Favre and a Battering by Fate

http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/favre-and-a-battering-by-fate/

January 29, 2010
Favre and a Battering by Fate
By LARRY CANALE

Vikings quarterback Brett Favre during the loss to the Saints, and Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle after being sacked and throwing an interception in 1964 against the Steelers.
Larry Canale is a columnist at Tuff Stuff’s Sports Collectors Monthly and editor in chief of the monthly newsletter Antiques Roadshow Insider (insert your own joke about Brett Favre being an antique).

NEW ORLEANS, JAN. 24 (AP) — With 15 seconds left on the clock and the score tied at 28, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre rolled to his right on a badly sprained ankle and fired an 8-yard sideline pass to Bernard Berrian, setting the stage for Ryan Longwell’s game-winning 47-yard field goal. The dramatic finish to a wild and violent battle in New Orleans sent the Vikings to their first Super Bowl since 1976. Favre, despite being flattened time and again by a defense determined to punish the 40-year-old, cemented his status as a master of come-from-behind wins, leading the Vikings to 10 points in the game’s final 4 minutes and 58 seconds….

That’s how a reporter’s lead paragraph might have sounded if things had played out just a little bit differently during those final 19 seconds in New Orleans on Sunday. It’s not hard to imagine that in some alternate universe out there, Brett Favre was a hero in a Vikings win over the Saints — that instead of throwing an across-the-body pass downfield, he flipped an easy toss to Berrian, hitting him right between the numbers. In this alternate universe, Berrian caught the ol’ pigskin and stepped out of bounds, and then Longwell came in and split the uprights. And the Vikings celebrated.

But for Vikings and Favre fans, reality has been an enemy, so excuse us for still feeling numb several days later. I don’t think the numbness will ever go away. It’ll be harder to cope with this loss than even the 2007 N.F.C. championship heartbreaker that Favre and the Packers suffered at the hands of the Giants. That one was a 9.9 on a pain scale of 10. This one is an 11.

If you’ve followed Favre for 18 or 19 years and enjoyed the wild ups and downs in his career, you were rooting harder for him during the Saints game than you ever have. He was pummeled and beaten and, yes, hammered with cheap shots a few times (it’s all there in the game clips.)

But he kept staggering back to his feet. He was as game as ever, and he would not quit. He played amazingly well, too. As the would-be game-winning drive unfolded, you had to be thinking, “What a perfect curtain call for Brett Favre. He was masterful all season, and now… he’s zeroing in on another Super Bowl.”

Ah, but the fates would not allow. And really, fate does seem at play here, doesn’t it? At least a little? Think about it: Despite the fumbles, and despite the fact that the Vikings’ offensive line was less than adequate, and despite the end-zone kickoffs by the Saints that made Percy Harvin a non-factor on special teams, and despite a number of controversial calls and non-calls by the officials, and despite Drew Brees playing just big enough to score when it mattered, and despite the LOUD omnipresence of the Saints’ 12th man (the crowd), and despite Coach Brad Childress’s own 12th man (sent into the huddle just before Favre’s second interception), the stars were actually aligning for Minnesota. Yep, despite all those negatives, the Vikings tied the score with five minutes left, stuffed New Orleans and got the ball back, then drove to the outer reaches of field-goal range. A classic Favre spiral to Berrian and we’d have seen Longwell trotting out to kick the game-winner.

Favre has thrown more than 10,000 passes in the N.F.L., including playoffs, and a toss to Berrian would have been among his easiest. But he looked left instead of right and locked in on his favorite target, Sidney Rice. Favre is a master of progression reads; he’s usually dead-on when it comes to finding the open man, and he doesn’t care whether it’s a star wideout, a backup tight end or a fullback. But on that last throw against the Saints, he missed his man.

A coin toss, a couple of completed passes and penalties, and a field goal later, the Saints were celebrating. Was it fate? Did the gods of football predetermine the outcome? Was it just supposed to be this way, no matter how cruel it seems for Favre and the Vikings?

As a kid, I loved reading about football history and studying black-and-white images of great players from the past. One photograph has always stuck in my mind: Y.A. Tittle on his knees, blood dripping down his forehead, after losing a game in 1964. I was never a Giants fan, but I always found that photograph very moving, and couldn’t help but feel bad for Tittle. For him, fate meant 17 years of pro football, numerous passing records, and two M.V.P.’s, but no championships. Favre at least has a Super Bowl ring, but watching him get brutalized by the Saints made me think of the Tittle photograph, which is widely known as “The Agony of Defeat.”

“Agony” found Favre last Sunday, and I’m guessing it hurts a lot more than the bruises and welts and sprains the Saints administered. It’s painful for his fans, too. And let’s be honest: the thought of an alternate universe doesn’t do a thing to ease the pain. It might be the same universe where Bill Buckner corralled Mookie Wilson’s ground ball to ice the 1986 World Series, and where Earl Morrall found Jimmy Orr wide open in the end zone just before halftime and changed the course of Super Bowl III, and where Mickey Mantle stepped around, not on, the Yankee Stadium drain pipe cover in the 1951 World Series and spared himself a serious knee injury. But it doesn’t help a bit.

Besides, who’s to say Bernard Berrian wouldn’t have dropped the pass Favre should have thrown, or that Ryan Longwell wouldn’t have shanked a last-second field-goal attempt, or that the Saints wouldn’t have blocked it? We’ll never know. And that just may be the biggest source of agony. If you’re a sports fan, you know the feeling from somewhere along the line, right?

As for fate, Favre fans and Vikings followers can only hope it’s got a make-good planned for next season….

Larry is also the author of several sports-related books, including The Boys of Spring and Mickey Mantle: The Yankee Years