I thought it appropriate to pass on this story in anticipation of tonight’s season-opening (finally!) tilt between Brett Favre’s Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints.
Some of you may well be pulling for the old gray mare. I, of course, will be pulling for him to get killed (although slightly less so than usual, since I had to draft him on one of my fantasy teams and have $500 riding on his shriveled ass — funny how that works).
The Saints will be employing the same tactic they used to beat Favre and the Vikings in last season’s NFC Championship game — hit Favre repeatedly.
Prior to said championship game, Saints coach Sean Payton told his players, in what was described as one of his more memorable speeches, that hitting Favre repeatedly would eventually cause him to make a mistake. Favre proved Payton right when he threw the game and the Vikings season away on an ill-advised across-his-body toss that was intercepted by Tracy Porter.
Several Saints players have said Payton’s pregame message not only gave them clarity, but inspired them. That message — Favre is an old man in the rain.
“When you get older in life, you tend to get very careful, and a little more fearful,” Payton said, according to players and staffers who were there. “You start thinking about your own mortality. If it rains outside you might not go to the store, especially at night. You figure you’ll just wait it out. You might have somewhere to go and you tell yourself I don’t want to go there. You don’t want to get in a wreck.
“If you keep hitting him (on Sunday) he’ll make a mistake. If we keep putting pressure on him (Sunday night) he’ll start being careful, he’ll start doing anything he can to avoid getting hit and he’ll make a mistake. I promise you, if we hit him for four quarters, he’ll turn into that old man who’s scared of the rain.”
And so he did and we all rejoiced and maybe kicked a stupid-ass, Super Bowl-less Vikings fan while they were down.
Tonight’s rematch isn’t nearly as big, but it will be interesting to see if the same scenario plays out. Kickoff is at 7:30 CT.
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Hey Monty, Look forward to having you on the show tonight. Let your readers know to tune in while Brett Favre is getting beat up (hopefully).
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cheeseheadradio/2010/09/10/cheesehead-radio
Wow. Bad time to remind people that we could have had this Payton as our coach? Or Gregg Williams for that matter?
Guy from North Dakota and former Vikings fan sitting next to me at Ocean Diner, ‘The Vikings have a shot tonight. . . You know since it’s not an important game.’ Priceless.
And yeah. . . sucks that we got big-head instead of Payton. McCarthy provides nothing in the way of emotion and toughness. It’s his style but i dig Payton’s fire.
Personally I agree with you Chitter. A coaches personality rubs off on a team. If your tough, emotional, and walk the walk so will your team. If your fat, mild mannered, and have the emotions of a robot so will your team.
emotions are a two way street, though. You need that short term amnesia to go line up and play the next down without feeling sorry for yourself. I mean if you’re riding the emotional roller coaster, there downs are way down. That’s not necessarily good.
I like Payton as a coach. I think he does a great job.
MM and TT’s approach is to draft and promote from within. To do that, you have to have good teacher coaches that bring the guys along and get them ready to play. That we’ve been competitive since MM has been here, with the exception of 6-10, tells you that they’re doing the job and following that philosophy. Personally, I think a key vetran here or there could put us over the top – just like in Seattle the year after TT left.
As for this post, Favre was the old man in the cold and snow against NYG. Payton is astute to call him on this and design a game plan around that.
MONTY I read your posts because I hate that sheep f++cking hillbilly Jared Allen, the Dumb-ass #24 on the pack that I refuse to mention his name, and old brent whats his name. But I can’t believe you sold your soul for a $500 fantacy league. Trade Brent now an assume back a little dignity
BrINT looked like shit last night, hardly worth the raise..man I was smiling last night as brett bumble fucked through the game…guess training camp is important.
c’mon Matt….still think training camp is not for a guy who’s played for 20 years? There was a LOT of rust. There was no timing with his receivers.
Given what I’ve read of the Vikings secondary, I thought they held up pretty well against a dangerous Saints offense.
the saints receivers also had a lot of dropped balls that should have been caught…
The queens defense looked good, I hope Rodgers is buried in that tape at some point.
That’s pretty damn funny.