Jockbeat: Maybe Favre's New Gig is Really About the Merch

Don't know if you've heard the story, but they're saying that if you're traveling down Nicaragua way, you can see bunches of kids wearing "21-0" shirts - those were the ones printed up for New England fans before the 2008 Super Bowl - and Brett Favre Jets jerseys. That, apparently, is one of the places where the shirt manufacturers dump their unsellable wares. If you're in the market for a Brett Favre Minnesota Viking jersey. we'll bet we can get some for you wholesale - after the 2009-10 football season.

How can you keep putting out the same old crap and still manage to sell it? Put it in a different color jersey, that's how.

Not only has Favre conned his second pro team in two years, he's conned quite a few sportswriters. The New York Times' Judy Battista and Pat Borzi, for instance, who really seemed to think that "The Vikings are far better now than the Jets were last year."

Actually, the 2008 Jets and Vikings were virtually the same team, except for the fact that the Jets played in a far tougher division...

The Jets playing the rugged AFC East were 9-7 and outscored their opponents by 49 points while the Vikings, playing in the mediocre NFC Central - any division with Detroit in it is automatically mediocre - were 10-6 and outscored their opponents by 54 points.

Why exactly should Minnesota do so much better this year than the Jets did last year? Brett is a year older and his 6.7 yards per throw average last season wasn't as good as Minnesota's main starter, Gus Frerotte, was at 7.2. (In fact, Favre has exceeded 7.2 yards per throw only once in his last four seasons.)

Since everyone knows why this deal was made, let's just say it out loud: the Vikings want a quick cash fix for the pennants, sweatshirts and jerseys Favre will sell them and Favre wants revenge on the Packers for recognizing that he was washed up two years ago.

Which leads to an interesting question: When Favre is finally inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame, whose jersey is he going to wear? We've got a pretty good idea it won't be Packer green and gold.