6 of one or glass half-full?

If you are a fan of the Minnesota Vikings, do you praise Brett Favre for playing well enough to get you within a few seconds of the Super Bowl or do you want to burn him in effigy for that (all-too familiar) bone-headed interception that effectively finished the season for you today?

That across-the-body, into the middle of the field, off-balance throw he made was one you'd expect a 19-year old QB to make, not a QB with 19 years of NFL experience. Sheesh! What a way for him to end his career. Or was it the end? As far as I am concerned, I am going to studiously avoid any news article between today and next Fall that mentions the word Brett Favre. The likes the Peter King are more than welcome to genuflect and pander to the ego of this fellow. I'm just glad I did not have any of my hopes tied to him.

Sunday night thoughtful

1) I have seen the future of Pakistani batting and his name is Umar Akmal. What impressed me about his debut performance (129 and 75) was not the audacious first innings when he helped take the team score from 85 for 5 to 293 before he got out. It was the second inning when, from 24 for 3 until 195, he stood between the Kiwis and a Test win. He played more balls and batted longer in the second innings but oozed calm and class all the way through. The Kiwis put 5 guys on the fence to stem the boundaries and Akmal adjusted, taking what he could. In the first innings he had 21 fours and 2 sixes compared to just 5 fours and 1 six in the second. He showed me that he could adjust his game and not throw it away. More importantly, he has the temperament for a scrap and should be around for a long time to come.

Osman Samiuddin tries to balance hyperbole with pragmatism in his column on CricInfo that talks about Akmal and where he is headed. Pakistan cricket is replete with stories of folks who have made it on a whim and a recommendation. While I am sure being Kamran's brother opened a few doors for Umar, what he has done with that opportunity of his own doing alone.

He worked his way up from junior level inter-city and district cricket, played and performed for Pakistan at Under-19 level and on Academy tours and spent a season wowing people for SNGPL domestically. When he got called up earlier this year to the national side, it was after he had hit three hundreds on an A team tour to Australia, against bowlers like Shaun Tait and Doug Bollinger.

2) When the India-Sri Lanka series began, the BCCI selectors threw a curveball by announcing a 15-member team with Murali Vijay as the 15th player. It is now clear why they did so - they knew Gautam Gambhir would be missing the third Test in order to attend his sister's wedding. Since Vijay is already in the squad, it is now a straightforward substitution, as opposed to having to draft from outside the squad in which case the opener with the hottest hand would have to be chosen and it might not have been Vijay. Somewhere, Srikkanth is pouring himself a cold one to celebrate his foresight and tactical nous.

This is not to say I don't think Murali Vijay can cut it. The last time India needed a replacement opener, he stepped into the breach against Australia and had two proper partnerships with Sehwag (98 runs and 116 runs). His best moment in the match, though, was running out Matthew Hayden in the first innings when the big man mistook him for Sourav Ganguly and took off for a sharp single to mid-off.

3) I saw Ninja Assasin and The Blind Side back-to-back this weekend. The reviews shall follow later, but let me just say that I needed one to wash off the memories of the other!

4) The mantle has passed in the NFL and the devil has found a new person to deal with. Leaving Kurt Warner and Tom Brady behind, a new agreement has been signed with Brett Favre. 24 TD's to just 3 interceptions after 11 games?!! Who is this new 40-year old? The Devil did not go down to Georgia, he went down to Gulfport, Mississippi instead.

Stealing words from my mouth

True story (I swear): I wrote up a long, sarcastic article about the love-fest between ESPN, Peter King (of Sports Illustrated) and Brett Favre. I made the mistake of not putting it on my blog before the writers at The Onion came up with a similarly-themed article.

If you know anything about the Brett Favre situation, you will find this article just hilarious. Sarcasm drips from every sentence and the opinions (not) expressed are the views of millions of NFL followers around the globe. Here's a sample:

"I was looking at a newspaper, and it said, 'Favre Sacks Former Team,' and at that point I realized we really missed one," ESPN president George Bodenheimer told reporters. "I just want to apologize to our viewers. Had the Favre-Packers connection dawned on us sooner, fans could have enjoyed the same quality sports journalism they have come to expect from ESPN: driving storylines into the ground and exploiting every one of their subplots to the point of nausea."

ESPN news director Vince Doria said that if he or any of his colleagues had realized Favre would be playing against his former team, the network would have begun overhyping the week-four matchup the moment the quarterback signed with the Vikings.

(...) "We kind of blew a golden opportunity," Doria said. "Endless explanations as to what Brett Favre meant to the city of Green Bay, restating over and over how he left the Packers on poor terms, and airing at least 50 segments featuring wild and irresponsible speculation about his motives for returning to the NFL. It would have been perfect."

He'll always have Green Bay

How many times can a man change his mind? If you are Brett Favre ... hmmm ... one loses count.

It is totally up to the fellow to decide whether he wants to play or not. It is not my business nor my place to tell folks when to hang up, but I wish the media would not fuel the fire everytime he has an urge to express himself.

Folks like Don Banks and Peter King need to just not report or dissect every little shrug of the shoulder and should leave the "legacy" part to history. If Brett Favre does not care about his legacy being tarnished, why should we. It's his legacy, his life, his fame, let him decide!

As far as my personal opinion is considered, Favre's best years were in the mid-to-late 90's. Since then he has been more about reputation and less about stellar play. I have seen him make too many mistakes to think of him as a dependable QB. Mistakes he got away with for being a "good bloke" would have cost less-heralded players their careers. Here's a good deconstruction of the myth of his prowess. (Surprisingly, it is by Sal Paolantonio).

The truth is, Favre did little over the past decade to earn the gushing praise heaped upon him by our fawning brethren in the media.

After beating the San Francisco 49ers in the 1997 NFC Championship Game, Favre won just three of his last 10 playoff games. Eli Manning had more postseason wins in a 29-day span this past season than Favre had in his last decade with the Green Bay Packers.

Yes, Favre won a Super Bowl -- 11 years ago! But as his career arc spiraled downward, the blind adulation only got worse.

Favre's passer rating in his last 12 postseason games was a pedestrian 77.8. In his last five wild-card games, he went 2-3 with more interceptions (nine) than touchdown passes (seven). In his last three divisional playoff games, he went 1-2 with seven TDs and seven interceptions. That's a 3-5 record with 14 touchdown passes and 16 picks.

In two of his last four postseason appearances, Favre threw two of the most unthinkable playoff interceptions in NFL history, both in overtime -- to Brian Dawkins of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2003 and to Corey Webster of the New York Giants in January. In fact, Favre is the only quarterback in NFL history to throw overtime interceptions in two playoff games. In his last nine playoff games, Favre threw 18 interceptions.

(...)

Indeed, a decade after his last moments of glory, the football hype machine continues to paint Favre as a hallowed icon of Americana, a symbol of all that is right with sports, a Wild West gun-slinging good ol' boy. There's Brett on the farm! There's Brett with his family! There's Brett on the cover of Sports Illustrated! There's Brett throwing another overtime interception!

Favre was among the best in the game, once upon a time. Those days are long gone. Only the idolatry remains..

In fact, this photograph is how I will always remember him, holding his head after another dumb interception. How apt.