NFL

Broadway Brett Favre Becomes a New York Jet

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August 7, 2008
By JUDY BATTISTA
THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Jets, once the team of one of football’s most charismatic quarterbacks, now have another one. They acquired Brett Favre from the Green Bay Packers in a deal late Wednesday night that the Jets hope will ignite excitement for a team that struggles to remain in the headlines in the same city with the Giants and struggles for competitiveness in the same division as the New England Patriots.

“We just felt this was an opportunity to go get somebody of Brett’s stature and what he’s accomplished,” said Jets General Manager Mike Tannenbaum.

The terms of the trade were not announced, although it was believed to be for a fourth-round pick that, depending on Favre’s performance and the team’s results, could increase in value, all the way up to a first-round selection. The trade was first reported Wednesday night by FoxSports.com.

Quarterback Chad Pennington, a former first round draft pick, is loved and respected in the Jets’ locker room, but Tannenbaum said early Thursday morning that the Jets will part ways with him now that Favre is on board.

“It’s a bittersweet moment for us,” Tannenbaum said. “I have all the respect in the world for Chad as a person and as a player. He gave his heart and soul to this organization for a long, long time.”

Tannenbaum said that Favre had to be convinced to consider the Jets and that Favre talked directly to the Jets only in the last two days. Favre and his family favored the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where Favre knew Coach Jon Gruden and his offense, all the way up to the moment when the Jets made the deal. The extent of Favre’s commitment to the Jets remains a question.

“We’re going to take things one year at a time,” Tannenbaum said. “We’re excited to have Brett on the team for this year. This was a situation we were monitoring, and when we felt there was an opportunity, we felt it was the right thing to do to go after Brett.”

“Obviously there were some concerns,” Tannenbaum said. “He’s coming to a new city, he’s been in one system for 16 years, there’s not a lot of connection with Brett and our coaching staff. We were able to talk through moving to the northeast. We felt really good about it, and we’re excited that he’s with us.”

For Favre, the trade ends a protracted divorce from the Packers that captivated the N.F.L. and set Favre free from the team that he led to a Super Bowl title and for whom he had become an icon. Favre also won three Most Valuable Player awards in Green Bay, but when the Packers did not welcome him back after he reversed course on his retirement, Favre became the unexpected object of the Jets’ ardor. For weeks, the Jets were on the periphery of trade talks as Favre’s drama droned on. But Favre changes the image of a team that is often overlooked, bringing with him a glamour that has been absent from the franchise at least since Bill Parcells left after the 2000 season and star power that has not been present since Joe Namath took his fur coats and bad knees and went to Los Angeles in 1977 to finish his career. The Jets’ meeting against the Patriots in Week 2 instantly becomes more interesting.

“Brett has had a long and storied career in Green Bay, and the Packers owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude for everything he accomplished on the field and for the impact he made in the state,” Ted Thompson, the Packers’ general manager, and Mark Murphy, the team’s president, said in a joint statement. “It is with some sadness that we make this announcement, but also with the desire for certainty that will allow us to move the team and organization forward in the most positive way possible.”

The Jets underwent a $100 million makeover during the off-season, augmenting their offensive line and remaking their defense. But they had been conducting a quarterback competition in training camp between Pennington and Kellen Clemens, two options that last season produced just four victories.

But the appeal of Favre is obvious: he had a turn-back-the-clock season last year, completing 66 percent of his passes and leading the Packers to the National Football Conference Championship game. With his arrival he likely makes the Jets a viable American Football Conference wild-card team. Even at 38, he is remarkably durable, having started 253 consecutive games, and he holds almost every major N.F.L. career passing record. And his marketing potential in New York is enormous, which was surely part of the Jets’ pitch to Favre.

He will be a huge draw for the Jets, who will move to their new training complex in New Jersey at the end of training camp, and he gives the franchise a famous face as they begin a campaign centered around the 2010 opening of the stadium they will share with the Giants. Favre has no previous relationship with Coach Eric Mangini and the offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, and he will be forced to learn an unfamiliar offense on the fly. Favre’s style has always had a seat-of-his-pants element, and that has led to a striking propensity to throw interceptions. That problem could hamper him with the Jets, particularly early in the season as he tries to find his comfort zone with new receivers. But as he left Green Bay Wednesday morning, Favre expressed weariness at his predicament — the falling out with the Packers had taken a toll on him and his family — and a desire to merely join a team.

“It’s in everyone’s best interest to do it quicker than later,” Favre told The Hattiesburg American. “I won’t say we’re running out of time, but I need to get into a camp somewhere.”

And now, surprisingly, he will be in camp for the Jets, a quick flirtation turning into a franchise-changing decision in just 24 hours.

“My gut feeling for a long time was I just didn’t think this would come to fruition,” Tannenbaum said. “We had a cursory monitoring situation going on for a number of days. We put an oar in the water and things heated up at the end.”

Pat Borzi contributed reporting from Green Bay, Wis.

Redskin Sean Taylor's Murder Investigation Snags Fifth Suspect

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5th person charged in Redskins safety’s killing

1 hour ago

MIAMI (AP) — Prosecutors in Miami say a fifth person has been charged in the slaying of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor.

Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office spokesman Ed Griffith says Wednesday that 16-year-old Timothy Brown is charged with first-degree murder under a sealed warrant.

Taylor died of massive blood loss after he was shot at his Miami-area home during a botched robbery in November. The 24-year-old safety had made the Pro Bowl in 2006 and 2007.

Brown is being held in Lee County. It’s not immediately known when he’ll be transferred to Miami-Dade County to face the charge.

Trial for the other four suspects is set for Aug. 25. Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty.

Heady Days, Immortalized Where the Ticker Tape Fell

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The New York Times

September 30, 2004

BLOCKS By DAVID W. DUNLAP

 

IN the midst of the longest ticker-tape drought in a quarter century, lower Broadway – the Canyon of Heroes – has been paved instead with 164 granite plaques from Bowling Green to the Woolworth Building.

They commemorate ticker-tape parades from October 1886, when the Statue of Liberty was dedicated, to October 2000, when the Yankees last won the World Series. They were commissioned before 9/11 under a plan by the Alliance for Downtown New York to improve the streetscape with new sidewalks, lampposts, signs and wastebaskets.

Only in recent weeks has the parade chronology been finished from beginning to end. Thirty-six intermediate plaques will be installed as permitted by construction projects along the route.

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Against the shadow of Sept. 11, 2001, these plaques recall a carefree, exuberant, giddy spirit that may be difficult to conjure again downtown, even if the Yankees do their part.

Carefree? How about the parade in May 1962 when President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of the Ivory Coast was cheered as “Scott Carpenter” by spectators who mistakenly assumed he was a newly returned astronaut.

Exuberant? How about the 1,900 tons of paper showered on Douglas (Wrong Way) Corrigan in August 1938 after his flight from New York to Ireland “instead of his ‘intended’ destination of California,” as the plaque says, with quotation marks that constitute one of the few instances of editorializing.

Giddy? How about May 1950, when there was a parade every day for three days, beginning with one for Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan of Pakistan. He was assassinated a year later, one of many foreign leaders who were hailed in the Canyon of Heroes and then jailed, deposed or murdered back home.

“It was almost like a death sentence to get a ticker-tape parade,” said Kenneth R. Cobb, the director of the municipal archives, who has compiled a parade history.

After several spontaneous outbursts, one of the first organized uses of paper tape from stock-market tickers occurred Nov. 18, 1919, in a parade for the Prince of Wales, later the Duke of Windsor.

Grover A. Whalen, the city’s official greeter, recalled in his 1955 autobiography, “Mr. New York,” that he arranged a word-of-mouth campaign among downtown businesses to give the prince a spectacular reception with streams of ticker tape. It wound up including torn-up phone books. (Hmmm. A city official, proud of his Irish descent, contriving to welcome the Prince of Wales by inundating him with waste paper thrown out of windows in tall buildings.)

Watching the paper fall on the Yankees in 1996, Carl Weisbrod, the president of the Downtown Alliance, and Suzanne O’Keefe, the vice president for design, agreed that something should be done to commemorate the parades.

As part of the $20 million streetscape project, under the direction of Cooper, Robertson & Partners, the design studio Pentagram came up with the idea of simple granite sidewalk strips – not unlike the ticker-tape ribbons that remain after a parade, said Michael Bierut, a Pentagram partner – with the date and a few words of description.

(An illustrated brochure and map with information about all 200 parades can be picked up at kiosks outside City Hall and the World Trade Center PATH station or through the alliance, at downtownny.com or 212-835-2789.)

The plaques were made by Dale Travis Associates, the firm responsible for the silver-leaf lettering in the Freedom Tower cornerstone. The granite blocks, 8 inches wide and 3 inches deep, were cut with a water jet, Dale L. Travis said. Then the two-inch stainless-steel letters were inserted, held by pins and thermoplastic grout.

Last week, Jorge Condez and Paul Corrales of A.F.C. Enterprises set some of the last plaques, including “October 28, 1986 * New York Mets, World Series Champions,” into place near Vesey Street.

THREE years and 11 months have passed since the last parade, the longest interval since the 1978 Yankees broke a nine-year dry spell in the Canyon of Heroes.

The next parade will not be easy. The image of a paper blizzard suspended in midair among the downtown skyscrapers, once a visual metaphor for civic celebration, was transformed on Sept. 11, 2001, into a metaphor for cataclysm.

Is it still? Mr. Bierut hopes not. “Part of the resiliency of the city is retaining its own meaning for those metaphors and not surrendering them,” he said. “The post-terror condition has acclimated people to view any disruption of routine as a cause for alarm. There will come a time when the disruption of the routine of city life is seen as something wonderful.”

“Ticker-tape parades were the very essence of that,” Mr. Bierut said.

Just in case, Ms. O’Keefe said, there are 33 blank spots available on Broadway and Park Row to mark future parades. At the current pace, she figured, that ought to last a century and a half.

Giants notebook: Practice goes outside

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin tried to set the tone this morning with regard to the weather.

“Our team is not going to entertain a whole lot of questions or spend a lot of time talking about the weather,” Coughlin said.

That didn’t work.

With temperatures for Sunday’s NFC championship game at Lambeau Field expected to reach no more than 4 degrees and lows expected below zero, the Giants were barraged with questions about how they plan to deal with the elements.

Coughlin took his team outside to practice at 11:40 a.m., although the mid-day temperate here was near 40 degrees, so it’s debatable how much that could have helped the Giants prepare for the cold.

Coughlin’s approach was in contract to Packers coach Mike McCarthy’s philosophy of practicing indoors late in the season. Coughlin wouldn’t say whether he planned to practice outside the rest of the week, but the Giants have practiced inside their bubble almost exclusively late in the season.

The Giants’ offensive linemen have made a pact not to wear anything under their jerseys, so expect to see them in short sleeves on Sunday.

“You can’t wear sleeves,” said former Packers offensive lineman Grey Ruegamer, who is in his second season with the Giants. “That’s for skill-(position) people.”

Giants left guard Rich Seubert, a Marshfield native, believes it’s possible to put even extremely cold temperatures out of his mind during a game.

“The benches are heated, and they’ve got heaters on the sidelines,” Seubert said. “When you’re playing, you don’t care. I grew up there. I know how cold it gets. I heard them saying it’s going to be 7 degrees. That’s pretty warm. I went home last year (in February), and it was like minus-20 for a week straight.”

Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes said he heard Seahawks kicker Josh Brown wore heated pants during Saturday’s snow-filled NFC divisional playoff game at Lambeau Field but had no plans to do the same.

“I’m not a big hunter, so I don’t have that kind of apparel,” Tynes said. “It was a smart idea though. I think with the heated benches, I’ll be fine. I may put on an extra undershirt but on my legs, I’ll wear what I would normally wear if it was 85 degrees.”

Tynes admitted that today’s practice outdoors probably won’t help much come Sunday, especially considering he worked out comfortably in shorts.

A homecoming of sorts

Seubert grew up 140 miles from Green Bay, regularly attended games at Lambeau Field and knows many of his family and friends are Packers fans.

However, he believes all of them will be rooting for the Giants on Sunday.

“Family is a lot thicker than where you live,” Seubert said. “They’ll be supporting the Giants.”

It will be the first game at Lambeau in his seven-year NFL career. He did not play in the Giants’ 14-7 win in Green Bay on Oct. 3, 2004. Seubert missed the entire 2004 season to recover from the broken leg he sustained in 2003.

“It will be fun to have some of my family there – parents, uncles, sisters and stuff,” Seubert said. “It’s going to be fun, but it’s going to be a tough game.”

The 6-foot-3, 310-pound Seubert, who played at Western Illinois, has started all 16 games this season.

Injury report

The Giants’ secondary looks like it will be in better shape this week than it was at the end of Sunday’s divisional playoff game at Dallas.

Cornerback Aaron Ross, a rookie first-round draft pick, returned to practice on a limited basis and said he expects to play on Sunday but will have to wear a brace. He left the Cowboys’ game twice after his right shoulder popped out of place.

“I really don’t know (if it will pop out again),” Ross said after practice. “All I’m going to do is go out there and play the same way I’ve been playing. If a tackle comes up where I have to hit him with my right shoulder, I’m going to do it.”

Cornerback Sam Madison (abdominal strain) was expected to take part in individual drills, but the Giants listed as a non-participant. Kevin Dockery, the Giants’ top nickel corner, also didn’t practice due to a hip flexor.

Receiver Plaxico Burress (ankle) and tackle Kareem McKenzie (ankle) were limited.

Looking back

Coughlin was the Packers receivers coach in 1986 and 1987 under Forrest Gregg, but his career was in limbo after Gregg left to become the coach at SMU in 1987.

Coughlin confirmed that Gregg left the Packers without even telling his own coaching staff that he was taking the SMU job.

“He just left,” Coughlin said. “(That conversation) is for another time. The way it ended in Green Bay, that’s a pretty boring story really. The great thing about it is that I ended up here (as an assistant coach).”

Odds and ends

  • Ruegamer had this to say when asked whether there’s any insight into Favre that he could give to the defense that nobody else would know: “He’s got a tattoo on his (butt). That’s about it. Everything else is on film.”
  • Giants running back Brandon Jacobs grew up with Packers cornerback Tramon Williams in Louisiana, and the two played together at Assumption High School.

    Of Williams, Jacobs said: “That’s one guy who I can say I’m really happy for. He didn’t get a scholarship coming out of high school, and it took him until this year to really get an opportunity to play. I wish him a lot of luck from here on out.”