Now that Favre is gone

On First and 10 this morning, Stephen A. Smith (clearly not my favorite pundit to begin with) was charged with ranking the AFC East teams now that the Buffalo Bills have signed Terrell Owens. You may be asking where Brett Favre fit into all this. Well, in his infinite wisdom, Stephen A. has always argued that Favre was overrated in New York, and many of you may recall the final regular season game that the Jets lost to the Miami Dolphins in which Favre threw three interceptions. Many of you may also recall the storm of criticism Favre faced in the next week, especially from teammate Thomas Jones who felt that Favre should have been taken out of the game. I would venture to guess that Mr. Smith would agree with Thomas Jones, yet when asked where the Jets rank among the AFC East teams, he claimed this morning that they would miss none other than... Brett Favre.

While I will readily concede that Favre needed to retire, and that his shoulder injury clearly affected his performance in the back half of the football season, I think that the Jets clearly improved their team by signing him. I don't understand why pundits like Smith cannot understand that Eric Mangini had no other choice than to leave Brett Favre in the game. Let's be realistic: the other option was Kellen Clemens, who hadn't played all season long. Additionally, remember that it was only a seven point deficit. How many times in his career has Brett Favre thrown off a terrible day full of interceptions and won the game late? To argue that the Jets were better off without Favre is so beyond belief it should be considered hysteria.

Thankfully, Skip Bayless (ironically a man known for flip-flopping quite a bit) called Stephen A. Smith's contradiction. Hopefully this will make a few people realize that disparaging's Favre's contribution to the Jets is uncalled for. Maybe this will make Stephen A. Smith wake up and agree that Terrell Owens kills a locker room or that the Bill O'Reilly strategy for arguments does not equate to winning them; then again Rome wasn't built in a day.