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Packers QB
Brett Favre
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The 1940s had Sammy Baugh matched against Sid Luckman. In the ’50s, it was Otto
Graham opposing Bobby Layne. In the following decades, there were the Terry Bradshaw-Roger
Staubach and Joe Montana-John Elway confrontations.
But football arguably never had offered a QB matchup more compelling than the one that
played out in St. Louis last week: Brett Favre of the Packers against Kurt Warner of the
Rams.
It might have been one for the ages. It bombed. I was saddened to see Favre, arguably
the premier quarterback of his generation, abused as he was. I can’t think of another
ranking American athlete who experienced a comeuppance to match this one: six
interceptions, as the Rams won 45-17 on an afternoon when they had not played up to their
usual offensive standard.
Think of Tiger Woods shooting a 90. Alex Rodriguez striking out with the bases loaded
in the ninth. Pete Sampras going out in the first round of a tournament. Actually, that
has been happening too often to Sampras, but you get the point.
Favre doesn’t throw six interceptions in a game. Before this NFC playoff, he never
had served more than four in a game.
"This one hurts as much as all the others I’ve had," Favre said of his
playoff disappointments. "But I will be back. Once I get home and jump on the
tractor, I’ll feel better. I won’t totally forget it, because if I do, I
won’t profit from it, but life goes on."
Manfully, Favre would not offer any excuses for his effort, although he might have.
One day, I had felt that those who attach the weight of history to football would be
recalling this game.
Preparing for what I expected would be a venture into greatness, I had invited David
Neft to assess Favre and Warner within the context of Baugh, Luckman, et al. Neft, of New
York City, is a leading football historian.
Neft is reluctant to compare players of one era to players of another, but, regardless
of era, he said he would assign his highest ranking to Baugh.
"Baugh did a lot of things," Neft said. "He led the league in
interceptions (on defense). All-time, I would take Baugh because he did it so consistently
for so long while having to play defense most of the time and doing a lot of other
things."
Among the moderns who have been parties to classic QB rivalries, Neft most admires
Favre.
"I was disappointed he wasn’t named MVP again," said the New Yorker, who
measures MVP candidates in football on a scale associated with baseball. Where is the
biggest change if you take a player off a team?
"Taking Favre off Green Bay makes more of a difference than taking Warner off St.
Louis," Neft said. "Warner is damn good, but he fits that team and he has a lot
of assets to work with. He has Marshall Faulk, for one."
When Neft assesses Warner, he said he thinks of Bart Starr, who quarterbacked the
Packers to the championships of Super Bowls I and II.
"I never thought Starr was that great," Neft said. "He was a pretty good
guy with a terrific cast."
The Baugh-Luckman matchup, pitting the Redskins against the Bears, is the one that most
fascinates Neft. "That was a goodie," he said. "Obviously, there was a 73-0
game, but Washington won a couple against the Bears. That went both ways. In the levels
we’re talking about, Bradshaw had a great team (the Steelers), but I don’t
consider him the equal of the Favres and the Luckmans and the Baughs."
Baugh still is living. In March, he will be 88. His deeds live with him. He was the
NFL’s passing leader six times during a career that stretched from 1937 to ’52.
In ’43, he led the league in passing, punting and interceptions.
In ’43, though, Luckman was named the league’s MVP. The Columbia alumnus died
in ’98 at the age of 81.
Baugh and Luckman occupied the same field 11 times, with Luckman gaining a 7-4
advantage. Three of these games were for NFL championships, Luckman winning in ’40 by
the score of 73-0 and in ’43, 41-21. Baugh won in ’42 by a 14-6 score. Luckman
and the Bears swept the last four games in this series.
A Bradshaw-Staubach matchup occurred in Super Bowl XIII, one of the most exciting of
the games with the Roman numerals, with Bradshaw and the Steelers shading Staubach and the
Cowboys 35-31. The Montana-Elway duel in Super Bowl XXIV was no contest, Montana escorting
the 49ers to a 55-10 rout of Elway and the Broncos.
Of the classic QB collisions that have preceded today’s, the Graham-Layne series
most closely parallels Favre-Warner. Cast the irrepressible Favre as Layne and the
studious Warner as Graham.
The careers of Layne and Graham overlapped between 1950 and ’55. In their five
meetings, Layne won four times. Graham’s only success came when the Browns outpointed
the Lions 56-10 in the 1954 NFL championship.
In today’s game, Warner is the precise technician, Favre the quarterback who plays
with passion.
Only on this afternoon, Favre was not even ordinary. I can’t say that Warner was
all that striking, either.
Events of historical import, it seems, can’t be predicted.
Jerry Magee has covered pro football for the San Diego Union-Tribune since 1961 and for
PFW since its inception in 1967 |
