hit rock bottom in the humanity department. The term “dickhead” comes to mind.

In the meantime, there was poor Brad Childress, proud coach of a 2-5 football team, giving away Moss to the Tennessee Titans while the people who pay Chilly’s salary lost a third-round draft pick in the process. Dumping Moss this week didn’t make the Vikings any better. In fact, it probably made them much, much worse. They are also a lot less interesting.

As we discussed this morning on The TEAM 1260 in Edmonton, the Moss situation didn’t matter. It comes down to this: If the Vikings offensive line doesn’t start protecting Brett Favre and the defensive line doesn’t get to a quarterback soon, the Vikes will soon be the second coming of the Matt Millen-led Detroit Lions. And Brad Childress will be looking for work as an assistant coach next season.

Whichever way you look at it, the signing and/or release of Randy Moss was a disaster. Now, if a team that isn’t as good today as it was on Sunday, doesn’t win eight of nine down the stretch, lots of people will be looking for work next year.

And the head coach is at the top of the list.

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The NFL To Give Officials a Pep Talk

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

In an unprecedented move, the NFL has scheduled a conference call on Friday with every member of every officiating team, to give what has been called “a pep talk and a clean up” for recent mistakes made by a number of officials.

The officials botched two huge calls last week, one on a Ben Roethlisberger fumble called a non-fumble in Miami and one on a Visanthe Shiancoe touchdown called no-touchdown in Green Bay that ultimately changed the outcome of both games.

The league wants to clean it up.

The league had better ask one or two important questions: Who is betting on the games and/or who is getting a pay off from the gamblers? Those calls last week were so bad, and they were bad because they were made AFTER the use of instant replay, that in both cases, the games appeared to be fixed.

And it’s not always what is true, but what appears to be true. And what those two calls appeared to be last week was fishy.

On the upside, the league has $35,000 from the Brad Childress fine (he was fined for calling last Sunday’s game “the worst officiated game I’ve ever seen.” on the K-FAN post-game show), so the long distance bill is covered.

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NFL Officiating Under the Microscope

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Brad Childress is pissed and according to a Fox television analyst who was quoted by the St. Paul Pioneer Press — a man who used to be the NFL’s director of officiating — Childress has every right to be pissed.

In fact, the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings called Sunday night’s game in Green Bay, “the worst officiated game I’ve ever seen.”

Childress is upset about a dreadful call by head referee Scott Green, a guy who has been involved in so many questionable calls — and I use the word “questionable” in a moral sense, not in a sense of competency — that you have to wonder why he hasn’t been investigated by the NFL (and having said that, he even got the Super Bowl job this past year).

On Sunday night, Green’s field judge signaled “touchdown” on a pass from Brett Favre to Visanthe Shiancoe in the second quarter of Sunday’s game, a touchdown pass that should have given the Vikings a 21-14 lead and ultimately, should have given them the victory in what was a terrific football game.

However, Green went under the hood and reversed the call and Childress went nuts. The NFL eventually called Childress and told him it was the wrong call, but the call by Green didn’t surprise me at all. Throughout the entire game, every time his crew told him that a call was going against the Packers, he had this pained look on his face. A couple of times, it even appeared as if he was trying to talk his crew out of the call.

Fox analyst and former NFL director of officiating, Mike Pereira told the Pioneer Press on Monday: ”You go under the hood to see if there is anything obvious that shows it wasn’t a touchdown. Maybe the receiver didn’t maintain control of the ball on his way to the ground. Maybe he didn’t have total control after he hit the ground. But there was not enough there to overturn the call in my opinion.”

Pereira added: “If the original call had been an incompletion, there was enough evidence for the Vikings to successfully challenge the ruling and that they would have been awarded a touchdown.”

During his Monday news conference Childress said that Carl Johnson, the league’s director of officials, admitted that Green ”erred” in overturning the touchdown call on what was a catch by Shiancoe, according to the league. Not surprisingly, Childress said he also was told a touchdown catch by Packers tight end Andrew Quarless in the second quarter would have been overturned had the Vikings challenged it.

“It’s supposed to be irrefutable evidence,” Childress said during his Monday news conference. “The guy is looking right down on it and says it is a touchdown. You have got to show them something that says it wasn’t a touchdown. I saw him control the ball. It’s not about forearms. It’s not about hands. I was told it was about hands. If he has it in his teeth and it touches the ground and he has it when he comes up, it’s a touchdown.”

Green has made a habit of bad calls in important situations. Raising the question, “Is he the NFL’s Tim Donaghy?”

After all, it was Green who pissed off Packers fans last year when he didn’t call a face-mask penalty against Arizona Cardinals DB, Mike Adams on the final play of the Packers’ playoff loss to the Cardinals. Green and his crew also failed to call an obvious roughing the passer penalty on the Cardinals a few plays before that.

Adam Schefter of ESPN also that Green also was the referee who botched the end of Pittsburgh’s 11-10 win over the Chargers  last season, when he disallowed a touchdown at the end of the game. The only people interested in that touchdown would be people who had Pittsburgh to cover. By blowing the call, it made most bettors think that Green had something on the game.

Here is the transcript of Childress’s post-game comments on KFAN immediately following the game. This should get Childress fined, but it should also get Green fired (although it won’t):

“That’s the worst officiated game I’ve seen. That referee came over and apologized to me for not calling a hold on the scramble by (Packers quarterback Aaron) Rodgers. And I’ll tell you what, that’s his job. Protect the quarterback and look at the left tackle. Look at the left tackle hold his tail off.

“I must not understand a catch in the end zone for them to take Shiancoe’s off the board. That’s not the way it’s taught, that’s not the way we’re told. That goes back to the Tampa game that Tony (Dungy) coached years ago (and caused a change in the ruling of how the ground can alter a catch).

“You control the ball and it doesn’t make any difference if you control it with your hand or forearm. Period. That’s not the way it’s taught at our owner’s symposium and that’s wrong. That’s wrong. … They said he didn’t control it and he controlled it. The litmus is 50 drunks in a bar, those 50 drunks say that’s a catch and 50 writers in this room, you may be drunk too, but it’s a catch.”

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Underpaid NFL (Amateur) Officials ‘Look’ More Corrupt Every Week

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

As I watch the NFL and become ever more impressed with the incredible athletic skills of the athletes, I must admit, I tend to watch The League now with a jaundiced eye. There is something wrong with the officiating.

I’m not sure what it is and I am sure it’s always been there, to some degree, but these days I watch certain crews and I wonder if something might be a little, umm, well, fishy.

For instance, there is holding, of some kind, on every, single play, but more often that not, holding is only called when it has an effect on a big play. And what is quite disconcerting is that, far too often, it only brings back the big plays of certain teams in certain situations. In other words, holding might be called early in a game on one team when a drive hasn’t even started. Suddenly, at midfield on their second possession, Team A, has a first-and-20, and well, so what?

However, Team B gets hit with a holding call on second and 10 from the opposition’s 15 with 0:45 to play and forces Team B into an impossible situation. It’s almost inevitable and it happens in almost every game.

Sunday, I watched a couple of plays that were simply, well, phony. And, interstingly, the NFL noticed. This from nfl.com:

MIAMI — An officiating mistake negated a late fumble at the goal line by Ben Roethlisberger and the Piuttsburgh Steelers kicked the game-winning field goal on the next play Sunday.

Jeff Reed  made an 18-yarder with 2:30 left, and the Steelers escaped with a 23-22 win.

One play earlier, with Pittsburgh trailing 20-19 and facing third-and-goal at the 2, Roethlisberger fumbled as he dived across the goal line on a quarterback draw. The play was ruled a touchdown as both teams scrambled for the loose ball in the end zone.

After a replay review, referee Gene Steratore announced that Roethlisberger fumbled before scoring. But Steratore said his crew had no clear evidence as to which team recovered the ball, and the Steelers were awarded possession at the half-yard line, allowing Reed to kick the winner.

Wow! Everybody watching that game saw the replay and it seems everybody saw a Miami player come up with the football. Why did Steratore and his crew miss it? What is the purpose of replay? What is it with the Steelers and controversial wins? What is it with NFL officiating?

Having said that, I won’t get started on the Vikings-Packers game in Green Bay on Sunday night. That one smelled of fish and, of  course, every time Scott Green calls a game, he looks worried when a call goes against one team and quite enthusiastic when it goes against the other. It’s just an odd look and if it weren’t for HD TV, we’d probably never notice.

Of course, if it wasn’t for Sport Select here in Canada, we’d probably never care.

VIKINGS POST SCRIPT (3:18 p.m. Monday)

On a day when Vikings head coach Brad Childress announced that quarterback Brett Favre had two small ankle fractures, he also said the league had backed his assertion that Vikes tight end Visanthe Shiancoe should have been awarded a touchdown on a pass from Favre in the second quarter. The play was originally called a touchdown, but was overturned after a challenge and then, replay. Scott Green was the official who overturned the play on replay.

There is something fishy about Scott Green.

*          *           *

FINALLY. SOMEBODY SAID IT

Kudos to the Detroit Free Press for noticing this one:

Mike Florio from ProFootballTalk.com and now nbcsports.com, was talking about the NFL’s crackdown on head-to-head hits on a Boston radio show last Tuesday when, inexplicably, he went off.

His target: Matt Millen.

Apparently, Millen had debated the topic on “Monday Night Football.” The Detroit Free Press said he argued “on the side of you-can’t-legislate-the-violence-out-of-football.”

“How does no one realize that this guy has only demonstrated he doesn’t know anything?” Florio said incongruously. “I can’t listen to anything he says. … Every time I see his face on the screen, it’s like, in my brain, 0-16 superimposes over the screen, and I can’t get past that. Maybe other people can.

“But I don’t understand … how you can have no shame and want to continue to be out there?

“Kind of like, ‘Hey, look at me. You know what, I took all those millions from the Fords and I was completely inept, and now I’m taking even more money from ESPN and the NFL Network just because I can sit here and sound like I know what I’m talking about.”

Somebody had to say it. Thanks to the Detroit Free Press for hearing it and reporting on it.

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Love How the Media Screws Up and then Blames Brett Favre … and Visanthe Shiancoe

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune printed an erroneous (fabricated?) story this week that Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre had retired. Immediately, the Associated Press and ESPN ran with it as if it was fact.

Evidently the story started with an alleged (fabricated?) text that Favre had told a friend of a friend of a good friend of a not-so-good friend that he’d said to another friend, “I’m done.” To run with a story in an actual real mainstream media publication with that kind of tweet, or whatever, should be a firing offence if it turns out the story wasn’t true. It wasn’t. Nobody was fired and the mainstream media continues to be a source that is hard to believe.

Favre, as far as anyone knows, didn’t say a word to anyone about retirement, but all week the media blamed Favre for the story. They called him a “diva” again because that’s what they like to do and the Associated Press even ran three days of stories saying Visanthe Shiancoe verified that players had received texts from Favre. Sorry, I heard the Shiancoe interview on ESPN and his exact words were, “Some players told me had texted someone and said he retired, but I he hasn’t told me.” In other words, those players had been informed of the story that was written in the Star-Tribune.

All this (fabricated?) story proved was that the Twin Cities media is under such incredible pressure to get something definitive from Favre FIRST that it has completely lost its mind. Hey, Favre could retire. His ankle could be too bashed up to play. Then again, he could show up in two weeks, ready to play. We all know that. But to say he texted or tweeted somebody with the words, “I’m done,” and then without phoning Vikings head coach Brad Childress or owner Zygi Wilf or even Favre’s brother Scott, some donkey runs with a story and some lunatic editor lets it run, is frightening.

In the meantime, the Star-Tribune continues to run with the “he texted his teammates,” lie and they all continue to blame Favre and Shiancoe for the circus.

There would have been no circus at all if the original writer of the original bit of gerbalism had called Childress or Favre.

As we’ve said here before, you can’t have a dive without a large envoy of enablers ans let’s be certain the American mainstream media is Brett Favre’s enabler.

Listen to Scott Taylor 15 times daily on NCI FM 105.5 in Winnipeg and at Streetz 104.7 in Winnipeg.

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Will Favre Stay or Will He Go?

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The talk in Minnesota has just begun. Will 40-year-old Brett Favre return to the Minnesota Vikings in 2010 for a 20th NFL season or will he call it a career?

Before Sunday’s game with the New Orleans Saints, Favre told broadcaster Pam Oliver that he’d “probably decided” what  he was going to do next season, but wouldn’t say anything publicly.

Yesterday, the Vikings came together at their Eden Prairie, Minn., practice facility and had a final team meeting with head coach Brad Childress and the rest of the staff.

Favre didn’t attend the meeting on Monday. His teammates told him on Sunday to go home to Hattiesburg, Miss., and take all the time he needs to decide what he’ll do about his future.

The media outside Minnesota believes he’ll likely retire, but those close to the Vikings feel he just might return. He said after Sunday’s 31-28 overtime loss to New Orleans that he wanted to go out on top. Considering his final pass was an interception, he certainly didn’t go out on top. As well, he has a second year on a $25 million two-year contract with the Vikings that’s worth $13 million.

If Favre decides to retire, the Vikings do have options at quarterback. They already have contracts with Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels although neither of those quarterbacks seemed like a good idea this year. They could go after Michael Vick or Donovan McNabb, depending on what Philadelphia coach Andy Reid decides to do next season, or perhaps they could coax a trade for Seattle’s Matt Hasselbeck (new head coach Pete Carroll has not decided what he wants to do at the quarterback position). The Vikings could also use the 30th pick in the NFL draft and hope Tim Tebow or even Colt McCoy is available, although all signs suggest the Vikings are going to try to draft a big defensive lineman with their first pick.

Whatever Favre decides to do, the Vikings brass would like him to make the decision BEFORE the NFL draft.

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