Brett Favre *Update*

How sweet it would be for Mr. Packer to end his career wearing a Minnesota Viking uniform. Unfortunately, as the Favre Saga continues, the less likely it looks that he will end up wearing a Viking uniform and end his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Taking a look at it from the Green Bay Packers seat, I can see why it is so hard to let him go to a different team. They wanted him to retire a Green Bay Packer and not "tarnish the legacy." However, you have to look at this strictly from a future perspective. The Packers have three realistic options: Start him, Trade him to the Vikings, Trade him Elsewhere.

• If you start him, you're basically throwing Aaron Rodgers away. They've said that Rodgers is the future and good for them for sticking true to it. But you have to realize that Rodgers won't be able to become the next Tom Brady (in which Brady took over for Drew Bledsoe). If you think that Favre is done and can't compete, you have to trade him for the best you can get.

• Which brings us to the Vikings. I have little to no question that the Minnesota Vikings are offering the best trade for the Packers. If you don't think he is good enough to play at a top level, you need to get what you can get for him. On the flip side, if he's still good enough to play at a high level...you have to start him. It's definitely a huge problem for the Packers.

• Trading him elsewhere is probably the best option for the Packers. You lose him and don't play him as often as the Vikings. Problem is, he's still playing somewhere. You still have the fans that will compare his stats. Trading him to the Vikings, you at least have the fans that will continue to hate the Vikings and will forget about Favre or refuse to compare numbers as then they're complementing the Vikings.

In the end, the Packers are backed into a corner. Brett Favre has had the upper hand since the very beginning of this whole debacle. As a Viking fan, it is wonderful to see because whatever happens, the Packers are in major turmoil. It's only icing on the cake if the Vikings landed Favre.

Prediction: Favre ends up playing one year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before landing somewhere else.
Bet on It: Favre gets traded the the TB Buccaneers and then is flipped to the Minnesota Vikings. 30:1

UPDATE: My predictions land at 0-1. Favre has been traded to the New York Jets for a 4th round draft pick. Here's hoping that there isn't a clause that prevents the Jets from flipping him to the Vikings for a 2nd or 3rd round draft pick.

Minnesota Coaches

I'll start this post by saying that I don't typically follow other teams coaching positions. I say this because it seems that Minnesota team coaches are in a class of their own. This doesn't mean that they are better or worse than other coaches, they are just held to a much different standard. Yes, the fans want the coaches and their teams to perform, but it just seems different than a coach in New York.

Let's just do a quick comparison before I dig into the individual coaches since the calendar rolled into 2000.
League: Team - Coaches (Winning seasons)
MLB: Twins - 2 (7). Yankees - 2 (8). Mets - 4 (6)
NFL: Vikings - 3 (3). Giants - 2 (4). Jets - 3 (5)
NBA: Timberwolves - 4 (5). Knicks - 7 (1)
NHL: Wild - 1 (5). Rangers - 4 (3). Islanders - 8 (4)

Minnesota teams have had 10 different coaches in the four sports since 2000. That is an average of less than 3 coaches per team. New York coaches have had 30 different coaches since 2000. That is an average of over 4 coaches per team (this doesn't include New Jersey teams either).

Those 10 coaches that Minnesota has had have led us to 20 winning seasons. That is 2 winning season per coach. New York coaches have led them to 31 winning seasons since 2000. That is about one per coach. Just looking at teams, Minnesota teams have averaged 5 winning seasons each since 2000. New York teams have averaged 4.5 winning seasons since 2000.

Now, my point that Minnesota coaches are in a different class is that we have so very few turnover when it comes to coaches. The Timberwolves are quite different compared to the Wild, Twins and even the Vikings. But even they're coaches have had decent job security. Compare any Minnesota team to how the Mets handled Willie Randolph and you can see that Minnesota is much more forgiving of their coaches.

So, onto current Minnesota coaches:
Number One
NHL - Jacque Lemaire (right)
• I don't think you can say enough about Mr. Lemaire. He has developed a team that has the potential to be a perenial post-season team. He, like Gardenhire, desires players that love to play the game. He wants the guys that work hard and the team responds. The team has one of the top hockey players in Marian Gaborik, but like Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer and Johan Santana* he doesn't seek the spotlight. He embraces his role on the team and plays hard. Lemaire has one of the brightest minds of all the Minnesota coaches and I see this when I watch the the Wild on television. He knows what he is doing.

Number Two
MLB - Ron Gardenhire (right)
• Ron Gardenhire has taken Tom Kelly's legacy and continued it's tradition. Under Tom Kelly, the Twins didn't have a prototypical national superstar. From Puckett to Morneau/Mauer/Santana*, this team has never had it's Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Randy Moss attention seeking superstar. I love how Gardenhire praises those that work hard. I want the team to win, and they have done that with very little. You can't blame Gardenhire for decisions like Livan Hernandez, Tony Batista, Fransisco Liriano or more. Gardenhire does more with what he is given than any other manager in baseball. His excitement for the game, to me, comes close to overshadowing his occassional ineptness.

Number Three
NBA - Randy Wittman (right)
• I don't have much to say about Randy Wittman other than what we saw last year was embarrassing. But, I continue to go back to blaming not Randy Wittman but Kevin McHale. From the Kevin Garnett trade to Ndudi Ebi to Joe Smith to firing of Flip Sanders to the last several drafts, Kevin McHale has put this franchise at a complete disadvantage year after year. I said it earlier with Gardenhire, I think it applies to Wittman also, but Wittman has done his best with what he's been given.

Number Four
NFL - Brad Childress (right)
• This year is the make-or-break year for Brad Childress. I've hated him the last two seasons. I think he has hurt the team more than helped the team. While I can blame upper management for the Timberwolves and the Twins, I can't do the same for the Vikings. With the excitement this year, Childress MUST break 10 wins for this year to be a success - in my eyes. A playoff berth will be nice, but if this team fails to win 10 games, it will have been a poor regular season.

Top 12 Historical Coaches (since I've been alive):
01. Jacque Lemaire
02. Tom Kelly (right)
03. Bud Grant (technically coached in 1985, though he loses a few notches because he was more of a stop gap)
04. Flip Sanders
05. Ron Gardenhire
06. Dennis Green
07. Randy Wittman
08. Jerry Burns
09. Mike Tice
10. Brad Childress (barring a good 2008)
11. Dwane Casey

* I know Santana is no longer with the team. When he was here, he didn't fit the superstar mold.

Brett Favre

How sweet it would be for Mr. Packer to end his career wearing a Minnesota Viking uniform. Unfortunately, as the Favre Saga continues, the less likely it looks that he will end up wearing a Viking uniform and end his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Taking a look at it from the Green Bay Packers seat, I can see why it is so hard to let him go to a different team. They wanted him to retire a Green Bay Packer and not "tarnish the legacy." However, you have to look at this strictly from a future perspective. The Packers have three realistic options: Start him, Trade him to the Vikings, Trade him Elsewhere.

• If you start him, you're basically throwing Aaron Rodgers away. They've said that Rodgers is the future and good for them for sticking true to it. But you have to realize that Rodgers won't be able to become the next Tom Brady (in which Brady took over for Drew Bledsoe). If you think that Favre is done and can't compete, you have to trade him for the best you can get.

• Which brings us to the Vikings. I have little to no question that the Minnesota Vikings are offering the best trade for the Packers. If you don't think he is good enough to play at a top level, you need to get what you can get for him. On the flip side, if he's still good enough to play at a high level...you have to start him. It's definitely a huge problem for the Packers.

• Trading him elsewhere is probably the best option for the Packers. You lose him and don't play him as often as the Vikings. Problem is, he's still playing somewhere. You still have the fans that will compare his stats. Trading him to the Vikings, you at least have the fans that will continue to hate the Vikings and will forget about Favre or refuse to compare numbers as then they're complementing the Vikings.

In the end, the Packers are backed into a corner. Brett Favre has had the upper hand since the very beginning of this whole debacle. As a Viking fan, it is wonderful to see because whatever happens, the Packers are in major turmoil. It's only icing on the cake if the Vikings landed Favre.

Prediction: Favre ends up playing one year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before landing somewhere else.
Bet on It: Favre gets traded the the TB Buccaneers and then is flipped to the Minnesota Vikings. 30:1