Vikings’ head coach Brad Childress told the media on Monday that Brett Favre has been diagnosed with two fractures in his left ankle. While he doesn’t need surgery to repair the injury, he’s currently in a protective walking boot and is in danger of missing Week 8’s game against the Patriots.
Childress says that Favre’s consecutive starts streak won’t impact his decision on whether or not Brett will play on Sunday, nor should it. Childress’ allegiance is to his team – not to Favre or his personal accomplishments. If Favre isn’t healthy enough to play then it’s Childress’ job to make the decision to bench Brett and get Tarvaris Jackson prepared to play.
Everyone knows that Favre will say that he’s healthy enough to play. Then he’ll go out there, hobble around for four quarters and either dazzle everyone with a great fourth quarter performance or bury his team’s chances at victory with a couple of interceptions. Favre’s warrior-like attitude when it comes to injuries is admirable, but there comes a time when he actually hurts the team more by playing. (Of course given two of his last three performances, he’s going to hurt his team whether he’s healthy or not.)
Childress has to put the big boy pants on and not allow his love affair with Favre to get in the way of making the right decision. He considered benching his starting QB in Sunday night’s game against the Packers and if Favre’s health doesn’t improve throughout the week, then Jackson should start.
