The Football Gods Have Spoken
Last Updated on Thursday, 04 February 2010 23:27 Written by GreenBay Packer Nation Wednesday, 27 January 2010 19:00
Although it has been anathema to talk about Brett Favre on any blogs or Packer fan pages this season, the name became less of a curse word last Sunday. In the NFC Championship vs. the New Orleans Saints, the Vikings looked like they would not repeat the 1999 loss to the Atlanta Falcons and at least have a chance at overcoming their insidious 0-4 record in Super Bowls. But in the end, the Vikings did what the Vikings are best at. An article at Hispanic Business dot com (of all places) equated the two games. But for Packers fans, the equation was different.
To those of us who watched Brett Favre and Green Bay part ways a couple years ago only to see Brett retire another time and then unretire again after being released by the Jets and come back to the Vikings, the scenario could not have been worse. We watched the Vikings beat the Pack at the Dome but could live with it because they still had to play us at home. They beat us at home, but we still had the promise of another late season melt-down or scandal. We thought that happened when Brett and Brad Childress had it out on the sidelines during the Vikings 7-26 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Our hopes were confirmed when the Vikings lost to the suck-city Bears on Monday Night. Then, against the Giants, the Vikings were back and we all had to wonder again. While all this was happening, the Packers were getting their freak on racking up wins, solidifying a wild card game, and whooping up on the Cardinals just a week before they played them in the wild card playoff game. But then the unthinkable happened. The Packers lost to the Cards after coming back from two giveaways in the first two posessions and through a game to which the defense never showed up to take it in to overtime and win the toss...only to lose the game on a fluke play during which there was a penalty that was not called (one of many, other no calls, some even more important than the one on the last play of the game.
Packers fans again had to watch as Brett Favre and the Vikings got back on their horse and beat the Cowboys to advance to the NFC Championship.
Before the game, someone on our Facebook fanpage (if you read this, throw us a comment because we want to give you props) wrote that he was still waiting for the football gods to speak on the subject of Brett going to a hated rival who had been to four Super Bowls and never won one, to get his swan song.
Well, we all know how it ended. In a game where the Vikings had more first downs, time of possession, passing and rushing yards, they turned the ball over five times and in the end Brett Favre as he has so many times in the past, had to either win or lose the game for his team.
That was when there was a rumbling upon Mount NFLympos and a messenger was sent to New Orleans upon winged feet. With the game tied at 28 and the Vikings needing seven yards to get into field goal range to win the game, Mercury visited Jonathan Vilma and told him that Brett Favre was expecting man and to check out to cover two. Favre rolled right looking for Berrian in the flats but found that covered and with the win in his hands and the choice to throw it away and go to overtime, run, or make something happen, Brett Favre did just what Packers fans had been predicting for the ENTIRE SEASON. He threw across his body in an ill-advised attempt to get the ball to Sydney Rice who was his third receiver. The ball was then picked off by Saints cornerback Tracy Porter that gave the Saints their chance to win the game.
This one play was vindication for so many Packer fans for many reasons:
- We predicted that the Vikings would never win a Super Bowl (0-4)
- we predicted that Brett Favre would hurt them by forcing it at least once (that's not to defame Favre because he often times wins those games)
- Because however it went down, we hoped that Brett would be tempted to get OUT of a Vikings uniform
- Because (contra hispanicbusiness.com) it reminded Packers fans of the NFC Championship against the Giants that we had to suffer through and we wanted Viking fans to feel our pain
- We now know that the Vikings have to suffer through an offseason of not knowing who their quarterback will be.
- It reminds us that even though Brett can still play the game at a very high level, our own young quarterback (Aaron Rodgers) will be around for years to come and our young team has the brightest future. He played as well as Favre this year AND put the team on his shoulders to give us a chance to win against all odds (and the AZ Cardinals).
What the Vikings have to live with cannot be overstated here, notice that the comparison to the 1999 NFC Championship game was made not by a Viking fan site (or even a Packers fan site) but by Hispanic Business dot com. The magnitude of the Favre INT that the Vikings have to deal with is as broad as it is deep. Here is another example and proof that in this game, the football gods spoke to the Vikings and Brett Favre:
During the deposition of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner over accusations of cover-ups and other wrongdoing in the AIG bailout, Paul Kanjorski, Democrat from Pennsylvania, used an analogy to sum up the saving of AIG. He said he had watched a football game where the quarterback got in trouble and did the only thing he thought he could
do, throwing across his body in hopes he could win the game but instead, he threw an interception and his team lost. To him, Timothy Geithner was to AIG what Brett Favre was to the Minnesota Vikings: their only chance and their ultimate downfall.
Want more proof that the football gods have spoken, just google "Brett Favre interception" and look at the pics of Saints fans with their hands raised in victory. Put yourself in their place because the Packers will be back to the Super Bowl before the Vikings, and rest assured that these truths are self-evident:
- The Vikings are who we thought they were - no matter how many good players they have
- The football gods have spoken - even plundering Titletown won't bring Lombardi to Minneapolis
- The Packers are God's team...and the football gods' team!
