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Brandeis University's Community Newspaper — Waltham, Mass.

Packers v. Vikings: An epic match-up for Minnesota fans

Published: October 9, 2009
Section: Sports


Last week I made a mental decision to not talk about Minnesota sports for a while, but then I found out that the Vikings were playing the Green Bay Packers Monday night.

Moreover, that means it was the first time that Brett Favre faced his old team wearing purple and yellow, and guaranteed to be an interesting game.

Now I do not usually follow football, but it was impossible to live in Minnesota and not know every detail about the possibility of Favre signing with the Vikings. My newspaper had a daily Favre-o-Meter where the angle of Favre’s arm showed the probability of him signing with the Vikings. Then he decided he was not going to sign, but oh wait, three weeks later he decided to sign, and all Minnesotans who booed him for years greeted him with cheers.

The only problem was then Favre had to perform. And so far he has done just that. Through four games the Vikings are 4-0 with Favre throwing 837 yards and 8 touchdowns, including 271 yards and 3 touchdowns Monday against the Packers.

I am going to be honest: I do not know much about football stats (but if it makes it any better I can tell you too much about hockey stats), but if Favre is able to keep this up, the Vikings will finally have a consistent quarterback, and the most successful one since Daunte Culpepper was throwing to Randy Moss.

But possibly most impressive about all of this was that with the 30-23 win over the Packers, Favre became the first quarterback ever to win against all 32 NFL teams. He is also the all-time leader for passing yards, passing completions, and passing touchdowns. I do not care which team you cheer for, that is pretty impressive. And to top it off, Favre will be turning 40 on Saturday, which is getting just a tad old for a quarterback, but if he is able to stay healthy, it looks like nothing can stop him.

So Favre faced his old team (and his new team’s biggest rival) and was able to come out on top. But he was at the Metrodome, at home. The game that I am looking forward to is when the Vikings play at Lambeau, Favre’s former stomping grounds for 15 years. That will really be the game to watch.

In other Minnesota news, the Twins refuse to say goodbye to the Metrodome and beat the Tigers in a one game playoff to win the AL Central and advance to the playoffs against the Yankees. As my favorite sign I saw Tuesday night, it is David versus Goliath in New York, but in this case it looks like the first round went to Goliath. The Yankees beat the Twins 7-2 with a 2-run homerun from Derek Jeter in the third inning to tie up the game. Twins starter Brian Duensing was overwhelmed by the Yankees offense while the Twins were not able to do much against Yankees starter CC Sabathia. The next game will be Friday night in New York, while the other AL Division Series, the Boston Red Sox against the Los Angeles Angels, will play their second game out in LA. In the National League the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies 5-1 on Wednesday with the second game Thursday, and Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3 and will also play the second game Thursday night. Neither game was complete by press time.