I never thought I'd say this, but I really hope that Brett Favre retires

[Poiuyt]

I've been a big Packer fan since 1962, and a big Favre fan also. But now he's gotten to think of himself as being bigger than the team. I started to worry when he said that he wasn't sure if he would want the ball with two minutes to go (his normal strong suit). When he said "What are they gonna do, cut me?" that indicated to me that he has gone way beyond being a team player. How can the Packers participate intelligently in free agency and plan for the draft if they don't know what his plans are? What he is doing is holding the team hostage.

Please Brett, go back home. Don't let this be our last memory of you.

[northzax]

1. I agree, as much fun as he's been to watch

but remember that the Packers have their 'QB of the future' and so can probably draft and FA equally well both ways.

[Awsi Dooger]

2. His yards per attempt really fell off last year

From 7.6 to 6.4. That's normally the tell tale sign for an older QB, but since the 7.6 in 2004 was excellent and the team had tons of injury excuses last year, I'm willing to give Favre another year.

Actually, I think the Packers are a good bet on the over on season wins if Favre returns. They had a net plus in the Killer Stat of yards per pass attempt differential (offensive yards per attempt minus defensive yards per attempt) despite the lousy record plus Favre's poor stats. It's extremely rare for a team with a won/loss record like that to have a positive Killer Stat, so it indicates an underrated team if everyone returns healthy.

[northzax]

3. this is why I love your posts

because no one else even understands what you're talking about when you start, but it makes sense at the end. Always nice to have some BS to cut through all the meaningless stats and picking something real...

[Awsi Dooger]

4. I do take the circuitous route

Thanks, northzax. Reminds me of what shapely Suzie from the student newspaper staff told me once in college. "I loved your sports article. At the end, I actually understood it."

Baseball seems to have very advanced statistical analysis, including the mainstream media, but football lags woefully behind. I despise Al Michaels politically, but he's virtually the only analyst who will mention yards per pass attempt on occasion. The NFL.com website doesn't even include that stat, at least last time I checked. I work in a sports statistical office and YPPA is incredibly vital to almost every NFL evaluation we make, quarterback or team.

[northzax]

5. 'sports statistical office?'

ok, if you want :)

it's just that I get the feeling that if I wanted to know the key stats to bet of Mongolian Yak Herding, here'd be Awsi Dodger, mentioning that the key thing to victory is noticing the length of the hind fur of the male yak, since 61.57% of the time the Yak with hair closest to six inches without going over wins!

Go Yak 3!