Favre finds feet with Jets

By Haydn Parry
Producer, BBC Five Live Sport

Favre calls the shots behind the Jets offensive line

"We're not in Green Bay any more, Toto" quipped one of the New York sportswriters in the Meadowlands press box, to guffaws around him.

Brett Favre, newly installed as quarterback for the New York Jets, was taking his first snap of the pre-season game against the NY Giants and it just didn't look right to many observers.

The legendary Favre holds almost every throwing record that matters in the NFL after his 16 seasons with Green Bay and for many, it was meant to end there.

An emotional announcement at the end of the last campaign signalled his retirement from the game - or so we all thought.

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Yet here we are in pre-season, with Favre back in a green uniform, but for another franchise, and with both the media and supporters wondering if he has made the right choice by extending his illustrious career with the Jets after all those years in Wisconsin.

The crowd in the stadium for the Giants game made for a confused mix, with plenty of Green Bay fans making up the numbers in something of a sporting pilgrimage to New Jersey.

"I'm a Packers fan, sure - but I'm a Brett Favre fan first of all," one woman from Wisconsin, sporting in the famous number four shirt, told me.

Now it's 'Brett the Jet', as the t-shirts they sell outside the Meadowlands would have it.

And in a tepid match-up with the Giants, co-habitees in an ageing and soon to be replaced stadium, Favre's performance and figures suggested he can still cut it in the NFL.

In only his second pre-season start for the Jets, he threw nine completions from 12 passes for 96 yards in an efficient first-half display, despite the fact that he is still learning a whole new playbook.

Favre's deal with the Jets was confirmed earlier this month

His stats would have been enhanced by a superb 49-yard pass for a touchdown to wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery if it had not been called back for an illegal formation by the Jets, one of sixteen penalties by both sides that ruined the game as a free-flowing spectacle.

Afterwards, Favre declared himself increasingly comfortable in the huddle with his new teammates and it is the New York Giants, who won Super Bowl XLII in February, who look like they have more homework to do before the start of the season proper.

With the Jets winning a lacklustre contest 10-7, the Giants offensive line leaked eight sacks in the face of a strong pass rush led by impressive free agent signing Calvin Pace.

They have lost two out of three pre-season games so far but far more troubling than defeat, was the sight of Osi Umenyiora, who had a team-high 13 sacks last season, being carted off the field with a knee injury.

The post-match confirmation that it was a season-ending 'lateral tear to the meniscus' was undoubtedly the last thing Giants coach Tom Coughlin wanted to hear.

Already, the Giants have contacted their former seven-time Pro Bowler Michael Strahan to see if he fancies a dramatic return from retirement - at that news, Brett Favre quipped that he could be "starting a new trend"!

'Brett the Jet' may take some getting used to this coming season but few would doubt his ability to work some more magic in the NFL for at least one more year.

Whether the Giants can repeat last year's post-season feats is probably a more difficult question to answer.