Favre Fever Begins in New York
With one stroke, those perennial losers the New York Jets became the talk of the town in New York and gave us long-suffering Jets fans reason to chant J-E-T-S.
For anyone living outside New York, it's hard to imagine how important this trade is to this franchise who has always played second fiddle to their cross-town rivals, the current Super Bowl champion New York Giants.
There is nothing bad about this trade for the Jets. It can't even be a bust because they didn't give up anything of significant value. If Favre has a terrible year and the Jets return to 4-12 form, the Jets are exactly where they were last year and will give up only a third round draft pick. However, if they make the playoffs with Favre they basically trade a second round pick for a playoff game. Not a bad deal. If the unthinkable happens and Favre leads them to the Super Bowl, the Jets will happily give up the first round pick.
What the Jets get in return for one conditional draft pick is a quarterback who, even at age 38, is a much better quarterback right now than either Chad Pennington or Kellen Clemens (without even considering Favre's Hall of Fame career). In addition to his still impressive passing skills (averaging nearly 4,000 passing yards and an 80 QB rating over the past three years) Favre brings leadership and a swagger to the locker room that the Jets have not had since Broadway Joe prowled the sidelines.
One look at the history of Jets quarterbacks after Joe Namath (PDF) says it all. Among quarterbacks who started more than 16 games after Joe Namath, only two posted winning records: Vinny Testeverde, who brought the Jets a second-half Elway comeback away from the Super Bowl, and recently released Chad Pennington. The owner of nearly every major passing record in the NFL, a streak of consecutive starts more impressive than Cal Ripken, Jr.'s in baseball, and, most importantly, a Super Bowl ring and unmatched leadership, Brett Favre is the very definition of an upgrade. Not even the biggest Kool-Aid drinking Jets fan will suggest that the Jets had a shot at the Super Bowl with Pennington or Clemens. Now we can at least mention Super Bowl and Jets in the same sentence without referencing 1969.
While this trade makes the Jets clearly better on the field and in the locker room, I'm not so naive to think we're on the Super Bowl short list. I think we now have a legitimate shot at the playoffs where anything can happen. Moreover, perhaps the best thing about this trade is that it is now exciting to be a Jets fan. When's the last time we could honestly say that?
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