Brett Favre Starts on Monday Night: Was It Unfair?

As a Bears Columnist, I have spent the better part of the last seven days discussing how the Bears can beat quarterback Joe Webb.  After all, the Vikings had quarterback Brett Favre listed in their injury report as being out so no one thought that he would be playing in Monday night’s game.  He was listed as out right up until the middle of the day on Monday.  Certainly that meant that he was going to sit on the bench right?

Well as it turned out, the Vikings used a little known procedure that allowed them to apply for a waiver to have Favre’s injury status upgraded at the last possible moment.  As we all know, the NFL approved the move and Favre started the Monday night game against the Bears.

Perhaps it helped that the commissioner, Rodger Goodell was at the game as well.  

This kind of thing hasn’t happened that often, if at all so why did it have to happen now? There are many theories out there but the most likely one is that Favre wanted one last shot on Monday Night Football, one last shot in the spotlight before going away. 

The scene was perfect.  It was a cold weather affair that had to (and did) draw enormous numbers of people to the game (on television). People would be tuning in to see if the Bears would be able to win the NFC North.  It was the “perfect” moment for Favre to climb back in the saddle and get one last shot at glory.

So, instead of following the rules that most teams would have followed for any player that hadn’t practiced once during the week the Vikings went ahead at the last minute, made him active and allowed him to play.  The NFL had their hand in it by allowing for the waiver to go through so that he could play.  

Was this an effort to please Favre or was it something that the team did because they felt that he gave them the best chance to win this game?  Anyone who watched the game could easily see that (despite the fact that he did throw a touchdown pass) Favre was not the best option at the quarterback position on Monday night. 

He had extreme difficulty throwing the football and then was hurt worse than he had been heading into the game (some say that the got a concussion on this play) when Chicago defensive end Corey Wootton dropped him to the turf and put him out of the game.

One final thing that makes the brief appearance of Favre on Monday night after being listed on the Vikings injury report as out somewhat unfair to the opposing team is that the Bears spent all week practicing in anticipation that Favre was not going to play.  Granted, Chicago still won the game but they weren’t as prepared for it as they would have been had they not had to face Favre.

Does it really matter which quarterback a team faces?  Of course it does but the good thing was the Bears were prepared to handle Favre and they really didn’t have any problems with him at quarterback.
So was this move completely fair to the Bears, the NFL and the Vikings?  Should the Vikings even activated Favre on Monday Night?  Did it do more damage than it did good?

Finally, this whole move appears to favor Favre.  Did the NFL make a special exception for Favre because he is “Brett Favre”?  Does this now open the door for other teams to keep a players status as out up until the day of a game in hopes that it will give them an unfair competitive advantage?  Does this negate the injury all together?