**If Tiger Woods could pay people to keep them quiet and it isn't against the law, Brett Favre should get out the checkbook. Favre could make up to $28 million this year ($8 million of last year's $12 million salary was deferred to 2010) with incentives. Roger Goodell and the NFL have no case if Jenn Sterger doesn't cooperate. If she doesn't confirm that Favre sent lewd pics to her cellphone and in some way sexually harassed her, this all blows over. So, what's it take? If I were her I'd be calling Favre's lawyers and saying $3.5 million gets it done. If he gets suspended for even two games that costs him about $1.5 million. Favre may be an idiot, but he's a rich idiot and he can't spend all that money on Wranglers, tractors and living in Mississippi. In the immortal words of Rasheed Wallace, CTC. Cut the check, Brett.**NFL records are apparently so insignificant I challenge you to find them on NFL.com. If you do, you be shocked at how poorly they're displayed. This is a much better site if you are interested, which I was last night after watching Favre pass another crazy milestone. I wanted to get some perspective, particularly with a suspension looming and an elbow injury possibly interrupting Favre's games started streak. Maybe I am beating the rush doing a short recap of Favre's career because I think he's going to get suspended, but his career has taken so many crazy turns the last three years, who knows. Here is what I found:
- Favre has started 289 straight games. Only five quarterbacks have regular season streaks of 100. His streak is the longest by a player at any position. Peyton Manning has started 197 straight, but from the moment Favre's streak stops he'll have to play about six more full seasons to catch him and he's 34 right now. Ron Jaworski (116), Tom Brady (111) and Joe Ferguson (107) are the other three to start more than 100 straight games. Eli Manning (92) and Phillip Rivers (69) have the other longest current streaks.
- Favre threw his 500th career TD pass to Randy Moss last night and also tossed two others to finish the evening with 502. I figured that Dan Marino or some other guys might be right around that number. Wrong. Marino is second with 420. John Elway is fifth at 300, Joe Montana ninth at 273 and Terry Bradshaw 24th at 212 (Bradshaw also threw 210 interceptions). Again Peyton Manning may eventually catch Favre. He currently stands third at 377. Here is the list.
- Favre, as expected, has a clear lead in interceptions. He's thrown 324. What is more interesting is that Kerry Collins, second on the active list, is all the way down at 29th on the career list with 188. Peyton Manning is 32nd with 183. Here is the list.
**I'm not sure which is more amazing, the Steelers having only three head coaches (Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin) since 1969 or the Packers having only two starting quarterbacks (Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers) since week 4, 1992. That first start by Favre, by the way, was a 17-3 win against the Steelers. The reason the comparison is particularly relevant is Aaron Rogers got a concussion on Green Bay's last offensive play Sunday against the Skins and is at best 50-50 to start on Sunday.
**The argument is often made that numbers and records in baseball are really important and in football they are not. I would argue that the steroid era combined with the distance from long-standing, 80-100 year old records has made baseball numbers meaningless as well. Yes, everyone knows Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs, but that a lot fewer know how many home runs Hank Aaron hit and fewer still know how many Barry Bonds hit. Career RBI leaders? Single-season hit leaders? Highest batting average ever? Cy Young's pitching wins? Those records have stood for a long time and people are more numbers crazy than ever because of fantasy sports leagues, but baseball's historical numbers are no longer on the average fan's radar.
