Well I didn’t think I could be more disgusted with ESPN following their coverage of Lebron James and “The Decision,” but as I write this I am sitting on my couch watching live coverage of an empty airport in Minnesota as the World Wide Leader waits for a plane to land that carries Brett Favre, and we have no idea why.
I’m trying to remain calm here and not lace this upcoming rant with expletives but ESPN is making it extremely difficult. They flashed the red sign in the scroll for breaking news and all it was, was the announcement that Favre was on a plane to Minnesota and that his official website sent out a message to “stay tuned for breaking news.”
This was immediately followed by a full screen graphic that showed the three plus hours of “Favre Special” programming that is currently airing on ESPN, complete with special episodes of “Rome is Burning,” “SportsCenter” and “NFL Live.” Also on the docket, Ed Werder live from Brett Favre’s front yard in Mississippi and “Paris Hilton goes to jail” type video from news choppers following every move Favre has made since touching down.
The reasons behind ESPN fawning over Lebron James make sense, despite the execution being embarrassing. Lebron is one of the best players in the NBA, some argue the best, and he is in his prime. I understand ESPN talking this to death (though three years is a bit much), but I can’t understand why they care so much about Favre.
This has been an ongoing story with Favre since 2006 when he started jacking around the Green Bay Packers. He has done this with Three teams (Green Bay, New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings) and the story is always the same. At this point it seems like they are trying to play it off as a joke but do so too seriously for anyone to laugh.
Jim Rome just announced “the fox has landed, the silver fox has landed. Favre is on the ground,” while the screen showed Favre getting into a black SVU which was followed like I was watching a car chase. Rome is corny in his own right, but that line was beyond dumb and I hope he was forced to say it and didn’t come up with it on his own accord.
Before this breaking news, the big story of the day was that three Minnesota Vikings players, guard Steve Hutchinson, defensive end Jared Allen and placekicker Ryan Longwell went down to Hattiesburg, Miss., to get an answer on whether Favre would be back. Now that is on top of the news last month of a rumored text message to teammates that said he was retiring, an interview where Favre said it all depended on how his ankle feels and a full day of Favre retirement coverange and video compilations on, you guessed it, ESPN.
I do have to give the Vikings credit for sending players down to talk to Brett to get an answered, not allowing this melodrama to continue longer than needed. However this situation has been shrouded in mystery as the Vikings denied the payers had left during practice today and no one knew what was happing.
Talking to Jim Rome (in an interview they played twice in 30 minutes), Vikings wide receiver Bernard Berrian said he didn’t know anything about players going down to see Favre and only when he sees Favre practicing will he believe the aging quarterback is returned.
Former players Teddy Bruschi and Antonio Pierce ripped the Vikings apart at the notion that they had to beg Favre to come back. They pointed out that in the NFL you have to be all in from the beginning and was it just the three players going to get Favre or was it all 53 guys n that looker room.
In all likelihood he is coming back and will be announcing so soon. The Vikings are rumored to be offering him a pay raise to around $20 million for this season. Despite how much I hate this three hour “special,” I am very interested to see how this plays out for the Vikings who were one bad Favre interception away from possibly going to the Super Bowl last year.
From one side the Vikings were putting their confidence in current back up QB Tarvres Jackson but then sent a plan to Mississippi with three of the team leaders to get Favre. This is going to be very fun to watch play out and I hope it gets so much more like a soap opera.
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