Favre Just a Spectator at Peterson Show

CLEVELAND -- If we grew nauseous over his annoying do-si-dos, his semi-psychotic flip-flopping between retirement and limbo and unretirement, now we're finally starting to get it. Why wouldn't Brett Favre want to come back, take $12 million this year, hand the ball to Adrian Peterson and have an all-access pass to one of the most delightful running backs of this or any other era?

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His days of having to heavy-lift an entire franchise are long over. Three weeks from his 40th birthday, Favre has been reduced to a game-manager who simply has to avoid his fatal interceptions of late last season, remain as reasonably healthy as his creaky body allows and exploit an all-you-can-eat buffet of breathtaking weapons, the most lethal of whom is Peterson. The yardage machine known as A.D. -- as in All Day -- reminded us Sunday that the the Minnesota Vikings are his team and the NFL his domain. Shaking off an improperly bandaged wound that left a gusher of blood rolling down his arm, he rambled for 180 yards and three scores, none more memorable than a 64-yard battle mission in the fourth quarter in which he made like a bumper car at the amusement park and busted through the tackling attempts of four or five Cleveland defenders.

"I had a blast," said Favre, as did any football-loving fool -- Browns fans excluded -- who watched Peterson zag and explode on the northeast Ohio lakefront. "I don't know what more you can say other than I'm thrilled to play with one of the best backs I've ever seen."

"When you play a player of Adrian Peterson's caliber, it only takes one time,'' moped Browns coach Eric Mangini, who has no idea what he's doing, as usual. "He only needs that one time and he can exploit it."

Sure, Favre was the headline of the 34-20 victory because it was his first regular-season game in Vikings purple, the color that represented anathema to Packers fans during his 16 transcendent seasons in Green Bay. And we won't soon forget the way he rushed downfield Sunday, like the floppy-haired twenty-something we grew to love at Lambeau Field, and literally tackled Percy Harvin after the rookie receiver caught a short pass and reached over the goal line for his first pro touchdown -- and Favre's 464th career TD pass. Harvin was a 3-year-old in Virginia Beach when Favre was an NFL rookie, and now, the old man was greeting him with the wild exuberance that always has defined his career. For a week, anyway, Favre was having the fun he always has sought, the fun he didn't have in New York last year or in Green Bay when management ran him out of his town.

"For him to be that old -- he's got a daughter my age -- and still has a love for the game, going to meetings and all that stuff. He's by himself."
-- Percy Harvin"I thought we were going to bump chests or something," said Harvin, who came to Minnesota with off-field baggage and has raved about Favre as a mentor. "He wasn't slowing down. I took it and we fell to the ground. It was a great feeling. You don't find too many players like that who still love the game. That's what makes him special and separates him from a lot of people. For him to be that old -- he's got a daughter my age -- and still has a love for the game, going to meetings and all that stuff. He's by himself."

Eventually, though, Favre will be a weekly sidebar to the superlatives of Peterson, my choice for the NFL's Most Valuable Player award and the major reason, along with a potentially dominant defense, why Minnesota finally could return to the Super Bowl. Favre was recruited by coach Brad Childress for his mind and savvy, not for his legs and even his arm. He'll be asked to crank up the ancient rocket gun on occasion, but against the perpetually rebuilding Browns, he threw only four passes that traveled longer than nine yards -- completing two for 30 yards -- on a day when he went 14 of 21 for 110 yards. If we're going to extol the virtues of prolific passers, turn to Drew Brees and his six touchdown passes and Tony Romo and his spectacular day without Terrell Owens. The new Favre is about pitching in, helping out when necessary, passing for 80 yards in a dozen completions of five yards or less and not screwing up what looks like the NFC's premier team.

"It wasn't a 400-yard passing game, but it doesn't have to be," Favre said. "As long as we win, that's what it's all about."

He is smart enough to realize that any championship equation starts with Peterson. On a warm day, he cut his arm in the first half, and the double whammy required him to take intravenous fluids at halftime. After scoring a touchdown early in the third quarter, the cut came open and left him a bloody mess. He ran off the field and collapsed into the arms of a trainer, who made sure the bandage stayed on. After all, there is no more valuable commodity in pro football than the back who could gain 2,000 yards any given season if Childress gets him enough touches.

"I gagged myself a couple times trying to get everything in my stomach out,'' Peterson said. "Normally, it makes me feel better and it did. I came in and got an IV and felt recharged and rejuvenated and was ready to go."

As long as the Vikings are winning, Favre's presence will be tolerated and even celebrated in their locker room. The question is what happens if he plummets into his trademark late-season ruts, such as when he threw nine interceptions in his final five games with the New York Jets and missed the playoffs. When he looked shaky in his first game action of the preseason, a report said there was a "schism" among Vikings players divided on whether Favre should playing ahead of Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenthals. He helped himself significantly last week when he asked Childress if he could address the team for 10 minutes, explaining precisely why he returned and why he waffled so long while his future teammates were toiling and sweating in training camp.

"I think the guys from within the last three weeks have gotten a pretty good judge about what type of guy I am, what type of player I am," Favre said. "Chemistry is so important. I don't care how good of a player I may be or the next guy may be. Being on the same page, the unit that plays more as one as opposed to a bunch of individuals is the one that succeeds. You can't coach chemistry. You can't fake it.

"You have to believe in one another and that is ongoing. This is a good group of guys; it really is. As I told them, I am honored to be a part of this team. I said I was very fortunate to play on a team that won the Super Bowl back in 1996, and this team is as talented. This team has to believe it which I think we do.

"At 39 years old, as I looked out into the room I saw a lot of me out there, at 21, at 28, at 32, whatever. I can just think back onto my career about the different stages I went through and all of the teammates I've played with and just the way that you think. As we all have gotten older, you think differently. You look at things a lot differently than you did as a younger person. I just wanted to kind of address it that way, not that it is going to give us three more wins or three more losses. I just wanted to be genuine and have the guys know where I stood."

Any doubters were converted. "He pretty much answered everybody's questions," said tight end Visanthe Shiancoe, another dangerous weapon that Favre must utilize. "He cleaned up everybody's wonders."


"I was impressed," cornerback Antoine Winfield said. "He got up there talking about his No. 1 goal was to come here and help us win. As a team, our No. 1 goal is to win a championship. He seems like he's focused on that. He's just trying to fit in. We've welcomed him with open arms. A lot of guys respect him."

In the big picture, the issue is taking care of the ball. Favre did just that, though he did so on a perfect afternoon in September. In contrast, his young counterpart, Cleveland's Brady Quinn, did not.

Looking like a rookie, Quinn watched a ball slip out of his hands and drop behind him. It's clear Mangini doesn't trust him with much more than dump passes, and I'd advise the so-called Mangenius to keep the Derek Anderson option open. "I didn't take care of the ball like I needed to," Quinn said. "It's going to hurt you in the end. The one ball that slipped out, I was trying to make a play."

You wonder what life will be like if Favre flubs down the stretch like last year. And, closer to the point, what if he gets hurt? He was punished and sacked Sunday by a surprisingly energetic Browns defense, and he is quick to point out that his body is the football version of Humpty Dumpty's. The Jets acknowledged last week that they were aware of his serious arm injury late last season but didn't report it as such, as required by league rules, on the weekly injury report. Is he doomed to another crippling injury that leads to uneven play? What should the expectations be, anyway, for a man who would be the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl if it indeed happened? Didn't Favre say he wouldn't be shocked if his Ironman streak, now at 270 regular-season starts, ends sometime soon?

"I would be the first to admit, I don't think I am capable to make some of the plays I used to make," he said. "My mind might tell me I can, but I don't know physically if I can do that. Understanding my limitations, how it pertains to what we are trying to do is all a part of this process. All I want to do is win; that is all I came back for.

"There is nothing like it."

In the end, he knows he can't simply hand the ball to Peterson.

"I have heard all along, 'You don't have to do much; we have a great running game,'" Favre said. "We all know that, but there will always come a time when you need to make plays. You have to do certain things that you may not have to do on a consistent basis."

Translation: Eventually, he'll have to repay Adrian Peterson by winning some games. For now, Favre is another witness to greatness, not unlike a certain LeBron James who, for a change, watched an athlete as grand as he is from a stadium suite.