08.19.09 ESPN HATES FAVRE…NOW THAT IT’S COOL

The only thing more irritating than the summer-long Favre watch was the way ESPN handled the news after FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer beat all 572 of ESPN’s NFL people to the story that, yes Virginia, Brett Favre will be a Minnesota Viking. And a large contingent of ESPN’s on-air talent handled the defeat the way you would expect from a cadre of douchebags camped out in Connecticut–with a total absence of grace or dignity.

I wish I had a dollar for every analyst who said, “I really feel for the quarterbacks that were already in camp.” Oh yeah, POOR SAGE ROSENFELS. Because it was Favre’s fault that Sage turned into Greg Norman in the fourth quarter of every game he started in last year and couldn’t establish himself as a higher-tier free agent. WAY TO HATE ON THE JEWS, BRETT! And Tar-var-is Jackson? Yeah, my heart bleeds for a guy that Childress literally HAD TO HIDE ON THE FIELD the first half of last year because he wasn’t smart enough to grasp the offense–the same offense that Favre ran for 16 of the past 17 seasons. SHAME ON YOU, BRETT! HOW DARE YOU FORCE A MAN TO RELY ON HIS ATHLETICISM!

That backup quarterback angle was the most ludicrous piece of analysis not coming out of Emmitt Smith’s mouth that I’d seen in some time. It’s almost like they got together in a room and decided, “Hey, everyone else hates Favre–we should too! It’ll make us look totally edgy after we totally ignored that Ben Roethlisberger story.” To be fair, the Monday Night crew actually discussed Favre as an addition to the team without any sort of petty angst or vitriol. They must have missed the memo.