Brett Favre went back to Green Bay with his new team and made them eat their boo’s. Not bad for an old man… read more about the game from ESPN.com:
GREEN BAY, Wis. — If it were up to Brett Favre — and these days, I’m pretty sure everything is — fans departing Lambeau Field late Sunday would have had one collective thought.
“I hope that everyone in the stadium watching tonight said, ‘I sure hate that that joker is on the other side, but he does play the way he’s always played,’” he said.
Favre’s renaissance was never more apparent than Sunday, when he took control of a seesaw game at precisely the moment the Minnesota Vikings needed him most in an eventual 38-26 victory over the Green Bay Packers.
A 23-7 run had allowed the Packers to pull within 31-26. The clock showed 5 minutes and 38 seconds remaining in the game, and it was time for someone to grab the moment and for someone else to slink back.
On that count, Favre again proved there is no one better. He pushed the Vikings into the end zone in four plays, the last a 16-yard scoring strike to receiver Bernard Berrian on third-and-11. The touchdown pass, Favre’s fourth of the day, put away the Packers as only a seasoned winner can do, putting an exclamation point on Favre’s return to Lambeau and providing further documentation of his impact on the Vikings.
You’ve probably heard, once or twice, that Favre played 16 years in Green Bay. Trust me when I tell you he took special satisfaction in beating the Packers for the second time this season. But to me, it’s important to focus on the bigger point as well: Not only has Favre put the Vikings (7-1) exactly where they hoped to be, but he has left the Packers (4-3) precisely in the place they have most feared: Below him in the standings.
“The largest storyline was who was going to be in first place in the NFC North,” said Packers defensive end Aaron Kampman.
Favre has almost single-handedly eliminated his former team from that race. In two games against them, he completed 69 percent of his passes for seven touchdowns. He was neither intercepted nor sacked. Sunday, he was two steps ahead at every turn.
“We tried to put pressure on them with blitzes,” Packers cornerback Charles Woodson said. “And he either pointed them out and set the protection the right way, or threw the ball quick and we weren’t able to get to him. We felt like we had enough things called — and still we can’t get to him for whatever reason. Right now we can’t win the big game.”
There’s little doubt Favre is in the Packers’ heads. They know he has fallen prey to his emotions before, and they hoped a raucous Lambeau crowd — combined with more pressure — would jar him into some early mistakes. Instead, the opposite occurred. The Packers choked in the early going, falling behind 14-3 early in the second quarter and taking more sacks (four) than first downs (three) into the halftime locker room.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers escaped the pocket a few times in the second half, the biggest reason why the Packers offense briefly sprung to life. But on this night, he was no match for a rival who was too focused to let the opportunity fall away.
“I can’t tell you how many text messages I’ve gotten from guys just in passing today and yesterday,” Favre said. “’Hey, you’re going to play great. I know you’re nervous.’ I’m like, ‘Easy for you to say.’ But they were right again. I don’t know. It’s awful stressful to feel that way every week. I’d like to feel a little more relaxed. But I’m also pleased with the way I’ve played in these games.”
I suppose it’s possible the Vikings would have won Sunday with one of their other quarterbacks, Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels. The Vikings hadn’t won here in the Brad Childress era, so I’m dubious of that possibility. Regardless, there’s no one I’d rather have right now, with 5:38 remaining and the game in the balance, than Favre. And here’s one thing I am sure of: If Favre were not with the Vikings, there is no way there would be a 2.5-game difference between the teams in the standings.
Perhaps that’s why Vikings placekicker Ryan Longwell, 35, mobbed Favre, 40, after the final gun. Longwell, who kicked for Green Bay for nine seasons, knew how special and unique Favre’s accomplishment is.
“Unless you play here and have gone through it you just don’t know,” Longwell said. “It goes beyond just winning. It’s a special victory.”
Favre said his emotions began rising Sunday morning near the end of a 30-minute bus ride from the team hotel to Lambeau Field. He saw “a few fingers” as the bus pulled into the parking lot, he joked, but there was never a time when I thought Favre was close to letting the crowd get the best of him.
He celebrated heartily after tight end Visanthe Shiancoe’s 12-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter, and at one point he appeared to be jawing with Packers defensive end Cullen Jenkins. Otherwise, however, Favre remained stoic. After the game, he spent several minutes embracing former teammates — Rodgers, Donald Driver and Al Harris among them — and said he was had no intentions to throw any “daggers.”
“I’d like to think I always handle myself with class,” he said. “It’s always tougher when you lose. I understand that. Never been one to rub it in anyone’s face. Guys I’ve played with as a Packer, I’ve got a lot of respect for. As I do this organization and these fans.”
So where does this leave us? For the first time that I can remember, Favre used the words “Super Bowl” in talking about the Vikings’ prospects this season. Up until Sunday, Favre had been saying he hopes to get the team “where we want to be.”
With a 7-1 performance in the first half of the season, the Vikings have pushed themselves onto the short list of favorites for this year’s championship.
“I want to lead this Viking team to the Super Bowl,” Favre said. “Believe me. I do. I’m going to do everything in my power. … At this point, we’ve put ourselves in a good position.”
They wouldn’t be there, of course, were it not for two victories over his former team. And the Vikings would not have swept the Packers without him.
“Am I pleased with the way these two games have turned out?” Favre said. “Yes, absolutely. I knew I could play. My arm feels great. My arm is in a good place. The team has welcomed me in. All the other stuff doesn’t matter. It makes a good story. I know it. [But] I’m glad it’s over. I’m glad we won them both.”
Here’s a great compilation by the good people at TSN. Nice to see that the true inter-teammate rumbles remain in Hockey!
This is sage advice:
From Bloomberg.com:
April 1 (Bloomberg) — John Calipari was hired to restore the University of Kentucky’s basketball program, agreeing on an eight-year, $31.65 million contract that makes him the sport’s highest-paid college coach in history.
Calipari, who spent the past nine seasons at the University of Memphis, was introduced as Kentucky’s 22nd head coach at a televised news conference today in Lexington.
Calipari, 50, takes over a Kentucky program that ranks first all-time with 1,988 victories and is second to UCLA with seven national championships. He replaces Billy Gillispie, who was fired March 28 after a season in which the Wildcats lost 14 games and missed the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament for the first time since 1991.
“This is a dream I had since I brought my (University of Massachusetts) team down here in 1992,” Calipari said. “I could not believe the environment. At that point I said, ‘I’d love to coach there someday.’”
Calipari leaves Memphis with four years left on a contract that was paying him $2.35 million annually. Kentucky paid Memphis $200,000 to buy out the contract.
Calipari surpasses Florida’s Billy Donovan as the nation’s top-paid college basketball coach. Donovan received a deal that’s worth about $3.5 million a year after winning back-to- back national titles in 2006-07.
Paying a Premium
“In the marketplace we operate in, to be the premium basketball program in America, you want the best coach and you must pay a premium price,” Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart said. “We don’t mind doing that because we think it’s that important. If it’s done correctly, the investment in the coach will yield results immediately.”
Barnhart announced the financial details of Calipari’s new contract and said the base salary would be $400,000 a year, with the rest of the money coming from the school’s media and television rights.
Calipari had a 252-69 record at Memphis and helped build the school into a championship contender. The Tigers won at least 30 games each of the past four years and reached the title game of the 2008 NCAA tournament, losing to Kansas in overtime.
“This decision for me was extremely hard,” Calipari said. “It wasn’t hard coming here, it was leaving Memphis and the support that my family and I received there over the years. To walk away from that was difficult, but this is heady stuff.”
While Memphis lost three starters from last year’s runner- up team, the Tigers went 33-4 this season and reached the round of 16 at the NCAA tournament. Memphis is the only school in the nation to receive a No. 1 or No. 2 tournament seed each of the last four years.
Kentucky’s Last Title
Kentucky has won two NCAA tournament games over that span and hasn’t advanced past the second round since 2005. The Wildcats won their most recent championship in 1998 under Tubby Smith, two years after winning the title with Rick Pitino as coach.
Pitino is now at the University of Louisville, about 75 miles (120.7 kilometers) from Kentucky’s campus in Lexington. Louisville this season was the top-seeded team in the NCAA tournament.
“I do not walk on water, I do not have a magic wand,” Calipari said. “I told Mitch and I told (Kentucky President Lee) Todd, ‘If you want something to happen in a year, do not hire me.’ That’s not how I do things. But when we get it right, you notice we’re No. 1 in the country, we’re No. 1 seeds and we’re playing in Final Fours.”
Calipari has a 445-140 record as a college coach, having also spent eight seasons at the University of Massachusetts from 1988 to 1996. The Minutemen reached the Final Four in his final season, though the school was stripped of the achievement after Marcus Camby admitted he violated NCAA rules by receiving gifts from a sports agent.
Calipari then left to coach in the National Basketball Association, where he had a 72-112 record with the New Jersey Nets before getting fired in 1999. He returned to the collegiate ranks with Memphis in 2000 and ended the school’s six-year NCAA tournament drought in his third season.
PLAY
