So here we are at the end of another year, the time when best-of lists are shoveled like yesterday's blizzard.
Best this of the year, best that, all the usual categories.
Except here's a new one that should be up for nomination:
Most Outstanding Con Job in Professional Sports for 2008.
Envelope, please.
And the winner, by a two-to-one margin over David Stern and the Oklahoma City rustlers who hijacked the Seattle Sonics, is . . .
No. 4 in your program and No. 1 in the voting . . . Brett Favre!
Oh, baby, did he pull one on about half the green-and-gold set. You know who you are, the ones who screamed bloody murder and drove a wedge into PackerNation when Green Bay did the absolute right thing by the franchise last summer.
And the screeching ESPN talking heads, were they ever suckered into parroting the Brettophile party line:
The only difference between the 13-3 Packers of 2007 and the Packers now is Brett Favre! What fools they be in Green Bay!
Really, after watching Favre become the worn-out, 39-year-old quarterback he is during the last month, after witnessing the culmination of the inevitable, pitiful decline on Sunday, is there anyone out there who still believes Favre could've carried these multi-issue Packers into the playoffs?
Anyone?
Given how Favre fizzled, how he led the league in interceptions, how Aaron Rodgers outperformed him in just about every statistical category, reality points to something not much better, if not worse, than 6-10 had he stayed. It points to a sad legacy of Favre being benched. And it points to 2007 being a fluke for both Favre and the Packers.
Feel free to swing from the heels at Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy for a lot of things that happened this year. Bad draft picks. A sieve of a defense in crunch time. They deserve much blame after that stinker of a season. But what they saw in the quarterback situation should've been apparent to all, even those partially blinded by Favre's divine light.
They saw Favre looking terribly old and cold last year at Chicago. They saw him looking the same in the NFC Championship Game and blowing it when everything was on the line, which was exactly what happened Sunday against Miami as Favre was intercepted three times in an all-in situation.
Which brings us to the most snookered party of all, the New York Jets. You don't want to say they got what they deserved when a head coach took the fall for Favre's collapse, but they pretty much got what they deserved. Weren't they paying attention when the team they share a stadium with exposed Favre's gas tank as 7/8ths empty?
Of course, there were winners from this mess Favre created.
Chad Pennington, who exacted his revenge Sunday with the Dolphins, now there's a winner. How bad do the Jets look now for dumping him for Favre?
The Minnesota Vikings, winners. You can almost hear the relief, and the denials, all the way from Winter Park.
Oh, goodness, no, we never wanted Favre in the first place.
And the Packers, despite the '08 failures, are consolation winners for hoodwinking anything at all out of the Jets for a finished quarterback who finally seems prepared to go away.
Except you know he won't go away anytime soon. But that tired act is now New York's problem, not ours. Peace of mind through June? That almost seems like a fair swap for CC Sabathia.
Send e-mail to mhunt@journalsentinel.com
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