During the NFL off season, fans look for any possible avenue to get their NFL fix.
Whether it is scouring the internet looking for every ounce of minutae related to their favorite teams, listening to sports radio non stop, or being glued to the TV watching replays of their favorite teams, NFL fans are rabid, and need their football fix.
One of the ways that NFL.com hoped to curb this insatiable appetite was their Quarterback Bracketology. This quasi reference to the NCAA Tournament would have four different eras of quarterbacks, seeded 1-8, and would allow fans to vote for which QB they thought was the best. The winning QBs would advance through their respective bracket until the “greatest” quarterback of all time was selected as determined by the fans.
A good idea, right?
More like a good idea gone terribly wrong.
Case in point number one: Brett Favre vs. Rich Gannon.
Whatever your personal feelings are about the former Packers quarterback, there should be no doubt by anyone that Favre is the better quarterback in this match up. Actually, that is false. He is far and away the better quarterback. Favre’s career statistics dwarf Gannon’s career statistics by such a wide margin that this voting should not even have been close.
Sadly, that is not the case. The only wide margin seen was the defeat Favre suffered in this first round voting, sending Gannon on to the next round and sending Favre out of the competition.
Pardon my bluntness, but anyone who honestly thinks Rich Gannon was a better QB than Brett Favre knows absolutely zero about football.
Part of the reason he lost this vote may be that Favre is essentially a player without a home at the moment. His one year in New York was nothing more than a pit stop on his way to the Vikings. And while the Packers and Favre continue to repair the damage from their messy divorce, the work is not done. This leaves Favre a player without a team to call home, and as a result, he lost the “home team” votes.
Sadly, this disaster called the NFL Quarterback Bracketology does not stop at Favre losing to Gannon.
The Seahawks are the reigning Super Bowl champions. That cannot be disputed. But no one is going to convince me (or anyone else for that matter) that Russell Wilson is a better quarterback that Peyton Manning. But in a stunning “upset”, that is not the case, as Wilson defeated Manning by a substantial margin.
At the end of the first round of voting, two of the best modern era quarterbacks, arguably two of the top five of all time, were left out in this contest. And this is where this entire idea needs fixing.
It is a popularity contest, nothing more. Fans vote on who they like and send them through to the next round. But someone at NFL.com should have had a final say so regarding the voting. Perhaps some input from the team of experts that work on that site that could have overruled the fan vote.
Something. Anything.
Educated followers of football recognize this bracket idea is a joke. Nothing more than something to pass the time during the months of nothingness called the off season. But it also makes the educated fan scratch their heads a little seeing the results.
Favre and Manning losing their respective match ups completely de-legitimizes the entire bracketology idea. Yet somewhere fans of Rich Gannon and Russell Wilson celebrated their respective victories.
A good idea gone terribly wrong. Hopefully we never have to see the likes of any bracketology on NFL.com again.
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John Rehor is a writer at PackersTalk.com.
He can also be heard as one of the Co-Hosts of Cheesehead Radio. ---------------------
5 responses to “Quarterback Bracketology-A Good Idea Gone Terribly Wrong”
I voted for Favre several times but the vote would never go through as counted. Several others reported this problem. An internal tech error? Or an internal bias? Whatever, the website did not work correctly and should have been fixed as the voting went on. There was plenty of time and I was not the only one who said a vote for Favre would not register.
To be honest I had trouble voting all together. Could not get my vote to register. If I had to guess someone set up a bot to vote over and over. Because there is no way Favre or Manning should have lost, let alone by the margins they did.
I agree. Either the vote counter wasn’t working, or someone blocked Favre’s votes. Rich Gannon was a decent QB, but will be forgotten in time. Everyone will remember the way Favre played the game!!! Yeah he messed up at the end of his career but he will be forgiven. Remember when he went to rehab? Not very many people do because he played so great. He will always be a Packer to me!!!