ESPN Never Lets Facts Get In The Way Of A Bad Story

Here is yet another example of horrendous sports reporting, once again courtesy of ESPN.com.

Keeping in mind that Tim Graham wishes to convince us that the Jets’ acquisition of Brett Favre was “an utter failure”, let’s run down the inaccuracies and obfuscations in bullet-point style, just as the author does:

● The acquisition of Brett Favre was finalized on August 6, 2008. The acquisitions of Alan Faneca, Damien Woody, Tony Richardson, Calvin Pace and Kris Jenkins took place on March 1, March 2, March 6, March 3, and February 29, 2008, respectively. I don’t see how five players who predated Favre on the roster – all by no less than five months – can be attributed as “consequences of the decision to bring Favre aboard.” That’s what I call a fuzzy timeline!
● In 2007, the Jets top two quarterbacks (Chad Pennington/Kellen Clemens) combined for 19 interceptions in 309 pass attempts. Favre threw two more interceptions in 2008 than the 2007 Jets duo in 213 more attempts. Perspective is important sometimes.
● The defense gave up an average of 24.4 points a game in those final five games (DEN, SF, BUF, SEA, MIA). According to their ranks among all 32 NFL teams in total offense and points scored, these five opponents were ranked an average of 18th and 21st, respectively, in those two categories. You can blame Favre all you want, but he can’t control what happened to a defense that couldn’t stop some of the NFL’s weaker offenses.
● Hindsight much? Chad Pennington had an incredible season for the much-improved Miami Dolphins. But to expect that same season from Pennington in New York had he not been cut would’ve represented nothing short of wishful thinking. You can’t just transplant statistics from one team to another.
● The fact that people lost their jobs is totally irrelevant. Eric Mangini’s firing had as much to do with his previous work and his personality as it had to do with the Jets’ acquisition of Favre. Furthermore, his safe landing in Cleveland is even less salient a point in the current discussion.
● I won’t even address this feeble attempt at humor.
● Injuries happen. Chad Pennington would tell you that too…
● I can’t speak to the tension Favre may or may not have created in the Jets locker room. But you can’t argue that point and then cite Thomas Jones’s public criticism of Favre as evidence of Favre’s having created tension. Wouldn’t that be Thomas Jones creating tension in this case?
● Is a third-round draft pick that steep a cost for one season of Brett Favre?

Please note that this post is not intended to exonerate Brett Favre for his role in the Jets collapse down the stretch. Certainly, the Jets’ inability to make the playoffs after such a good start to the season was embarrassing to the franchise and a collective failure on the parts of all 53 players, their coaches, and everyone else involved. But to somehow label the acquisition of Favre as a failure for the reasons cited makes no sense to me. The end result didn’t work out but the decision to bring him to New York – for what amounted to be only a third round pick – seems not only defensible to me, but absolutely the right move to have made.

My dislike of Favre is well known. But I can’t stand sloppy reporting. I won’t tolerate assholes at ESPN spinning stories and fudging information to prove a point.