The dreams of Minnesota Vikings fans for a Super Bowl return after a 32-season absence will be fulfilled, as long as the path to Miami goes through the Seattle Seahawks. Any other NFC playoff opponent and it becomes problematic with Brett Favre at quarterback.
Favre started the transition from cutthroat competitor to postseason train wreck on Jan. 20, 2002, when the Packers were in St. Louis for a second-round game. He tied a playoff record with six interceptions as the Rams romped to a 45-17 victory.
The drooling TV analysts and the Packers faithful gave Favre absolution for this fiasco, saying it was the result of the Green Bay gunslinger trying to keep pace with a super team.
As it turned out, the Rams were not super at all, limping past Philadelphia by five points in the NFC title game and being upset by New England in the Super Bowl.
Were six interceptions enough to get Favre to admit to a frightful effort? Of course not.
"Nothing's inconceivable to me," Favre said after the carnage. "I could have thrown eight had we gotten the ball back. I'm going to keep chucking it."
Remember that, all you Minnesotans who were quick to purchase a purple No. 4 jersey. Your new hero is going to give you that same act -- "I'm just a simple country boy trying to make plays" -- no matter how clearly his mistakes create a loss.
What can't be covered up is that Favre arrives with a seven-game playoff record -- since the abomination in St. Louis -- that would have cost any other aging quarterback his job several times over.
Favre led the Packers to playoff victories over Seattle after the 2003 and 2007 seasons. He was 44-for-61 with four touchdowns and no interceptions.
His other five postseason games were losses: at St. Louis and Philadelphia and in Lambeau Field against the Falcons, the Vikings and the Giants. He was 102-for-182 with eight touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
Last January, Tarvaris Jackson made a bad throw that Philadelphia's Asante Samuel returned for a touchdown. This produced a chorus -- I sang the bass -- in Vikings land that Jackson couldn't get it done in big games.
And now the replacement is Favre, a guy who had been flinging playoff interceptions and producing big-game defeats for most of this decade, and you're still panting with excitement and shelling out 250 bucks for authentic No. 4s.
Come on, horn-heads. Are your memories too short to recall Jan. 9, 2005?
Mike Tice took a Vikings team that backed into the playoffs at 8-8 into Lambeau Field. Daunte Culpepper threw four touchdown passes, Favre threw four interceptions and the Vikings cruised.
Personally losing a home game to a Vikings team that mediocre would have caused most 35-year-old quarterbacks to beg the front office for a chance to return.
Not Favre. He set up the front office to do the begging by offering this off-the-top after the game: "It would be easy to walk off the field after that game and say, 'I've had enough.' I'm going to be as fair to myself and to this team as possible."
He put the Packers through the paces annually after that, forcing them to beg for his return. Finally, in March 2008, Favre had a weeping news conference to announce his retirement.
The Packers kept asking Favre if the decision was final. When he wouldn't commit, they embraced Aaron Rodgers as the quarterback, and that's when the Grey Ego decided he wanted to play.
A year later, he's in Minnesota, after dictating terms to the Vikings: no offseason program, no training camp in Mankato and $12 million.
Bob McGinn, NFL writer for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and longtime chronicler of Favre, summarized the Favre situation earlier this month:
"He has faded five seasons in a row partly because he doesn't take the offseason seriously and isn't fully prepared physically or mentally. Football is a brutal game. There are no shortcuts, especially at 39.
"Maybe it isn't fun to leave Hattiesburg in mid-March and live in the Twin Cities for three months. But if Brett were dead serious about going out in a blaze of glory and helping the Vikings, that's precisely what he would've done."
Favre didn't, and now the Vikings have a quarterback who will play well early, turn mediocre later and become a one-man heartbreaker in the postseason -- unless the opponent is Seattle.
If it's the Seahawks, he'll be a January cutthroat again.
(Contact Patrick Reusse at preusse(at)startribune.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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