With Favre on track, the Pack will be back

Sporting News, The, June 13, 1994 by Bob Glauber

So you think the NFC Central race will be decided in late December, with the Lions, Packers and Vikings fighting it out in the frigid upper Midwest. Think again.

In all likelihood, the division will be decided this week or, if not then, a few weeks hence. That's when Packers quarterback Brett Favre will sign his new contract -- probably a five-year deal worth around $20 million -- and that's when you can pencil in Green Bay as your division winner.

Favre's agent, Bus Cook, and Packers Chief Financial Officer Mike Reinfeldt were scheduled to meet this week to nail down final details of the deal, which would keep Favre in a Packers uniform until at least 1998. And as long as the two sides can agree to the contract -- thus avoiding a potentially destructive training-camp holdout -- we say it's Green Bay that will walk off with its first NFC Central title since 1972.

Favre is clearly the biggest factor in that equation, and not simply because of the rampant quarterback turnover in the division. If Trent Dilfer starts for the Bucs, it means that every starting quarterback in the division except Favre was somewhere else last season. So, the continuity the Packers enjoy under Favre is an important advantage.

But Favre is going to have to do more than simply show up in 1994 and collect his big check for Green Bay to win. He's going to have to prove he's more like the kid who swept a town off its feet in '92 with a remarkable series of comebacks, as opposed to the erratic passer whose performance in 1993 earned him the nickname "Wild Thing."

"I think (Favre) is a vital park of our football team," Packers General Manager Ron Wolf says. "It's very evident that he's been the best quarterback within our division through the last two years. Now, we get a newcomer in Warren Moon (in Minnesota), so maybe (it's) tough to say that now. But the last two years, (Favre has) been the best, and I see no reason to believe he won't continue to be."

Actually, being the best quarterback in the NFC Central hasn't been to difficult. Last year, for instance, the Lions went through three quarters before unloading them all as free agents. The Bears dumped Jim Harbaugh into the free-agent market, and the Vikings did the same with Jim McMahon. The Bucs expressed their confidence in Craig Erickson by drafting Dilfer.

Favre wasn't what you would call infallible last year, through. Infuriating was more like it. After a superb effort in 1992, when he replaced injured Don Majkowski and nearly got the Packers into the playoffs, Favre was a different quarterback in '93. He threw 24 interceptions, including four in a horrible performance in the season finale at Detroit that cost Green Bay a chance at the division title.

But remember, too, that it was Favre's desperation touchdown heave in the final minute to Sterling Sharpe that beat the Lions, 28-24, in an NFC wild-card game and gave Green Bay its first playoff victory since the strike-shortened 1982 season.

The Packers are going to need more of that magic from Favre this year, and he can't afford to make the kinds of mistakes down the stretch that cost Green Bay the division title last season. But to all those Favre naysayers in and around Green Bay -- many of whom jumped off his bandwagon as quickly as they had hopped on a year earlier -- we say 1993 represented nothing more than the usual growing pains in a developing quarterback.

"You can make a stat do whatever you want to make it," Wolf says. "I choose to believe that he's a talent who's going to improve and get better."

And there is plenty of historical precedent for Wolf's contention. You might recall that Joe Montana didn't win a Super Bowl until his third year with the 49ers, and Terry Bradshaw didn't win a title until his fifth season with the Steelers.

That's not to say Favre is ready to win a championship just yet. But we do say that of all the NFC Central teams, the Packers have the best change to get there first. And Favre will take the next step in 1994 with his first division title.

Buddy ball

Love him or hate him, you certainly have to admire Buddy Ryan's negotiating style. The Cardinal's coach/general manager needed to free up some salary-cap money, so he asked wide receiver Gary Clark to take a 30 percent paycut. The choice was clear as Ryan declared, "You can take a 30 percent cut or a 100 percent cut."

In other words, Clark could either agree to make $945,000 with Arizona this season or look for work elsewhere. Late last week, Clark agreed to stay.

Ryan hopes safety Chuck Cecil, who was waived last Thursday along with safety John Booty, will consider a similar arrangement. Somehow, you get the idea the hard-hitting Cecil will stick with Ryan.

And somehow you get the idea Ryan's Cardinals are going to make things mighty interesting in the NFC East.

X marks the spot

To every NFL player who signed a big, fat contract in the offseason: Enjoy it now, because you might not be around much longer.

"The guys making the most money now pretty much have targets on their backs," Giants General Manager George Young says. "If you don't play up to the money, you're not going to be around very long."