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The Mashup: Where pop culture and sports collide
Seems as if Brett Favre is really done. Doubt this is a Michael Jordan or Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter retirement.
CLIMBING
•Favre: Wrangler jeans, Prilosec, Remington Arms and Sensodyne are all going to get a boost from Favre’s retirement since he won’t mess up his legacy by playing too long.
So it’s a good time for us to consider Favre’s place among the all-time greats. And it seems that most of the stuff I’ve read since the announcement makes it seem as if Favre was greater than finding a $50 bill in an old pair of pants.
And don’t get me wrong, I was a fan of his freewheeling style, but this is history we’re talking about here.
Favre’s 61,655 passing yards are the most ever … unless you count Warren Moon’s CFL numbers. For whatever reason, Moon went undrafted in the NFL and spent his first six pro seasons in Edmonton. And Moon’s combined NFL and CFL stats are pretty gaudy: 70,553 passing yards, 432 TDs and five straight CFL titles.
But Favre still has Moon beat with 442 TD passes.
Plus Moon never won it all in the NFL. But, then again, Bart Starr won more titles in Green Bay — five NFL titles, two Super Bowls — than Favre, who won one Super Bowl.
John Elway and Tom Brady can make a case for best of this era.
Still haven’t mentioned Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas or Otto Graham, have I?
Well, let’s agree on this: Favre is a future Hall of Famer, whom I am glad to have had the pleasure of watching. Even if he did always kill the Lions.
Holding steady
•Mike Tyson: Evander Holyfield said earlier this week that he and Tyson might fight for a third time.
Savings accounts must be getting low. Either that, or Tyson wants to add another scene to the movie based on his life that he has said is being planned and will star Oscar winner Jamie Foxx.
From playing Ray Charles to Iron Mike? Gold Glove center fielders wish they had that type of range.
Slipping
•Magazine polls: NBA comissioner David Stern responded to an ESPN The Magazine poll that said more people think the statement “players are wholesome” applies to the NHL (34 percent) than the NBA (14 percent).
(Am I the only one who wonders what “wholesome” means? I think it’s a code word for “prone to stop playing their sport and start punching each other in the face.” By the way, I love hockey. Some of my best friends are hockey fans.)
Stern wasn’t about to let that poll go unanswered. According to the Oregonian’s Trail Blazers’ blog, Stern said Tuesday: “We’re having a great year, so ESPN decided that what you should do if you’re a magazine is you write an article going into All-Star (weekend) about how terrible things are. Maybe it’s because (the All-Star Game) was on TNT.”