Favre: Shock move

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You'll have to forgive me if I sound a bit dazed this week. It's pretty much the same state of mind in which you'll find most of the folks in New York, Tampa and practically the entire sports world over here.

Being in Orlando, I'd spent much of the week in and around the Buccaneers training camp at Walt Disney's Wide World of Sports (of which, more later).

Virtually the only question on everyone's lips was 'When is Brett arriving?' Once it became clear the veteran Green Bay quarterback was firmly divorced from his long-time love affair with the Packers, Florida seemed the logical next destination for the 'unretirement' of Number 4.

I went to bed on Wednesday night having dutifully filed a column about the circus surrounding the Bucs' training camp, and the media frenzy generated by the 'insider' whispers which suggested Tampa Bay just needed to complete the negotiations to open a whole new chapter of the Favre story in Florida.

And then it all went pear-shaped.

The New York Jets - firmly in the picture but rated the distinct outsiders by most pundits - upped the stakes in terms of their offer to the Packers, and the Buccaneers were left firmly at the altar on their lonesome.

Cue dropped jaws and stunned looks in this region of the Sunshine State. Perhaps Brett had heard just how hot it is in these parts (he does seem to thrive in colder climes), or perhaps he liked the idea of being crowned the next 'Broadway' Joe Namath.

Either way, the Jets are now officially in quarterback dreamland, and the media circus has departed Orlando in a hurry for New York. Talk about fickle!

It leaves those of us who actually reside here in Florida shaking our heads and wondering if it were all a dream. The local verdict is the Jets were "quicker" and "more aggressive," while the Bucs were "possibly complacent" in believing they were better suited (and better placed under the salary cap) to land the 38-year-old.

So, instead of ramping up the hype for a Super Bowl season in Tampa, the focus now shifts to the AFC East, where Favre will be jostling for headlines with Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, Bill Parcells and Co.

It means Chad Pennington will be on his way out of New York and the former Packers legend will need a crash course in learning a drastically different offence under Eric Mangini.

He is already weeks behind in terms of pre-season preparation and will find Mangini and Co do things very differently to the West Coast style of offence in which he has played nearly all his career. He will also be understandably tired by the weeks of back and forth over his footballing future, including two long-distance flights this week alone (and a third now in the offing).

Desperate

Various pundits and players were equally taken aback at the turn of events that happened around 11.45pm on Wednesday.

Many simply thought the Jets were more needy, more desperate, for a top-line quarterback after their 4-12 season last year alternating Pennington and Kellen Clemens.

Dallas quarterback Tony Romo reacted with shock. "Wow! I can't believe it. Brett's a Jet? That's incredible," he told Favre insider Peter King. Even the Jets themselves - or perhaps we should now call them the New York Bretts - seemed surprised they lured the Green Bay legend away from Tampa.

General manager Mike Tannenbaum admitted: "I never really thought the deal was alive for us. I couldn't see it coming to fruition."

But now it has - with a vengeance. And the 'Bretts' may suddenly find they have got a lot more than they bargained for this season.

First, they have to do a fair bit of wheeling and dealing to fit Favre's $14million wages under their salary cap (although trading Pennington will take care of $9m of that). Then they have to get the man himself suited up and conversant with a playbook that will seem pretty alien at first.

"He'll need three to four weeks of hard study," says former Bucs quarterback Trent Dilfer, who knows Jets coordinator Brian Schottenheimer well.

That's three to four weeks on top of the normal pre-season routine, time that will seem in pretty short supply at this time of year.

And then there's the New York media to contend with. Intrusive and savage at the best of times, they will now take on a combative and microscopic intensity that will make the Green Bay reporters seem like lap-dogs to the Big Apple's rottweilers.

Blood

There will be little scope to overlook Favre's propensity for the occasional slap-happy interception at the Meadowlands, where Lambeau Field often turned a blind eye to those kind of indiscretions.

Put simply, if he doesn't start well, the hounds will scent blood and it could all turn real ugly, real quick.

And then you will hear some substantial sighs of relief from Central Florida.

Of course, there will already be one massively relieved customer in Bucs-land. Quarterback Jeff Garcia had the appearance of 'dead man walking' at training camp on Wednesday, as it seemed most likely he would be the immediate fall-guy for an imminent Favre arrival.

Now that doom has been lifted from Garcia's shoulders, he (and the rest of the Tampa contingent) can get back to their regular routine, free of the media circus that almost swallowed head coach Jon Gruden alive (although Gruden's performance as 'ring-master' was one of studied calm).

And it will be Favre's turn to tread the tightrope of expectations - without the aid of a safety net. Given his general lack of preparation for an 18th NFL season, he is going to need a generous helping of luck to see him through - and the Jets haven't had a lot of that in the past 40 years (since Super Bowl III, in fact).

But then Super Bowl XLIII will mark the 40th anniversary of a certain Joe Namath's famous victory 'guarantee', and Favre will also be 40 next year. Coincidence? I have a feeling we are about to enter football's version of The Twilight Zone...

* The NFL pre-season schedule is now on us with a vengeance. The Buccaneers were preparing to wrap up training camp for the trip to Miami this Saturday while New Orleans travel to Arizona (live on Sky Sports 2 at 1am on Friday morning).

By Monday night, all 32 teams will have played at least once (and the Colts and Redskins twice) and the battle will be on to whittle 80-man rosters down to the requisite 53.

It is a brutal time for many of the unsigned hopefuls and, equally, for the battle-scarred veterans, many of whom see the pre-season as an exercise in avoiding injury.

But not Tampa's Kevin Carter. He told me: "Sure, no veteran player really enjoys training camp. But it is a necessary evil. There is no Sunday without all the pre-season preparation that goes into it. You just won't survive otherwise.

"I know I need to keep myself in shape and the only way is to go through it. If you do the right things in pre-season and get in the right frame of mind, you soon realise this is the most important part of what we do."