Why Shouldn't Brett Favre Get Booed?

By JOSH ALPER

Updated 6:06 PM EST, Tue, Oct 28, 2008

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It was fitting that Joe Namath was at Sunday's Jets game. Broadway Joe is the one Jet player that people cared enough about to have strong opinions. He's an amazing talent and true winner vs. he's a selfish player who makes too many mistakes. Those debates still go on today about Namath and others, but, until Brett Favre came to town, they didn't go on about guys from the Jets.

The can of worms was opened in the first half of Sunday's Jets-Chiefs game when one of Favre's interceptions was met with lusty booing from the crowd. It wasn't particularly notable to me: Favre was playing like garbage and was hearing it from the people paying to see him play like something better than garbage.

Then I saw last night's Pardon The Interruption when Ron Jaworski responded to a question by saying that Brett Favre doesn't deserve to get booed. He's a Hall of Fame quarterback and a gritty gamer and sycophantic announcer-speak 101. Tony Kornheiser eagerly agreed with his Monday Night Football colleague, and on they went with the show.

I've never understood this debate about which players "deserve" booing. If you are in favor of booing players, then Favre on Sunday was a prime candidate. He's thrown seven interceptions over the last three weeks and is tied for the league lead in that category. The Jets were in danger of losing a game to the worst collection of talent this side of American Idol and that's going to get you booed whether you're Brett Favre or Brett Ratliff.

As for the Hall of Famer argument, that's all well and good, but it holds no water for Jets fans. He did those things in Green Bay and did them in the past. That buys you a few bad games, but Favre's used up those chits. He's a big boy and I imagine he knows he stank.