Favre Lives Up To the Hype

Flash back for a moment to the start of the 2009 NFL Football Season. The dominating headline spiraling through blogs, newspapers, sports shows and other media networks was the ‘Brett Favre Saga’. Everyday we watched, listened and waited as Favre declared retirement one day, came out of retirement the next day and returned to retirement once again on the third day. It was anyone’s guess whether the 2009 NFL season would start with Favre in a team jersey or sitting on the sidelines watching the game as a spectator. Supporters cheered for his return. Critics called for his retirement.

Not one to let public opinion get the best of him, Favre pressed on and soon reached the NFL playing field sporting a Minnesota Vikings jersey marked with the infamous #4 for all the sports world to see. Supporters cheered. Critics jeered. Many wondered, either out loud or in silence, whether Favre had what it took to play another round of NFL football.  And so the 2009 NFL football season began with all eyes on the man dressed in the #4 Minnesota Vikings jersey and the football placed in his hands.

What a season it was! Favre completed 33 touch-down passes with only 7 interceptions on the books. He threw for an impressive 4,202 yards and earned a QB rating of 107.2, the highest of his career. Not only did he reach personal accomplishments, he managed to lead the Vikings to an equally impressive 12 – 4 record and the divisional championship title. Impressive numbers sure to quiet the critics and encourage the supporters.  Taking a look at what Favre accomplished this season makes the heart wrenching loss to the Saints in overtime last Sunday almost bearable.

I for one am very impressed with the performance that Favre gave the sports world this season.  I have found myself on the ‘Brett Favre critics’ bench a time or two in the past. As the season started I thought for sure he would give a less-than-impressive showcase leaving the Vikings unsure of why they went the extra mile to bring him aboard. Favre proved me and any other doubter wrong and not just by a little bit, by a landslide. I watched that divisional championship game against Dallas. Favre showcased an impressive amount of power and presence on the field that day. He could do no wrong. Every pass was a perfect display of football perfection. Time and time again Favre connected with a receiver who soon found his way to the end zone. The score increased by 7 so many times it became an embarrassment to the Dallas Cowboys. Even Favre’s loudest critics could not find much to complain about that day.

If only the game the following Sunday against the Saints would have played out the same way. We would be talking about Favre returning to football’s glorious game instead of what could have been. Maybe there will be another chance for him next year. Maybe this season was all Favre needed to find peace with the world of football. Reports are already indicating that Favre has said he more than likely will not return next year. Until the first game of the 2010 NFL football season starts without Favre wearing a team jersey and holding a football, we should not play into the retirement talk. Not just yet. For now we need to take a look at what Favre did for the world of sports this season. In more ways than one Favre cleaned up his tarnished reputation and took his rightful place as one of the greatest football players of all times. Yes my friends I do believe that Brett Favre certainly lived up to the hype!

Lane Kiffin Finally Shows His True Colors

Lane Kiffin entered the UT football program running his mouth about this and that. He boasted about how the Vols were going to beat the Florida Gators and sing ‘Rocky Top’ all night long after doing so. He promised to fans, alumni and current students alike that he was going to revolutionize the UT football program and bring it back to the glory days. He extended personal assurances to the players and coaching staff that he had their back 110% and was pushing up his shirt sleeves and getting to work for what he predicted would be a stellar season. Expectations were high. Hope among the UT nation was even higher. Then came last night.

Kiffin made the shocking announcement before UT nation and the sports world that he would be leaving his head coaching position at UT to assume head coach responsibilities at USC. In his mind it made perfect sense. After all he spent time as an assistant back in the day at USC. He knows the school. He loves the school. So why not just tell UT goodbye, pack a few bags and head off for sunny California?

I’ll tell you why not – it’s wrong! Not just wrong by itself but wrong on so many levels. There are members of the new recruiting class that uprooted their entire life and the lives of their family to come play for Kiffin. Parents took their children out of school and placed them in a brand new school in the middle of the school year just so their big brother could play for the coveted Coach Kiffin and the UT football program. There are current players that believed in the message Kiffin was spreading in closed-door locker room meetings. They put their heart and soul on the line despite criticism to play for Kiffin simply because they believed in him. It is the head coach’s job after all to lead his team through the good, the bad and the ugly.

Last night Lane Kiffin earned the ranking of the ugliest of the ugly in college football. He has forever tarnished his reputation. It does not matter if he produces an undefeated season at USC in 2010. He is the slimy weasel that snuck out of the University of Tennessee under the dark of night stomping on the hearts of his players, supporters and recruiting class on his way out the door. Kiffin does not care about anyone but himself. If he did, he would have handled the move to USC with more decency that he showcased. He would care about the pain and heartache left in UT hearts with his departure from Tennessee. The fact that he has single-handedly destroyed the UT football program for the next several years would show in his facial expressions. That would be the markings of a head football coach with dignity, class and respect for those around him.

That is not Lane Kiffin. Instead he held a press conference tonight on the grounds of his new employer USC. To add salt to the pain the UT nation is feeling tonight, Kiffin called the USC job the “best job in America”. He went on to talk about coaches he and the rest of the USC staff hope to bring onboard in coming months. Once complete Kiffin will have “the best coaching staff in America”. In that entire press conference he did not issue an “I’m Sorry” to the University of Tennessee. Instead Kiffin just left them with a less than impressive 7 – 6 record for the 2009 season and a bad taste of what happens when you put your heart, soul and trust in someone only to have them turn around and stick a knife in your heart the minute you turn your back.

Take heart UT nation for eventually the pain will fade and hope will once again return to the football field. In the end you will find life is brighter simply because Kiffin kicked himself to the curb!

Steve Phillips Sex Affair Comes With a Side of Crazy

For any man out there this whole ESPN analyst Steve Phillips sex affair scandal should be a lesson in why not to have affairs. You never know quite what you are getting into until it is too late. Think I’m wrong. Just take a look at the mess Phillips is in as proof positive that affairs never quite go the way you plan. When things got started, Phillips thought he was getting a few good nights of summer fun with a shy, young 22-year old production assistant he had seen once or twice around the office. As things progressed he decided that it was probably not in his best interest to continue sleeping with this girl. So he called it off and walked away. Little did he know at that time just how crazy his affair companion would turn out to be.

The New York Post is reporting that Brooke Hundley took out a classified advertisement on craigslist.com enlisting help for eliminating Phillips’s wife from the picture. She apparently placed an ad looking for a phone stalker. Someone that would call up Phillips’s wife pretending to be a co-worker with suspicions of her husband having an affair with another employee. In true jilted lover fashion Hundley went so far as to script out exactly what was to be said and the manner in which it was to be delivered. This little part in the Phillips-Hundley sex affair drama was being cast for $50.

If you think that sounds crazy listen to this. Someone actually answered the ad. It appears craziness is just running rampant in this little debacle of a love affair. A waitress apparently looking for some extra cash signed on to make the call. Hundley provided the phone number and instructed the waitress to appear sympathetic in delivering information on when and where Phillips and the co-worker planned on meeting later that same night. At the time the waitress just thought she was helping out some girl scorned by an ex-boyfriend or something. She had no idea that she was getting involved in one of the most publicized sports related sexual affairs of all time.

Now she knows different. As for Hundley well she is just taking crazy, jilted lover to a whole new level. Future sexual scandals may very well be compared to this one in terms of the degree that the woman goes to in order to keep her man. In the short span of just 24 hours Brooke Hundley has become the new Monica Lewinsky. The only difference is Monica didnt go all Glen Close in fatal attraction on her love interest. She walked away with a sense of decency and respect in tact. Not so much for this Hundley character. She is quickly becoming the poster child for craziness. There is no telling what lengths she will go to in order to get Steve Phillips now, especially given that he is about to be a single man in the coming months.

My guess is Steve Phillips had no idea quite what he was getting himself into that first night his pants came off for a night of summer fun. I just have one question for you Steve – didn’t anyone ever tell you that hell hath no furry like a woman scorned??