Will Brett Favre and Minnesota Vikings' Season Fade To Black and Gold?

Nobody makes the Patriots look like that. Nobody.

You don't tug on Superman's cape,
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that ol' Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Slim. Or Tom. Or Bill.

Apparently, the Saints never got the memo.

In this high-stakes card game, New England folded their hand with five minutes left.

Too rich for my blood, Charlie.

Oh Sean Payton, I so want you in my poker game.

And so you can't blame Saints fans for feeling pretty good about their team's chances the rest of the way. You see they've got the Midas touch- and we're not talking Mufflers here- every thing they touch turns to gold including aging cornerbacks who haven't played football in a year.

Poor ol' Brett Favre. You can not blame Brett if he didn't sleep very well on Monday night.

Must be hell for him knowing that it is only a matter of time before his dream season comes to an end.

He knows he's a dead man walking with an inevitable matchup with the Saints looming in his future.

The now-I'm-retired, now-I'm-not kid may be about as decisive as a teenage girl but he's no fool.

At 40, his eyes aren't what they used to be. However, it does not require 20/20 vision  to see how thoroughly the New Orleans Saints dominated the New England Patriots on Monday night.

As Dan Pompei of NBC Sports wrote recently, "How long before midnight strikes in this fairy tale? Can Favre last 16 games playing at this level? There is reason for skepticism because he petered out in each of his last two seasons."

Reason for skepticism indeed.

Remember how it all slipped away for Favre one year ago. In 2008, golden boy Favre threw eight interceptions and only two TD's in the Jets final five games to doom the team's playoff hopes.

As sportswriter Adam Tom Brown wrote, "If Vikings fans are curious as to what they have to look forward to in 2009, they need look no further than Favre’s guffaw inspiring end to his 2008 stint with the New York Jets.  Through week 11, the Jets were an impressive 8-3 under Favre’s elderly leadership.  And then, all hell broke loose."

"Over the last five games, Favre threw an impressive nine interceptions while putting up just two TD passes.  The Jets lost four of those last five games.  Things got so tense in the Jets camp that at one point RB Thomas Jones suggested that Favre should have been benched after throwing 3 INT’s in one game.  He wasn’t benched, of course.  In fact, he was selected to represent the AFC in the Pro Bowl.  Makes sense."

"All indications at the end of 2008 were that Favre’s geriatric cannon had run out of gas."

Favre's generic cannon has not run out of gas. And, no one is questioning Favre's exploits in 2009. He is a serious contender for MVP and rightfully so. However, given last season's swan dive, can the NFL's most prestigious flip-flopper finish what he started. You have to wonder.

Cleveland Brown's coach Eric Mangini has no doubt that Favre is up for the job.

Mangini told Pompei, “I don’t know what the history of performance at that position at that age is, I just know that Brett’s different than a lot of guys I’ve been around. He’s a special player. I don’t underestimate Brett’s ability to do anything.”

Wrote Pompei: "Favre’s performance dip in New York clearly was tied to a torn biceps tendon in his throwing shoulder. Most quarterbacks wouldn’t have even played with it. So the key for the Vikings might be trying to keep him as healthy as possible."

“For any quarterback , they get hit a lot,” Mangini said. “They deal with a lot of different things over the course of a season. I know with Brett, he’s extremely tough and extremely competitive and last season things didn’t go the way we wanted to at the end. But he remained as competitive as ever and did the best he could.”

Of course, the national media will never tell you the Vikings 10-1 record has come against teams with a combined record of of 36-63. Never let the facts get in the way of a sensational story.

By contrast, Saints opponents have won 49 games including a thrashing of a division leader and team of the ages.

When the dust settles and the smoke of battle clears, Favre's health or lack thereof will have been proven to be a moot point.

These Saints are that good-a few notches above the Vikings-as Brees is a few notches above Favre.