The Favre Saga Continues…

A lot of eyes are on Minnesota’s #4, Brett Favre, who returned for another year with the Vikings after 3 teammates Steve Hutchinson, Jared Allen and Ryan Longwell paid a visit to him at his home recently.

The three men flew to Mississippi to beg the nearly 41 year old into coming back for one more year. After an overnight stay and several hours of talking, Favre said, “OK. Let’s do it.”

Favre is just coming off his third ankle surgery and he is already taking lubricant injections to relieve the pain.

Fans in Jacksonville and Charlotte had something to cheer about when the NFL decided to expand its roster of teams for the 1995 season. Of course, there were no expectations on either the Jaguars or the Panthers when that first season got underway, since expansion franchises are not something that get built overnight. Indeed, the quest for talent, sound coaching, and fan support are things that often take years for any new team to achieve. A quarterback choice made by the Jaguars prior to the first season turned out to shorten their time frame for initial success considerably.

Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys had their way with the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Their reward: the NFC East title and the challenge of trying to do it again.

Romo threw a pair of early touchdown passes and the defense took over from there, sending Dallas to a 24-0 victory over Philadelphia on Sunday and setting up a rematch at their new palace next weekend.

? RAVENS 21, RAIDERS 13: At Oakland, Calif., Willis McGahee ran for a career-high 167 yards and three touchdowns and the Ravens clinched an AFC wild-card berth.

Minnesota Vikings’ running back Adrian Peterson broke a team record this Sunday with 14 TD’s this season.  He ran for 97 yards and 2 touch downs against the Bengals.

 
Longtime Minnesota Vikings fans share a sense of dread with Chicago Cubs fans. They have been disappointed before, by four Super Bowl losses in the 1970s, and more recently by National Football Conference championship game defeats in the 1998 and 2000 seasons. And no matter how promising things look (Brett Favre, anybody?), disaster seems to threaten around every corner.

Chris Johnson, the incredible Tennessee Titans running back dashing at a 2,000-yard pace, doesn’t have a chance.

Neither does Philip Rivers, the puckish San Diego Chargers quarterback who has led his team on a seven-game winning streak, rendering irrelevant its 2-3 start.

Even Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre, the ancient miracle man of the frozen North, is finding it difficult to compete with the two beasts devouring the rest of the NFL.

With the season officially entering its fourth quarter, though, we shouldn’t dismiss Favre.

The Green Bay Packers soundly defeated the Baltimore Ravens 24-17 on a frigid Monday night at Lambeau Field.

Wind chills nearly dipped into the single digits, while the air temperature was a balmy 22 degrees for a lot of the night.

But the weather was not the real story of the night. No.

Tonight’s headline should be the penalties.

The Packers and Ravens combined for 310 penalty yards on the night, which is tied for second most in NFL history.

Baltimore had 12 penalties for a total of 135 yards, while The Packers had one fewer flag, but were penalized for 175 yards.

When it comes to ageless NFL players, Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre keeps blowing candles off the proverbial cake with ease.

At 40, the three-time league MVP is putting together a career year for the 10-1 Vikings. And on Sunday, Favre will break Jim Marshall’s league record by playing in his 283rd consecutive game, most for a position player.

So much is made of football being a young man’s game with the annual influx of draft talent. The Colts entered the season as the league’s second-youngest team with an average age of 25.9.

The Minnesota Vikings’ decision to facilitate Brett Favre’s latest ‘unretirement’ is looking better and better with each passing week. This past Sunday, Favre’s charges moved to 6-0 on the season with a wild 33-31 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens posted 21 fourth quarter points to charge back and claim the lead late, but Favre led a rally to set up place kicker Ryan Longwell’s 31 yard game winning field goal. Baltimore evened their record at 3-3 on the season with the loss.

New York Jets rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez has been a crucial factor in the teams 2-0 start, showing a poise and head for the game very rare for NFL newcomers. Still, there wasn’t much worry at the revelation that hes suffering from tendinitis in his right knee. The Jets announced Sanchez’s injury on Thursday, and hes listed as probable on the official NFL injury report. Based on comments from the quarterback and team officials, the prognosis sounds more optimistic than that.

Brett Favre may get all of the headlines for the Minnesota Vikings, but NFL insiders are well aware that running back Adrian Peterson is the key to the teams offensive success. Peterson’s threat alone is enough to open up options for the passing game. He’s definitely more than a decoy, however–after winning the NFL rushing title last year hes already off to a great start with 272 yards and four touchdowns in only two games.