So, Was It Worth It?

Matt Moore. Jimmy Clausen. Derek Anderson.

Alex Smith. Jason Campbell. Shaun Hill. Matt Hasselbeck.

What's the reason for name-dropping these seven quarterbacks? Well, the first three are the only three quarterbacks(at least of the ones who have seen a decent amount of playing time) with a worse passer rating than Vikings signal caller and my favorite comic foil Brett Favre. The other four are just a few of the names ahead of "The Riverboat Gambler".

Let's think about this for a second. Now, Moore was never the second coming of Steve Beuerlein and Clausen's a rookie and neither could be expected to be anything better than subpar on one of the worst, if not THE worst, teams in football. The same can be said for Anderson, who was thrown out of Cleveland for the original crap sandwich of Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace. Those are the guys you expect to be beneath Favre through 10 weeks of the NFL season.

As for the others? Alex Smith was left for dead until last year when he had a slight resurgence that foolishly conned the 49ers into sending Hill packing to Detroit. Campbell suffered a similar exile from Washington and is thisclose from losing his starting job to Bruce Gradkowski(also a higher rated passer than Favre) for the second time in two months. Hasselbeck, meanwhile, is a shell of the man who led the Seahawks to the Super Bowl a few years ago and he's as brittle as Mr. Glass in "Unbreakable" these days. Hasselbeck used to carry Favre's pads. Now, Favre couldn't even shine his former pupil's cleats.

So, is this why you came back, Brett? To embarrass yourself. To further tarnish your once-sacred legacy. In three seasons since his tumultuous split with the Green Bay Packers, Favre's went from the Babe Ruth of football to the new Buck Showalter(in that, his teams get better when he leaves). A year after Favre choked away the Jets' playoff chances by trying to be Superman with a torn bicep, Gang Green swung a deal that brought them Mark Sanchez as their face of the franchise. Now, they are 7-2(tied for the best record in football and current holder of the top spot in the AFC) a year after narrowly losing in the AFC Championship. The Packers? Well, they had the unfortunate 6-10 season in the year after Favre but bounced back to make the playoffs last year and currently are 6-3 and holding down the Wild Card spot.

As for Favre and his Vikings in Year 2? 3-6(including 0-5 on the road so far) and just a game above the lowly Detroit Lions for third place in a hardly-dominant NFC North. Favre, meanwhile, has turned the ball over at least once in every game this season. He's thrown a pick in every game except a Week 6 win against the even more unbearable Dallas Cowboys and has five games this season where he's thrown more than one pick(including three 3-INT games so far in 9 games). Favre's stat line through Week 10: 2,006 yards, 10 TDs, 16 INTs, 5 lost fumbles, and one badly bruised ego and soiled reputation.

Favre's supporters(the ones he has left, that is) will point to a couple factors to defend #4's porous start. First, they'll mention the fact that he's coming off offseason ankle surgery and is still trying to get readjusted after being on the shelf doing his usual lolly-gagging over whether he's coming back or not. My response? Bullshit. Favre put up the best season of his career last year while coming off late surgery to repair that once-treasured cannon attached to the right side of his body. Next, they'll mention how Favre's favorite target, Sidney Rice, has yet to take a snap because of a hip injury. My retort? Ummm....is Percy Harvin, Visanthe Shiancoe, Bernard Berrian, and a couple weeks of Randy Moss not enough? How about the fact he has the most dangerous running back in the game behind him(yes, AP is much more dangerous than Chris Johnson. The man runs with the violent intent of a crazed serial killer at a speed that would make a gazelle sheepish)? Do guys like Hasselbeck and Campbell have a smorgasbord of weapons at their disposal? Matt's throwing strikes to Mike Williams, a guy who was out of football a year ago. Campbell's been connecting with guys named Jacoby Ford and Louis Murphy(In other words, guys who, if you didn't know better, would swear were sung backup for the Dave Matthews Band). Then, Favre's defenders will bring up the fiasco with one Jenn Sterger. My reply? You've got to be kidding. Favre managed to focus on game day for years while his wife battled cancer. He infamously torched the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football just hours after having to bury his father. Favre has built a reputation as being Iron Man. Nothing, be it physical, psychological or emotional, has ever been able to affect this man. Don't try to tell me an overblown story, which first surfaced on Deadspin in August when reports by ESPN were surfacing that Favre was hanging them up, about penis pictures and one of the hottest women on the planet is enough to tear down Favre when melanoma and dead relatives couldn't.

You know why Favre's sucking ass this year? False pride. In Brett Favre's mind, he could have seasons like last year whenever he wants because...well, he's Brett Favre. In his mind, he's not an over-the-hill QB coming off more recent surgeries than Heidi Montag and less accuracy than an ESPN rumor blog. Favre doesn't believe he's washed up. Why? Because, until now, nobody ever told him. Think about it. In the last year and a half in Minnesota, Favre has been treated like the emperor of the Twin Cities. He's had his head coach pick him up from the airport whenever he decides he feels like coming to camp to be part of the team. He had the best players on his team hop on a plane to Mississippi to stroke his ego about giving it one more go. At no point during this season has Brett Favre played like a man who wants to be out there taking hits from 250lb linebackers. At no point have we seen even the slightest glimpses of 2009 Favre.....but guys like Jon Gruden and Cris Collinsworth(who are in a tug o' war for the coveted prize of who gets to slurp Favre the most now that John Madden's gone) will tell you he's still "like a kid out there" and he still "loves the game". No, he doesn't. Brett Favre loves the same thing now that he's loved his entire career: the attention. He's like Janice Dickerson....someone who used to be hot who drools over the first person to give them simplest of back-handed compliments. Favre didn't want to come back. He wanted you to want him to come back....and you fell for it.

Favre had the chance to ends things the right way three years. Yes, throwing a pick in overtime in the NFC Championship to cost Green Bay the game isn't exactly Michael Jordan shoving off Bryan Russell and draining the go-ahead bucket to win the NBA Finals, but since then, Favre has seen his last throw as a Jet be a INT by then-rookie DE Phillip Merling to kill New York's playoff shot and saw his final throw in his miracle season last year be a head-scratching cross-body heave to Tracy Porter that cost Minnesota a chance at the Super Bowl. Now, he's back yet again throwin' picks and textin' chicks. If Favre ends his career like he initially tried to in 2008, here's what he avoids:

*Being traded to New York where he crosses paths with Sterger(Side rant: At the risk of being overdramatic for someone who I consider a buddy, perhaps the biggest casualty of Favre's two-city comeback tour has been Sterger herself. Sterger, in a lot of ways, was the American dream. A girl who rose to fame by going from screaming her heart out at a Florida State game to becoming a magazine cover girl and TV personality. Now, after Deadspin sandbagged her by posting the Favre story, she's lost her job, her credibility and has been attacked by everyone from Jason Whitlock to Maurice Jones-Drew. The treatment of Sterger by some forms of the media and even her own bosses at Versus is so ass-backwards, it might as well have been done with cave drawings. We, in this country, constantly talk about equal rights for women and yet we've never stopped using sex, be it the attractiveness of males or females, to get the kind of reaction that we've wanted whether it be ratings or magazine sales or what have you. We're okay with women reporting from the sidelines but, hey, don't you dare fuck things up for the team. What's Sterger's crime exactly? Recieving dick photos from a horny, married old man who should have known better? Attractive women like Sterger have been marketed by networks for years to bring in a certain demographic. Since when has being pretty been a bad thing? Would you rather get your sports news from Delta Burke? You'd rather have Gabourey Sidibe patrolling the sidelines? We don't fire shots at Erin Andrews for dropping it down and making change butt-naked in a hotel room while some stalker filmed it. Females aren't writing blogs skewering Danica Patrick for stripping in GoDaddy ads while trying to make a name for herself in NASCAR. We don't burn Lisa Guerrerro for going from Monday Night Football to Playboy. It's amazing how a woman's life can be reduced to a background of tawdry photos the minute it meets the convenience of protecting a bigger name. The irony of all that is Sterger and to some extent Andrews actually knows a thing or two about sports. As someone who follows Sterger on Twitter and has sat in on her webcasts, the girl has charm and wit that is far more alluring than her thousand watt smile and mind-boggling figure. It's a shame how one story can blow up like nitro and leave innocent people in the ashes. In an era where teenage girls are becoming celebrities for brainlessly having children and a greedy mother is using the trials and tribulations of her tattered marriage and eight children to parlay into wealthy book deals and stints on Dancing With The Stars, let's stop pretending that Jenn Sterger holding onto a few pics of a legend's tiny penis is reasons to burn her at the stake. Get off your high horse and cut the girl some slack.) and becomes the second-biggest celebrity creeper behind Tiger Woods.

*Killing his stock with the Green Bay faithful by signing within the division in Minnesota and then pretending as if it wasn't to stick it the Packers.

*Further adding fuel to the criticism that he chokes like a first-time throater in the playoffs by throwing yet another back-breaking pick in the NFC Championship.

*Destroying any stock he had with his female fan base by sending penis pictures to various women that aren't his wife(Another side rant: If there any female readers out there besides my wife, please be sure to leave a comment about how getting a picture of a man's penis has EVER worked in sleeping with that man. I chased skirt for years before I met my wife and if I thought just taking a snapshot of Dave Jr. would have me closing like Mariano Rivera, I'd be filling up throw-away cameras as we speak. Trust me. As much as women love an impressive dong, I've yet to meet a woman who drops her drawers over a dick pic and, the ones that do, you probably wouldn't want anyway).

*Pissing off Vikings fans by essentially ruining what could have been a solid season with Tarvaris Jackson at the helm(Hey, you never know. You mean to tell me Minnesota would be worse than 3-6 with Jackson as their opening day starter?) as well as forcing Adrian Peterson into the shadows by allowing the best running back in the game to be dwarfed by the media's lovefest for Favre. On top of that, Favre's miracle season last year got Brad Childress his extension and probably cost them the chance to give the head coaching job to, in my eyes, a better candidate: Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier(enjoy him in Houston next year, Texans fans!)

So, you can call me bitter, but Favre should have ended it with his toss to Corey Webster in 2008 instead of tirelessly hitting the erase button on his final chapter in the hopes that it will be filled with a story book ending. As great as last season was, Favre's final year with Green Bay was solid, too. It also would have allowed him to come back to Lambeau Field without getting booed like Hulk Hogan after he joined the nWo. Favre could have rode into the sunset by leaving it all on the frozen tundra and humbly passing the torch to Aaron Rodgers. Instead, big time bravado and an even bigger ego has given us the last three years of Favre Fatigue and has seen him go from a once-beloved icon to one of the most hated men in sports as well as a laughing stock with the football in his hands.

So, Brett, I have to ask.......was it all worth it?