Ex-Vikings speculate on Favre in purple
By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 06/25/2009
Last week, Brett Favre spoke for the first time with sportscaster Joe Buck on HBO live about playing for the Vikings this season. He said he did have surgery on his throwing shoulder two weeks ago, and he has had conversations with the Vikings about playing this fall.
“Nothing other than ‘Are you interested?' and vice versa,” Favre said. “We'll see how my arm feels, and we'll go from there. It makes perfect sense as far as coming back. It's an offense I ran for 16 years.”
A couple of former Vikings greats — former NFL-MVP quarterback Rich Gannon and Cris Carter, now with ESPN — spoke candidly about the Vikings and Brett Favre joining the team.
“The thing that concerns me a little bit is the timing of it,” said Gannon. “People say, ‘Well, I don't know if he can still do it.' I think that's ridiculous. Just two years ago he was in the Pro Bowl. Last year, he had the New York Jets at 8-3 and was playing some great football before the whole team kind of struggled down the stretch. If he's healthy, obviously he can still play.
“But the timing is a big concern to me,” Gannon continued. “I think it's late. I think if it was something that he decided that he wanted to do, he should have been up here in April learning the system, being with the players, getting himself acclimated to the system, the coaching, and all that's going on.
“If he rolls in here in June or July, I think, in my opinion, it's borderline too late. At some point the organization needs to move on. They made a commitment to Sage Rosenfels, and they have Tavaris Jackson under contract. They are trying to evaluate these two players and make a decision on which of these two guys is going to be the starter this year. Now you throw another hat into the ring in Brett Favre, and certainly if he comes back Brett would be the starter,” said Gannon.
“At some point the team needs to move forward. The concern you have with an older player [is that] the off-season program is very important to the conditioning of a player's body, as you know with your son, as fanatical as he is and his approach to taking care of himself and doing all the work necessary to get yourself ready to play not only physically, but mentally.
“I think its really important, and that's the thing you have to be very concerned about with a player headed into his 19th season,” Gannon said.
“I think Brett Favre is only part of the picture,” said Cris Carter. “I think the biggest issue the Vikings have now currently would be how do they get through a four-game stretch without Pat and Kevin Williams.
“Let's just say they are going to be suspended for the sake of conversation,” Carter continued. “They are only going to play 12 games this year. Even if Brett Favre was able to come off life support, get his arm reattached, whatever they do down there in Mississippi on the farm, and come back up here, the Vikings [still] really have some serious issues.
“Let's talk about Brett Favre — if he is on the team, then the offense can be more explosive. They can make more plays. They can compensate for a defense that's going to be playing less than full strength.”
Green drafts another Fitzgerald
Former Vikings and Arizona Cardinals Head Football Coach Dennis Green, now the head coach of the United Football League's San Francisco franchise, has drafted former Marshall University receiver Marcus Fitzgerald. The league hopes to begin play this fall.
When he was head coach with Arizona, Green also drafted Larry Fitzgerald, Jr. in the first round in 2004.
Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio 89.9 FM at 8:20 am, and on WDGY-AM 740 Monday & Saturday mornings at 7:50 am and Fridays at 3:50 pm; he also commentates on sports 7-8 pm on Almanac (TPT channel 2). Larry welcomes reader responses to lfitzgerald@spokesman-re corder.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com .
