Letters to the Editor
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SOTY
Brett Favre?
WTF?
Was Cal Ripken too busy or something...
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Yea Farve Indeed
So far as basically meaningless (not to mention commercially driven) awards go, Farve is the best fit for this award. He embodies more self-effacing class than most pro athletes and serves as a tremendous example as one of the all time greatest career football players. I can't think of a pro-athlete today who is recognized by as many people and is basically as well thought of as Brett Farve. This seasons performance certainly has been worth the while, and watching these kinds of records fall and knowing that Farve played a clean game, makes it worth taking notice. Sometimes things just make sense and this is a no brainer.
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Roger Federer and Tiger Woods and SI's strange love for bicyclists
You know what's weird King? Two cyclists have been Sportsman of the Year. Nearly as many cyclists as QBs. Greg LeMond won it after he got shot. Lance has been on the cover so many times for winning that bike race I half expected them to give it to him this year for completing the NY marathon and hooking up with one of the Oslen Twins.
As for Tiger and Roger, those two new best buds should tie for Sportsman of the Year. THAT is a no-brainer. What those two athletes achieved this year is mind-boggling. They approach perfection in two sports that are frustratingly hard to master. You would have to actually watch them play on a consistent basis to see how brilliant they are in the most clutch, pressure situations. Roger just does everything well. This is a man who can beat you with serve and volley, or with groundstrokes, or with just serve, and with his brain and with his legs. On every surface. And he does all of it with no coach and no entourage, in an era when pro athletes are surrounded with hangers-on and specialists who ensure that the athlete has all of his off-field needs met without lifting a finger.
I'm not a golf fan but I can appreciate the brilliance that is Tiger Woods. I don't think golfers generally are athletes; but Tiger is definitely an athlete. I also think Woods is playing the role of Ivan Lendl on the golf tour by taking physical fitness to a new level. (Except in the pre-Lendl era players weren't fat blobs like they were in golf).
One reason Tiger and Roger connected as friends is because they can relate to the pressure of being no. 1 for 52 weeks a year and the incredible commitment that entails. Tennis and golf don't end after a four month season. Roger and Tiger almost never bomb out in the early rounds or miss the cut--do you know how hard it is to do that for an extended period of time? The tours play for about 44 weeks a year. To be the hunted is more difficult than being the hunter; it's like being the Patriots with a much longer winning streak.
Add to that the fact that they do it with class and dignity and it's hard for me to find a reason they would finish well behind Favre.
Except for the fact that this magazine is in the business of selling magazines. And it's also on the verge of being irrelevant.
I like Favre. All football fans do. And yet... I think he's overrated, before his sudden renaissance in 07, he was a terrible quarterback in 05 and 06. What's more, he acted like a whiny prima dona for three years, griping, retiring, unretiring, a total Roger-Clemens-Drama-Queen. I think it's great that Brett conquered, we presume, his booze and pill demons. But I firmly believe he's gotten a pass on that issue in a way that athletes of color and women never, ever do. So I take the he's-a-swell-guy claims with a tiny grain of salt.
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One More Thing
SI is now officially the magazine of Fan Boys.
Brett Favre only played 10 or 11 games this year to get this "honor"? Bogus. I suppose we'll have a similar discussion after Tim "Missionary Position" Tebow wins the Heisman over more deserving players like Brennan and McFadden, since Tebow's back story is more interesting to the media.
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What's the mystery?
Just like Dean Smith ten years ago, Brett Favre in 2007 represents the confluence of (1) a legendary career (2) reaching its end (3) with arguably his best season ever (4) as he shatters a major all-time career record (or, in Favre's case, more than one). How could SI resist that combination?
It's one thing if you have to choose between a lifetime achievement award and recognizing a player or coach having an epic season. But if you can do both at once, why wouldn't you?
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What?
"I suppose we'll have a similar discussion after Tim "Missionary Position" Tebow wins the Heisman over more deserving players like Brennan and McFadden, since Tebow's back story is more interesting to the media."
That doesn't even make sense.
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Puzzling
It's definitely a puzzling choice when you consider that, each of the last few seasons, Favre has jerked around the Green Bay Packers and their fans, holding them hostage while he and the media do their pointless "will he or won't he" dance.
"Embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement"? Give me a break.
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2 Things, both OT
First, I think "shtick" should be "schtick", but I am willing to be persuaded.
Second, as regards the ongoing European Curling Championships...Go Denmark! (Much as I hate to root against my "home" team, Germany).
Finally, I wish I could watch enough American football to have a real opinion on the Brett Favre thing, but my perspective from across the pond is similar to what has been written above. There are much more dominant sportspeople currently active in their sports. And what would be so wrong with a lifetime achievement award to go along with the SOTY? Do both in one issue, and please both the old- and new-school crowds.
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Comeback of the Year
There are obviously better choices for an all-around 'sportsman of the year,' but Favre is the best story. Aside from all of the obvious flattery he has earned for his work ethic, toughness, etc., Favre started the year as a guy most observers of the game thought was joking himself. His legendary years were long behind him, and the previous three seasons were pretty much embarrassing. Even Packers fans were quietly grumbling that maybe it was time for ol' Brett to give the new kid a shot and let the team start getting used to a future without him. Talk radio was abuzz with discussions about whether or not a relatively new coach had the guts to bench a beloved former MVP. In any other town (Philadelphia, for example), Favre would have been hailed with boos just for showing up under center on the first game of the season.
Favre responded with the kind of swan-song season no one (probably including himself) imagined he was capable of. It's like a football version of 'The Natural' (the movie, of course). You just don't want it to end (unless you're a Bears fan).
Maybe it's the wrong award, but Favre is the year's best story.