I never was a huge fan of the ol' gunslinger.  Sure, it was fun to watch him act like a 12 year old who just saw his first set of hooters when he threw a big TD pass, but the man always seemed to me like he thought he was bigger than the game.

The media rarely helped when it came to being objective about his performance, whether he played well, average, or poorly, or the team won or lost.  If Green Bay won, it was because Favre carried the team.  If they lost, it was because the talent around him wasn't good enough.  If he played poorly in one game, his teammates let him down.  If he played well, it was as if he was not only throwing lasers that made a Roger Clemens fastball appear slow, but also running down the field and catching them....breaking and/or dislocating a few fingers in the process.

Throwing into double coverage?  No big deal...his cannon arm would prevent defenders from intercepting, or maybe not.

Tossing it up for grabs to avoid a sack as a 12 year veteran who should know to either take the sack and live for another down, or simply throw it away?  Nope, not this guy.  He was going to complete a pass, and if his guy didn't come down with it, it was their fault, not his.

But this isn't about the 16 years he spent taking snaps as the QB of the Green Bay Packers...well, not really anyway.

This is about all the nonsense that has transpired since March 6th, 2008, when #4 announced his retirement.  Sort of.  I said at the time I doubted he'd remain retired, and that things could get messy if (when) he changed his mind (something he's good at...or, I guess, not so good at...) and wanted to play again.

I don't know all the details of the meetings he and various members of the Packers organization had from that day until Favre was sent to the Jets, and I won't put all the blame on Favre for how the situation was handled either.

Here is what I do know:

Favre retired....it was HIS decision.  Contrary to popular (Favre worshiper) belief, Ted Thompson did NOT run him out of town.  Had Thompson wanted Favre gone, in order to build the team to his own liking, he would have done so sooner than 3 years into his tenure as GM, don't you think?

He would not have allowed Favre to waffle for 2 offseasons, giving him ample time to decide about playing again, then giving him even more when Favre still couldn't decide.

He certainly could have began trade talks 5 minutes after Aaron Rodgers fell into his lap in the 2005 draft, don't you think?  Sure, fans would have been upset, but if Thompson's ego was really at work here, do you think he'd have given a rat's rear end?

When Favre announced his retirement, Aaron Rodgers was finally going to get his chance to prove he could play in the NFL....or not play.  While the record may not show much success, the stats say Rodgers is doing a pretty good job for a 1st year starter.  "But, he's been in the league for 3 years, he knows the system inside and out....he should be winning more games, blah blah blah."  Maybe so, but perhaps if the defense and special teams were performing somewhere in the neighborhood of "average," he'd have a few more wins under his belt.

The sad part of the whole situation is that because Favre changed his mind, he and his supporters expected he be handed his job back.  Why?  If a fellow employee takes early retirement, and you are in line to take over his position, but then he changes his mind 3 months later, would YOU think it was fair if they gave it back to him?  I doubt it.  Obviously, the NFL is not your average workplace, but the situation is similar in that Favre did retire, and Rodgers was in line for the job anyway (he was essentially drafted due to the "unkown" future of Favre, who had already been talking about retirement prior to the '05 draft).

Nobody is more sick of hearing that "If Brett Favre were still taking snaps, the Packers would be 10-5 (or better) right now" than I am.  Prove it.  The only way to compare the 2 right now is to look at their individual stats.  Those show that Rodgers is having the better individual season.

Translate Favre's stats into the Packers games, and in theory, they would likely have 1 fewer win, considering how the rest of the team has performed.

A few basic things need to be understood with both Rodgers and Favre.

1. Favre is not the single, solitary reason the Jets went from 4 wins last year, to a possible playoff berth this season.  A few key free agent signings, development of young offensive linemen, and...oh, that weak schedule they played (odd though, that they failed to win against any of the west coast teams they faced on the road, considering none of them are any good).

2. Rodgers is not the single, solitary reason Green Bay is dreadful this year.  Horrible defense, particularly against the run, leading the league in penalty yards against, poor offensive line play (due in small part to injuries, but also just plain ineffectiveness), lousy play-calling (McCarthy showed me once again that he is NOT a good coach, and last year was a fluke) and pathetic special teams (blocked FG's, inability to cover kicks or punts).

3. While Rodgers may be in his 4th year, holding a clip board for 98% of the 3 previous years does very little to prepare you for the speed of the game...actually, it probably does more harm than good.  Sitting one year is considered a good thing, so you can learn some of the more intricate details of life in the NFL, but 3 years is just too long.

4. Favre, after he was traded to the Jets, had trouble grasping their playbook.  The Jets had to "dumb it down" so Favre could understand it, and they've basically been running plays and using terminology that HE is familiar with all season.  Listen closely in their final game against Miami, and the pre-snap calls he makes are exactly the same as they were 12 years ago when Green Bay beat New England in the Super Bowl.

5. As much as some want to believe that Favre was the reason they ever made it there in the first place, much less win it, I call 'bullspit'!  Favre (as good as he supposedly already was prior to the '95 season) failed to get past the Cowboys in the playoffs for what seemed like 8 years in a row.  When they finally broke the playoff jinx, it was against San Francisco and Carolina, not the Cowboys.

On that team was Reggie White, Sean Jones, Santana Dotson, LeRoy Butler, Eugene Robinson, Craig Newsome, Doug Evans, Bernardo Harris, George Koonce (on the defensive side), Keith Jackson, Mark Chmura, Andre Rison (signed late in the season to replace an injured..), Robert Brooks, Antonio Freeman, Edgar Bennett, Don Beebe and Dorsey Levens (don't forget an o-line that featured Frank Winters, Adam Timmerman and Aaron Taylor...and a couple other guys I can't remember anymore).  They had Chris Jacke and Desmond Howard on special teams, and the coverage units were pretty good.

Favre won NOTHING by himself.  Aaron Rodgers won't either.  It takes a team to win in the NFL, and hopefully the Packers can build around Rodgers and get back in the playoffs soon, so the lame, illogical b.s. about how Favre would have led this year's team there will end, and all the blind morons who believe that stuff will go away.

The Packers are now Rodgers' team.  It's just too bad the coach is a bozo, his staff is almost as bad, and the team around him (minus the skill players on offense, and a few guys on defense) are not very good.  Ted Thompson isn't exactly doing a great job as GM either.  His drafts haven't produced the kind of impact players a team needs, and his lack of impact free agent signings aren't helping much.

What he has done right is get the team out of salary cap purgatory that Mike Sherman got them in, and managed to retain most of the key players with sensible contract extensions.  However, if Greg Jennings does not get an extension this offseason, I'll personally stand outside Lambeau Field and call for him to be tarred and feathered.

I'm not going to cry about why i'm leaving, or even give much of a reason why, beyond not having much time or energy to devote to it, and maybe the biggest reason, fox having so many tech issues.

on that note, i'd like to ask fox to at least allow me to look at my archived posts, so i can print off some of them.  i suppose i could search by category, but i already tried that, and after 23 pages of "CSIN" (which, by the way, is short for "Cuziffer Sports Inter Network"), i found 3 of the posts i wanted.  i know there are more, but i simply dont have the time or patience to search by category, not to mention some of the categories i used to use when i first started are no longer around, either because i decided not to use them anymore, or you decided they were somehow offensive.

i know this is probably too much to ask, but i thought i'd throw it out there anyway.

oh, and 1 more thing...i know you're busy and all, making sure nobody uses any non-PC words, but do you think you could rid the site of all those annoying people who keep advertising their "dating" websites?  yeah, i know, why should i care if i'm leaving, right?  well, there are alot of other people on this site who are fed up with them too.  if you had a clue, you'd realize these clowns are chasing away the people who made/make this site enjoyable.  are you seeing the connection here yet?

meh, nevermind.  just please fix it so i can get to my archives, and i'll leave you busy, overworked, underpaid people alone.

thanks!

First, I better say right off the bat that this is not a Kobe-hating slam blog.  For anyone who remembers when I defended Steve Nash when he won it, I couldn't even begin to argue that Bryant didn't put up numbers that made him worthy of being MVP (I tried, believe me, but his stats were more than good enough to win the award both years).

What this is about, is the absolutely freakish season Chris Paul (commonly referred to as CP3) had, how it compares to the stats Nash put up both years he won it, and how both these player's stats compare to those of Bryant.

When Nash won the award, his offensive numbers were obviously all that the voters looked at in terms of his stats.  They made the claim that he made his teammates better on the offensive end, which he did.  But they failed to take into account how incredibly bad he was (and still is) as a man-to-man defender.

Bryant was, and still is, way better defensively, as an individual, than Nash ever was, is, or will be.

What I don't understand is this:  Paul put up better numbers overall (I won't even bother trying to post the stats, because it would just look like a pile of manure if I tried) than Nash did in either of his MVP seasons.  Not just offensively, but defensively as well.

Add to that the fact that Bryant's numbers are down this year compared to those 2 seasons (dramatically down in PPG, where I believe he averaged 35 per in 1 of those seasons, and managed "only" 28 or so this year).

So, my question to the voters is, how do you vote Bryant the MVP this year when CP3 had as good of a year overall, if not better, than Nash did in his back-to-back award-winning seasons when Bryant himself had marginal improvement in FG and 3PT %'s, rebounds and assists, but scored 7 fewer PPG than his "best" season when he averaged 35.4?

If anything, this only strengthens the arguement for Kobe and Laker fans that he should have won it at least 1 of the 2 years Nash did (possibly even last year when Dirk won the award).  I would have to agree with them on that.

Since we can't go back in time and give him the award for any of those 3 seasons, will you admit you're giving him the award this year based on either lifetime achievement or simply being sick of hearing all the "you're just a bunch of Kobe-haters" comments?

In conclusion, YES I now admit Kobe should have won the award any 1 season out of the last 3...which one is irrelevent in my book.  NO I don't think he should have won it this year, based on the stats he had compared to those seasons, plus the stats CP3 put up in comparison to Nash in his MVP seasons.

And once again, this is not to rip Bryant.  If anything, it's to rip the voters for doing a 180 in my opinion in how they determine who wins the award.

Is Bryant worthy of it this year?  You bet.  But in my opinion, Paul should have won it based on all the above information.

NCAA Nat'l Champs

I picked Memphis.  At least they got to the title game.  Came in 138,746th (or something like that) in the foxsports.com bracket challenge.  Pretty bad for having 43 picks right, especially since I don't spend every waking moment breaking down game film of North Central Kentucky State Tech to see if they're good for an upset.

Congrats to Kansas.

NFL Draft

Less than a month away, and still no clue who the #1 is, or should be.  Part of this is because Miami has roughly 48 roster spots that could use immediate improvement.

I really dislike Bill Parcells, but if he can pull off a rebuild of this team, I'll have no choice but to give him credit (it will still hurt tremendously, but I'll do it).

New Minimum Age for NBA Draft

I like it.  I was all for a 2 year wait (at least) after high school all along. 

The big debate all along seems to be that, since these "kids" are 18, and thus "adults" by legal definition, it is their right to earn a living in the NBA.  No, it's not.  As a few have already mentioned (Lisa for example), businesses and business owners each have their own personal rules regarding their hiring practices.  If the NBA (THE employer and parent business owner) and the team owners are in favor of a longer wait before "hiring" these youngsters, more power to them.

As for the mess with these kids going to college for a brief amount of time, when they obviously have little to no interest in getting an education...Well, I say if they don't want to "waste" their precious youth playing for nothing (which is another debate, since they all get scholarships...for an education...to play ball), then they can go play in Europe.

One rebuttal to this stance is that the kids won't get the exposure by NBA scouts and will get drafted lower than they should when they become eligible.

What I'd like to know is....Are you serious?  Yao Ming was drafted #1 overall several years back, and he played in China.  Yi (whatever his last name is, or how you spell it) was drafted 6th just last year, and the team that took him (thanks Herb, by the way...sarcastically) seen almost nothing of him prior to selecting him.

Trust me, if these kids go to Europe out of high school with the hype current kids are getting, teams will remember to send a scout over to watch them.  Teams are already sending scouts over to find the next great Euro-born player anyway.  I think they'll be ok, and they'll make a little money to support their families in the process.

NBA MVP

We're back to debating that Kevin Garnett should get it.  Maybe he's worthy, maybe not.  I really don't know as I rarely watch the NBA anymore.  What I don't understand is, why is he more worthy than Chris Paul (I sure am arguing in favor of him alot, aren't I?)?

Garnett plays on the best team in the league, hands down.  That's all fine and dandy, but he's also playing with 2 other NBA superstars in Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.  Who is Chris Paul playing with again?  Oh yeah, career underachiever Tyson Chandler and David West (who I really like by the way).

Paul is putting up ridiculous numbers.  But when he plays poorly, the Hornets tend to lose.  Garnett has missed a few games (from what I remember anyway) and the C's seemed to do just fine while he was out.

Garnett is easily the MVP of that team, and the Eastern Conference.  Heck, just his ability to motivate Allen and Pierce into workout fiends gets him this award.  But of the entire league?

My vote is still with Paul.  (Sorry Kobe and Lebron lovers....really, I am)

More Predictions

The NCAA tourney is barely over....Kansas is far from done celebrating, and North Carolina, UCLA and Memphis are far from done being disappointed in coming up short.  Yet somehow, early early early predictions on next season's top 25 are coming out like quarters from a change machine.

I guarantee you half the teams anybody (and that means "experts" and schmendrick bloggers alike) puts on their lists won't finish within 5 spots of where you have them now.  at least half a dozen won't even be in the top 25, and 3 won't make the field of 65 (or however many it is by next season).

Are sportswriters this sport-specific that they can only write about ONE sport now?  And if so, is there absolutely nothing else to write about already...just 2 days after the tourney ended?

But since this is what sportswriters do anymore (make stupid, early predictions, speculate, create news that isn't there, etc...), let me throw in a few early NCAA basketball predictions for next year.  Mine might be more accurate.

Duke will fall early (*too early, according to the experts) in the tourney.

Bill Self will get back to the Sweet 16....as coach of the Oklahoma Sooners.

Billy Packer, Ricky Vitale, and Jay Bilas will continue to annoy everyone within earshot.

Brent Musberger still won't be able to pronounce Wisconsin correctly.

Erin Andrews will still look hot, but be absolutely useless in trying to give me any useful basketball information.

Somebody who has no business at all even being in the tournament will make the Sweet 16.

The debate will rage on regarding expanding the field to 257 (we'll still need a play-in game no doubt).

Bo Ryan's team will over-achieve.

The Big Ten will be down...again (even though 1 "expert" has both Michigan State and Purdue in his top ten...but what do you expect?  MSU still has Izzy McIzzo, and Purdue was the feel good story of the year with all their freshmen).

Kelvin Sampson will get another job he doesn't deserve.

Eddie Sutton's favorite former player, Doug Gotlieb, will quit ESPN to devote his life to defending Sutton's alcoholism and subsequent bad decision making.

questions

what if the nba, nfl and mlb all awarded points to teams based on number of minutes led, or how many times they led after a quarter ended (sort of like racing does w/laps led, and hockey does with...w/e the heck they do)?

where is the next great duke product, j.j. redick?

or how about the latest next great duke product, josh mcroberts?

are they hiding with waldo?

why does it seem like every nfl team traded 1 of their best defensive linemen (DT especially) this offseason?

does it surprise ANYONE that the raiders traded for deangelo hall, and then gave him the keys to the franchise with a mega-contract?

does it surprise anyone that they also signed javon walker to a 6 year, $55 million deal, after coming off 2 MORE knee surgeries and missing 8 games last season?

what are the odds, after losing randal gya and asante samuel, that troy brown will be starting at CB for the pats next year?

the mlb season is about to begin....which team is going to be their version of the patriots, whom all their "fans" believe is destined to win the world series, only to a) bomb in the regular season, b) tank in the 1st round of the playoffs, or c) steam roll their way to the WS, only to get beat by a sub-par (or shall we just say NL...?) team?

does your bracket look as bad as mine?

where are the florida fans?  wait, i'm guessing they're rebuilding, along with the program.

hey, did jeff green, former g-town standout, go pro?  i swear he did, but i cant say i've heard a word about him.

does anyone think michael beasly, k-state freshman phenom, will return for his sophomore season?

predictions

next season, there will be a new nba team, consisting of patrick ewing, dikembe motumbo, alonzo mourning, roy hibbert....and earl boykins.

to solve their QB dillema, the bears will coax jim mcmahon out of retirement.

milwaukee bucks owner herb kohl will convince his new GM (larry harris couldnt wait to get out, as kohl wouldnt let him do....his JOB) to draft some lithuanian project, because he sees a boat load of money from merchandise sales.

heather mills will be forced to ride in the luggage compartment, as the $48.6 mil she got from paul mccartney just isnt enough to live on.

the ncaa tournament will expand from 64...err, i mean 65....to 96, giving the top 32 teams a 1st round bye, and the 97th team will whine incessently about how they should have gotten in.

the nba will scrap its current playoff format, and allow every team into the postseason, in an effort to extend the season as long as the nhl does.  1st round series will last 3 games, and teams will be re-seeded after each round.

tiger woods will begin playing tournaments blindfolded, and still win.  honestly, i'm questioning whether this guy is really that good, or if everyone else just believes if they're ahead after 3 rounds, they win.

barry bonds will sign a minor league contract w/the pirates, and even though both knees are shot, will be allowed to bat sitting in a wheel chair, still manage to hit the ball out of the park, and run over at least 1 opposing infielder and an umpire on his way around the bases.

john kruk, even with the pirates 23 games back on may 15th, will predict they take over 1st place by the 1st of june.

duke will lose early in the ncaa tourney  (oops...they already did).

the cubs will win the world series (ok, seriously, i have to stop this now).