12/29/08 Brett Favre sidebar for the Palm Beach Post
Jets' Brett Favre will take time to decide his future
Special to The Palm Beach Post
Sunday, December 28, 2008
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Brett Favre slowly picked himself up off the Meadowlands Field Turf. The certain Hall of Famer shook his right arm, trying to get some feeling back into it.
He had just thrown a ball that was intercepted by Phillip Merling and, as the only Jet between the defensive end and the end zone, Favre attempted to make a tackle. Instead, Merling swatted Favre to the ground, where he lay watching the Dolphins' defense celebrate their rookie teammate's first professional touchdown.
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There were brief glimpses of the old Favre on Sunday, but mostly, as has been the case for much of the season, there were many instances of an old Favre in the Jets' 24-17 loss to the Dolphins.
In what very well may be his last game in the NFL, Favre finished 20-of-40 for 233 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions. At halftime, Ronnie Brown (39.6) had a better quarterback rating than did Favre (37.1). Brown had thrown one pass, an incompletion. Favre had misfired on 13 of 22 passes and had been intercepted twice - including Merling's score.
"That was a tough way to go out," sympathized Dolphins' defensive tackle Vonnie Holliday, who was a teammate of Favre in Green Bay. "This is brutal, especially when you're in New York. "I don't know what's going to happen but he's in a tough situation."
In the Jets' final five games - four of which were losses - Favre threw just two touchdown passes and nine interceptions.
During his weekly news conference Wednesday, Favre suggested that an injured throwing shoulder and an accumulation of injuries during his 18-year career may force him to retire once again. After the game, Favre said that he will have an MRI today and that the shoulder has "been better. You can say that."
He went on to say that he was going to take a week to decide if he is going to return and that he will speak with Jets coach Eric Mangini, General Manager Mike Tannenbaum and owner Woody Johnson.
To a man, the Jets want him to return for a 19th season.
"It was definitely an honor," said running back Leon Washington, who played at Florida State. "I learned a lot from him; I learned how to play the game of football. I was very fortunate and at least I caught a touchdown ball from him. I'm going to keep that."
Favre's immediate future was not the only thing the Jets were unaware of Sunday afternoon. The Meadowlands scoreboard did not update the results of the Jacksonville-Baltimore game - won by the Ravens - that officially eliminated the Jets.
"No, we weren't aware of the Ravens' score," Mangini said tersely. "(I wasn't aware) until (a reporter) just told me. I didn't know the score and didn't want to know the score."
Mangini said that he and Favre have not talked about the quarterback's return. He also said that Favre did not tell him if he was injured on the Merling play.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/dolphins/content/sports/epaper/2008/12/28/1228favre.html
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 11:44 PM
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