On playing Thursday? I haven?t talked to him (Coach Mangini) about it. I don?t know what?s going to happen. I would assume he would probably say no. If that?s the case, then so be it. I can get some practice in today and tomorrow. We?ll be okay. I don?t know if six plays, although I would like to do it, what you get out of that. On if he is concerned with how soon the regular season will be here? Well, I guess no more of a concern than coming in late and having a week to prepare for my first game like I did two weeks ago. To me that was a real game, based on the circumstances. At least in this case, I will have some practice and have worked with these guys. Not that that makes it any better, but I feel more comfortable in the situation now than I did several weeks ago. On if he will be comfortable by the season opener? Completely? I'd be lying if I said yes, but I do. I felt a lot more comfortable the other night (against the Giants), although we made a lot more mistakes, which falls back on me. It?s stuff that with each day, I shouldn't say it becomes easier, but it is easily correctable. Once you start game planning for teams, to a certain extent you simplify things and you go to bat with things you feel comfortable with. The whole season in itself will be, as I've always felt about my career, that you're learning each game. It's never things you study and prepare for; you don't always see it that way. I'll always be getting used to these guys. The system that I have in my head over the last 16 years, I don't think will ever be washed away, so I have to relate things to what I've done in the past. That's becoming easier. I hear a play now, (and I am) like, ?okay, that's this play.? Now when I start feeling that way, I can start adjusting to the guys and how they run routes and who runs this route better than the next guy, and that's what I need to get to. On adjusting to his relationship with Coach Mangini? I drove (Mike) Holmgren crazy, but I was much younger (and I) didn't really understand how things worked. I see things more like a coach now, but I think that's the experience part of it speaking. I do understand his side of it, I really do. He has the whole team to think of. As a player, a lot of times you think of yourself. I realize the most important thing is the team, although I want to play. That's what we're here for is to play; preseason, regular season, doesn't matter. Other guys look at it differently than I do. That's the competitive nature in me speaking, but we've had a great relationship. On how his body feels after the Giants game? I feel like I took a couple of hits. To other guys it wasn't a big deal. They've been getting hit, a little bit ahead of me in that category. When I tell people after 18 years, 17 years and a preseason, I get hit, I'm sore like everyone else. It (just) takes (me) longer to recover; that's the difference. That's no joke, I mean, that's the truth, but I'm still able to bounce back. After the game I felt okay. Yesterday morning I woke up, and I said, ?okay, not too bad.? By yesterday afternoon, I was like, ?ooh.? Usually two days after is when I feel the worst. I've noticed that the last few years. Today will be a little tougher when you go out to practice than maybe in previous years. It was good to, not that I like getting hit, but it was good to get that over and done with. You get hit throughout the year, but that's just part of it. On what he does to recover after the games? I probably should do all that stuff, massages and ice. I've iced once this camp on my shoulder. Now, call it stupidity, call it what you want. I see younger guys icing all the time and I know all that stuff is important. Call me old school, I don't know. No signs of weakness, I always say, which I guess falls back to stupidity. On talking to the coaches about toning down some of the offensive shifts? We have discussed that (toning down offensive shifts and motions). We actually discussed it before the game. We had a plan that we wanted to go in and show multiple looks, personnel, different shifts and different motions. Was it overkill? In hindsight, yeah, but it served its purpose. I totally agree with (Brian Schottenheimer) Schottie and the rest of the offensive staff that we needed to practice that. On film today, as we watched it, we could address that. We've got to get better at that if we're going to do it. Now, would we do that in every game? It all depends on the situation and who you're playing and does that serve its purpose. Some teams make shifts and motion and all this stuff. It doesn't matter to them. They line up in their defense. It's not going to make them do anything different, so why do it in that situation? Against the Giants, there was good reason to do it, because they do give you a lot of different looks. It makes no sense if you can't execute it from an offensive standpoint. It was more or less to see if we could handle it, see if I could handle it. For whatever reason, we didn't, and again that falls back on the quarterback because in years past anytime we did something like that, we didn't have that many penalties. I attribute that to the newness and the fact that I haven't worked with these guys that much, and not to mention it was a lot. We actually scaled back a little bit before the game. We actually had more shifts. On the offensive penalties? That was ugly. It goes without saying that was ugly. There's nothing that will kill a team more than the little things. Penalties (are) momentum killers. You hit a big touchdown, boom, called back, now we're third-and-16. There (are) not a lot of calls on third-and-16. In order to be good on third-down, you've got to stay manageable, third-and-two, third-and-six things like that. The key to third-down is first-down. (If) you get four yards the first play, (then) you have two plays to get six yards. That's much easier than being second-and-10. When penalties occur and all of a sudden you're first-and-15 or you get a good play and now you're backed up for holding, you're first-and-15 or second-and-13, that's hard. We've got to limit those, or wipe them away completely, because that has nothing to do with the defense. It has everything to do with what we're doing or not doing. That's correctable. On if the offense in Green Bay used as many motions and shifts? No. We had that stuff in. We did it every so often, not that much. On playing in the fourth preseason game? I've always wanted to play in it. On if he thinks about getting injured in preseason games? I've never really thought about it, and I'm not saying Osi (Umenyiora) did think about it. I saw the tape. That was meant to be. It?s very unfortunate for him and for the Giants, but it wasn't like guys rolled up on him. That probably would have happened in practice at some point, the way it occurred. He just went down. Injuries are part of it. They come in a lot of different ways. You get rolled up in a pile, the turf does it or you do it in practice. I've played (in) so many games, and not that I haven't been injured, but I've overcome injuries. (I?ve) been lucky in a lot of situations. This is 18 years. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. I can't control that. I love to play, and that's really all I can think about. On Michael Strahan coming out of retirement to play for the Giants? If I was a Giant, I'd do whatever I could to get him out and have him back on my team. The guy still looks great. (He?s a) hell of a player. I would have done whatever to try to get him back initially, but now, how could you not want him back? Wouldn't that be something, he comes back and we start a trend (laughter)?
How do you not love this guy? Definition of awesome. I completely understand why so many Packer fans have moved with him to the Jets.
When I saw the replay of the game, I still did double-takes seening Favre in a Jets uniform. How freaking AWESOME this is.
Yup. It might have been different if he'd been a real ego-maniacal jerk in GB, but he's such a great guy. He didn't deserve the way GB treated him based upon his performance, either.
He won't play Thursday. Philly never plays any of their starters in the last game and there is no chance they will let a second stringer take a free shot while trying to make the team.
I don't see the wisdom in not playing him a little. He just got here, he's trying to get in synch with the rest of the offense, what better place than a practice game to do it? After this it's live bullets, so why not take advantage of the last trial run you have? Maybe it's not what you usually do with this game, but this is not the normal situation. Favre hasn't been here all off season, this game would be more helpful to him than normally.
I couldn't agree more. And the fact that Philly will have their second string in is only more of a reason. Our o-line should be able to protect him very well.
ding ding ding! If our new offensive line cannot keep the second string guys off of Favre for a series or two then well we are in far more trouble than if favre were to actually get hurt for a while in the Philly game...
First, let me confess (though it should be obvious if you look at my profile to right) that I've followed Favre here to the Jets. I was a die hard Packer fan through 80s, well before Favre, which if nothing else allowed me to be there from the beginning with him, seeing him come in for those first two games off the bench, and then at least 95% of the bazillion starts he's had since. And allowed me to appreciate him, as only a Packers fan of the 80s could Still, I have consciously wondered for the last few years if, when he retired, I would still follow the Pack -- meaning if I would keep watching football in general. Outside of a few players like Driver, there is really no one else I much personally care about, and rooting for a team as a whole is getting harder and harder, they're all pretty much corporate entities selling product now -- even the publicly owned Packers -- not a collection of players with a collective personal identity. I went through that kind of realization about baseball in the 80s, through the two strikes, I started the decade as a fan listening to games on the radio almost every day & ended it as someone who might catch maybe one or two a year, if there was nothing better to do. I've grown up since the 80s and understand things more, but even if I hadn't, how Favre's wish to rejoin the team was handled by the GB front office definitely drove the point home like a sledgehammer. So, all that preamble is to state that I'll be honest, I'm cheering for the Jets this year because and only because of Brett Favre (please don't virtually stone me here for saying that though!) Even so, I love this particular slip, probably unconscious on Favre's part: The key phrase is "in years past anytime we did something like that." WE. He is referring to the team that existed before he was part of it as "we." That's huge IMO. I don't know how you long time Jets fans reacted to it, but that press conference held right before the first preseason game, the day of the trade was ... painful ... yes painful ... to watch. Favre spent more time talking about the Packers and his love for that team than he did about the Jets. You could see he really wanted to keep playing for the Pack, and was still in shock that it would never happen again. He looked miserable about it, frankly. I would not blame a Jets fan if he watched that press conference and said "WTF? He doesn't even want to be part of this team! How could they dump Pennington for HIM?" But hopefully anyone who had that initial reaction will now realize that there is a flip side to that loyalty to his old team, that this attachment to his team (it's not just a business relationship to him, it's a very emotional one) will mean he will be all the more effective if he can connect to his new team. Because he will leave everything out there on the field when he does, he will be a force in the huddle not only to elevate everyone's play, but to make them enthusiastic about doing it -- to have fun. That's an intangible about Favre that I don't think many understand unless they have watched him a lot, how deeply, passionately he plays every game. And maybe this little "we", only two weeks after the press conference that barely mentioned the Jets, is a sign he'll carry that attitude over to here intact. Forgive me if I went all Madden on you there but, I'm sorry, I've been watching football since the 70s, and Favre IS a special player, both as a professional athlete and as a person. Living where I do, I got to see that firsthand on occasion, observing him in person a number of times off that football field. I'm sure there are others elsewhere in the league, special in their own unique ways too, but for better or for worse this is the star that landed in my backyard and I've had two decades to get to know. I consider myself lucky and privileged, and am not about to let go of that just becasue he has a new uniform.
gotta love everything about favre. that last line about the mistakes falling back on him, even if it isn't completely true is how a real leader handles things. if I'm one of the lineman who continually jumped for the false starts or anyone else who lined up incorrectly costing the team illegal formation penalties and i see that said by my quarterback than I'm gonna be working my ass of to make sure nothing i do "falls back" onto my quarterback.
The only thing not to like in all of that is his continued insistence on not icing, getting massages, etc. He really needs to recognize that by football standards he's an old man, and that means doing things he didn't do before. The Jets have no prayer without him, so he needs to do all of the little things that will keep him on the field and effective.
The only issue, of course, is by trying to get Brett more reps, that means you're going to have to play ALL your offensive starters as well.... This is very rare for a 4th pre-season game... I'd like to see it, but I have a feeling we're going to be disappointed...
True, but even a series or two would give them a chance to work on a few things they need to work on, like not shifting illegally to nullify big plays. It's not just Favre that needs to get in synch, it is the whole offense. The game is there to be played anyway, I just don't see the fear of a potential injury as being so great that you can't let these guys get a little more work in under game situations. Again, it's the last one they have to play with that doesn't count for anything, this is what it's for.
