Die By the Sword: Brett Favre’s Legacy as a Viking

Brett Favre walks off the field, muttering, "3.23%."

3.23%.

Over his 19 year career, that’s the chance of Brett Favre throwing an interception every time he steps back to pass.

Granted, that means you can expect a reception, or at least an incompletion, the other 96.77% of the time, but when you’re dealing with the all-time interception leader in NFL history, that 3.23% tends to weigh on your mind in pressure situations.

You know, like the last few seconds of Sunday’s NFC Championship game.

It’s easy to forget that Favre had a tremendous game. He did, after all, throw for 310 yards and a touchdown. Despite six (six!) fumbles, the Minnesota Vikings were in position to win the game with just seconds remaining, and a large part of the credit has to go to Favre.

Except they didn’t end up winning. If you didn’t see it (and you might be the only one who hasn’t if you haven’t), Favre rolled out to the right on the Vikings’ last possession and saw Sidney Rice. Unfortunately, he didn’t see Tracy Porter, who ran in front of Rice and picked off the pass, effectively ending the game.

When I saw this play, I probably shouted the same thing you did at your screen. “Favre! Why didn’t you run?!” It’s a fair question. Favre had about ten yards of empty field in front of him, and had he been able to pick up even half of that, the Vikings would have been within field goal range. So why did he try to thread the needle instead of going for what seemed like a sure thing?

The answer is pretty simple when you think about it: it’s Brett Favre. Favre has long had a reputation as a gunslinger. He loves throwing difficult passes into tight coverage, because while it sometimes ends in an interception (that 3.23% again), it more often ends in a spectacular catch. Favre is extremely good at making that kind of pass, and I bet he felt absolutely sure he could make just one more.

Something else to think about, though – Favre is definitely not a scrambling quarterback. This is hardly QB Eagles from Tecmo Super Bowl we’re talking about here. (That’s Randall Cunningham, for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of playing Tecmo.) Favre averaged over 200 yards rushing each of his first three seasons with the Green Bay Packers, but hasn’t approached that level of production since. He hasn’t run for over 100 in a season since 2000, and hasn’t run for over 50 since 2005.

This year, he had nine rushing attempts for a total of seven yards. Seven.

Let’s face it. He’s 40 years old, and on top of that, the Saints defense had been pressuring him and hitting him all night. He took a hard hit to the ankle in the third quarter. The fact that he was standing under his own power was incredible enough. Was anyone really expecting him to run for ten yards into the New Orleans secondary?

No, Brett Favre was who we thought he was. He was who the Vikings thought he was, too. When Minnesota signed him this past summer, they signed a guy who was going to pass, and pass often. He wasn’t going to be able to run in tight situations. And he was going to gamble with passes from time to time.

The Vikings knew all of that, and that’s why they signed him. Because the rewards were much higher than the risks. Without Favre, there’s no chance they would have been in the NFC Championship game.

And yet, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Favre was having perhaps the greatest season of his career, statistically speaking, with only seven interceptions in the regular season, his fewest since his short stint with the Atlanta Falcons, when he threw two interceptions on four attempts. But somewhere in the back of their minds, the Vikings knew it wasn’t going to last forever. And with seconds to go in the biggest game of the season, it all came crashing down.

3.23%.