Now that Brett Favre’s time with the Green Bay Packers has come to an end, it’s time to take a look back at some interesting facts from his time with the team.

While with the Packers, Brett Favre completed more regular season touchdown passes to wide receiver Antonio Freeman, than any other player.

In fact, here are the top twenty regular season touchdown targets during Brett Favre’s Green Bay career:

Packers Receiver	Touchdowns Caught From Favre
Antonio Freeman Sterling Sharpe Donald Driver Robert Brooks Bubba Franks Javon Walker Bill Schroeder Dorsey Levens Mark Chmura Greg Jennings Ahman Green William Henderson Tyrone Davis Robert Ferguson Keith Jackson Edgar Bennett David Martin Donald Lee Anthony Morgan Corey Bradford	57 41 36 32 29 19 19 16 16 14 14 13 12 12 11 10 9 8 8 7

Brett Favre obviously played most of his games with the Packers against their division rivals, but which teams did he throw the most touchdowns against?

The answer is a tie. Favre threw 54 regular season touchdows against both the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions.

A list of the Packer receivers who over the years have only caught one touchdown pass from Brett Favre are:

Harry Sydney
Andre Rison
Koren Robinson
Reggie Cobb
Samkon Gado
Kitrick Taylor
Darrell Thompson
Wesley Walls
Charles Lee

The first regular season Green Bay Packers touchdown that Brett Favre threw went to Sterling Sharpe, the last one went to Bubba Franks. His final overall touchdown pass as a Packer was completed to Donald Lee in the 2007 NFL playoffs.

Early in his career, Favre had two seasons where he gained over 200 yards rushing.

Good luck in New York, Brett!

The sporting world is drowning in news and talk about Brett Favre coming back out of retirement and either playing for the Green Bay Packers or forcing them to trade him to another team. What does Brett owe the Packers? What do the Packers owe Brett? What do both parties owe the fans or backup quarterback Aaron Rodgers who was promised the starting quarterback role after Favre initially retired?

Let’s leave that all behind though, and look at one fact regarding Brett Favre’s impact on the Green Bay Packers:

From the time that Packers’ legendary quarterback Bart Starr retired in 1972, until Brett Favre joined the team in 1992, the Packers managed to only win approximately 40% of their games and no titles. In the years that Brett Favre has been the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers they have won approximately 63% of their games. They have also won division and conference titles, as well as a Super Bowl title.

Another interesting fact from the quarterbacks of the 2007 NFL season. Only two teams had every passing attempt thrown by one player. That means that no back up quarterback threw a pass, there was no running back option pass thrown, and no kicker or punter threw a fake special teams pass.

The two players and their teams?
Carson Palmer of the Cincinnati Bengals
Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints

The NFL Teams With The Fewest Playoff Appearances

When judging an NFL franchise’s success, most people first look at the number of championships won and then the number of playoff appearances. So, what teams have the fewest playoff appearances? At the bottom of the list with no playoff appearances is the team that is also the only team in the National Football League to have never made it into the postseasons, the Houston Texans. Lets explore beyond the Texans though as they’ve only been in the league since 2002.

Next up on the list is the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers burst onto the scene in 1995 and in the following season they made it all the way to the Conference Championship game before losing one game short of a Super Bowl appearance. With this immediate success, it comes as shocking to some that in their entire history, the Carolina Panthers have only made the playoffs 3 times.

The third team on the list of teams with the fewest playoff appearances is the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens have only been around since 1996, and only have 4 playoff appearances. The Baltimore Ravens deserve a bit of a break though as during one of their playoff runs (2000) they did manage to win the Super Bowl.

There are three teams tied for fourth on this list. The New Orleans Saints, Arizona Cardinals, and Jacksonville Jaguars all just have 6 playoff appearances. While Jacksonville may have an excuse, they have only been in the league since 1995, the other two teams do not. New Orleans entered the league as an expansion franchise in 1967 and the Cardinals have been in the league since all the way back in 1920.

The last team in the NFL to have only made a single digit number of playoff appearances in their history is the Atlanta Falcons with 8 playoff appearances. Following the 1998 NFL season though, the Falcons did at least make a Super Bowl appearance.

When you look at the performances of all the quarterbacks that got into games during the 2007 NFL season for the Carolina Panthers, one thing stands out. Their lack of touchdown production. Now, as a team they did throw 19 touchdown passes which is more than one a game, but here is something interesting.

The Carolina Panthers had four different quarterbacks see playing time during the 2007 season:

Vinny Testaverde saw the most action starting six games and throwing 94 completions in 172 attempts for 5 touchdowns.

David Carr saw the next most action with 73 completions in 136 attempts and 3 touchdowns.

Matt Moore saw the next most action with 63 completions in 111 attempts and 3 touchdowns.

And the fourth quarterback to see the most action in terms of passes thrown was starter Jake Delhomme who had 55 completions in 86 attempts. Delhomme only played in three games during the 2007 season due to an injury, but it is too bad because out of the four quarterbacks who saw action, the quarterback who threw for the most touchdowns was also the quarterback who threw the fewest amount of passes for the Panthers in 2007. Yes, Delhomme threw for 8 touchdowns in his three games.

Here is another interesting look at last years passing leaders. This time lets tackle it by team. Which team had at least one pass thrown by the most different players. We’re looking at quarterbacks, back up quarterbacks, kickers, punters, wide receivers, running backs… hey, we’d even accept the rare tight end option pass play if we could find a team that ran it. Anyway, the team that had at least one passing attempt by the most players is… the Minnesota Vikings!

In 2007, the Minnesota Vikings had passes thrown for them by 7 different players:
Tarvaris Jackson
Kelly Holcomb
Brooks Bollinger
Sidney Rice
Chris Kluwe
Mewelde Moore
Chester Taylor

This was the winning team by a long ways as there were no other teams that had passes thrown by 7 players… or even 6 players. The next closest was a tie between the Oakland Raiders and the Chicago Bears who each had 5 players attempt passes for them during the 2007 season.

By far the vast majority of career receiving leaders for the franchises of the NFL are wide receivers. This makes sense as most of the longer receptions end up going to them as opposed to running backs and tight ends. But, which franchises have career receiving leaders that are tight ends?

There are three of them:

Baltimore Ravens - Todd Heap
Cleveland Browns - Ozzie Newsome
Kansas City Chiefs - Tony Gonzalez

An interesting side note is that Ozzie Newsome has served many years in the Baltimore Ravens organization as someone involved in player personnel decisions.

The Buffalo Bills 1990 Playoff Run

The Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s were a dominant team in the NFL. Going to three consecutive Super Bowls, even though they lost each one, is truly an impressive feat. Let’s look at their playoff run that year.

The Bills opened up the playoffs with a division round game against the rival Miami Dolphins. The Bills had lost to the Dolphins early in the season by a score of 30-7 and then gotten even in the revenge game later in the year by winning by a score of 24-14. The playoff game was all it was billed to be with the Bills winning by a score of 44-34. This brought them into the Conference Championship Game against the Los Angeles Raiders. The Raiders never seemed to make it out of the locker room, as the Bills juggernaut ran up the score to a 51-3 total in an embarrassing AFC Championship Game. Now, was the Super Bowl against the in-state rival New York Giants. The Bills had scored 95 points in their first two playoff games and most thought there was no way that the Giants could keep up that kind of scoring pace. They didn’t have to, as the Bills were held below 20 points for only the fifth time in 19 games and lost to the Giants by a score of 20-19. Truly an amazing high scoring team with a shocking end to the season.

Chuck Knox and the 1970s Los Angeles Rams

Perhaps one of the most underrated teams during the 1970s, the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams led by head coach Chuck Knox were a force to be reckoned with. In his five years as head coach of the Rams from 1973-1977, the Rams won their division (the NFC West) each year with a different starting quarterback: John Hadl, Ron Jaworski, Pat Haden, James Harris, and Joe Namath. He compiled an impressive regular season record of 54-15-1 and made it to the NFC Championship Game on three different occasions, only to lose each one. He resigned following the 1977 season in anticipation of Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom firing him based on his 3-5 career playoff record with the team.

1985 Bears Dominate The Patriots

Here is a stat showing how badly the 1985 Chicago Bears dominated the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. In the entire first half, the Patriots ran 21 offensive plays. They only gained positive yardage on four of those 21 plays. 17 plays were run in the first half by New England that either went for no gain or for loss of yards. That is a pretty outstanding defensive performance.

Here are some little known facts about the San Diego Chargers. Okay, some may be known or guessable, but we’ll try and give you something you may not have known before about the Chargers quarterbacks through history.

The quarterback who has led the Chargers in passing the most consecutive years is obvious… Dan Fouts. From 1978 through the 1987 season, a total of ten years, Dan Fouts was the passing leader for this team that was known to throw the ball more than just a little bit. But, if it were not for James Harris leading the team in passing in 1977, Fouts’ record would’ve been even more impressive as he was also the Chargers leading passer from 1973-1976.

In a close second to that team record is former quarterback John Hadl who led the Chargers in passing in each season from 1964 through 1972, for a total of nine consecutive seasons. But, who is in third place in that department? Not quite as legendary, but in third place falls former Chargers quarterback Stan Humphries who led the team in passing from 1992 through 1997 for a total of six seasons.

The Chargers have been around for just shy of forty seasons, so here is an interesting bit of info… how many different quarterbacks have led the Chargers team in passing for only one season. This is an interesting thought… it could be a backup who got a chance to start because of an injury, it could be a free agent that didn’t work out, it could be a highly touted rookie that didn’t pan out, or any number of other reasons. But, the answer is: 10. Ten times in the Chargers history has a quarterback led the team in passing over the course of a season and then never done it again.

Those ten quarterbacks and the years they did it:

1963 - Tobin Rote
1977 - James Harris
1988 - Mark Malone
1989 - Jim McMahon
1990 - Billy Joe Tolliver
1991 - John Friesz
1998 - Craig Whelihan
1999 - Jim Harbaugh
2000 - Ryan Leaf
2001 - Doug Flutie

With Phillip Rivers at the helm, it seems like the Chargers quarterbacking duties are sewn up for awhile… but, you never know.

The New Orleans Saints’ Unexpected Heisman Trophy Winner

How many Heisman Trophy Winners have been drafted by the New Orleans Saints? Want to win a bet? The Saints drafted Heisman Trophy winners George Rogers in 1982, Danny Wuerffel in 1997, Ricky Williams in 1999, and Reggie Bush in 2005. So, the answer to that question is five. Five? That’s only four. Upon entering the league in 1967, the New Orleans Saints were able to select players off the rosters of other teams in the expansion draft. In that 1967 NFL Expansion Draft they selected Notre Dame and Green Bay Packers legend (and Heisman Trophy winner) Paul Hornung… making him the fifth Heisman Trophy winner “drafted” by the Saints.

The AFL’s Chargers Issue A Challenge

The 1963 AFL Championship Game, although clearly something to watch, was anything but packed with drama. The San Diego Chargers had walked away with the AFL Championship after winning the game 51-3. Then, in an example of what made the AFL so great, Chargers Head Coach issued a challenge to then NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle that the Chargers would take on the NFL’s champion Chicago Bears to decide which professional league had the best championship team. Rozelle declined the challenge, understandably so as the NFL had nothing to win by beating the upstart AFL and everything to lose.

Whether it’s the AFL of the 1960s, the WFL of the 1970s, the USFL of the 1980s, or even the XFL in 2001… the NFL does a great job as the establishment/corporate league but it’s great to see an upstart league come along and give the NFL a good poke in the eye.

The 1999 Jacksonville Jaguars

The 1999 Jacksonville Jaguars had one of the more spectacular seasons, especially considering the franchise was only five years old. Quarterback Mark Brunell was hitting all receivers and Running Back Fred Taylor was blazing past Linebackers and DBs. The Jaguars finished the season with a record of 14-2. They went on to win their first playoff game before losing their second and going home; giving them a total record of 15-3 counting the playoffs.

One of the more interesting things regarding that 15-3 record is who they lost those three games to. The first loss came against the divisional rival the Tennessee Titans. Later in the season the Jaguars met the Titans for their rematch and unfortunately (for Jacksonville) they came out on the short end of the stick again. Still, finishing the season with a record of 14-2 was pretty impressive and everyone was excited about the team’s prospects in the playoffs. In the divisional round the Jaguars went up against Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins and destroyed their opponents by the score of 62-7. This brought Jacksonville to its next playoff game, against Tennessee who had already beaten them twice. The Titans were victorious again and the Jaguars season was over.

The Jacksonville Jaguars finished that season with a record of 15-3 with all three losses coming to the same team; the Tennessee Titans. The Titans became the first team ever to beat an opponent in three separate games during one season.