As the fallout from the Brett Favre Jets era continues, we're starting to hear more and more stories about how Favre wasn't particularly liked in the locker room. And now there's this. Teddy Atlas, the former boxing trainer and current boxing announcer, who is a good friend of Eric Mangini's, recently went into detail as to how Favre's arrival in New York screwed everything up. According to Atlas, Mangini was totally prepared to enter the season with an open quarterback competition between Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens. But the arrival of Favre changed everything:
"Mangini went into the season ready for a whole different approach, whether it was going to be Chad Pennington or Kellen Clemens (at quarterback), whoever won that battle," Atlas told The Post. "It was going to be a secure, protect the ball, intelligent approach. It was something he was comfortable with, something he believed in. The whole plan, the whole blueprint got thrown out the window when Favre came. He's the antithesis of that. He throws the ball all over the place."
Atlas also called Favre "selfish", which is a word tossed around about Favre a lot lately.
But here's the key detail that Atlas informs us of: Mangini never really wanted Favre in the first place. Instead, Atlas says that team owner Woody Johnson forced the trade on Mangini, and he had no choice but to go along with it.
Whether or not that's true is probably debatable. Even though I hate Favre, I still thought the Jets would be better with him at quarterback than Pennington or Clemens, and I know I'm not the only one who thought that. I would assume that even if Mangini wasn't thrilled to have Favre at quarterback initially, I'd have to think that when the Jets where 9-3 coming off that win against the Titans, he was probably all right with who was playing quarterback.
I think the most important thing to get out of this is that on some level, the Favre experiment was destined for failure. Mangini has always been a conservative, play-it-safe coach, which is the exact antithesis of Favre, and it was also clear from day one that many players on the Jets already considered Favre selfish for how he handled his sloppy extrication from Green Bay. While winning covered these problems up for a while, losing turned them into festering open sores that spread rapidly.
And in the end, with Favre having been bashed by Thomas Jones, Kerry Rhodes and Bruce Ciskie, and no one sticking up for him either, it's pretty clear that the only guy who has Favre's back is owner Woody Johnson. And unless Johnson's a total idiot, expect Favre's time with the Jets to be over.
Mangini pal Atlas takes jabs at Favre [NY Post] via [Fanhouse]
more
