In Pursuit of Fairness, NFL Should Play Title Games at Neutral Sites

Here’s how the Green Bay Packers might want to remember their 23-20 triumph in Wisconsin last Monday night: If the San Francisco 49ers could carry them into overtime with Elvis Grbac at quarterback, they can beat them next time with Steve Young.

They can, that is, provided that:

-Young recovers from his critical groin injury.

-The 49ers and Packers take turns eliminating the Dallas Cowboys.

-49er receiver J.J. Stokes learns how to slip single coverage.

-Stokes holds onto the ball.

-Wisconsin warms up this winter.

That last one is unlikely. If the NFC title game is played, as expected, in Green Bay on Jan. 12, a blizzard is more likely.

Which is a reminder that in simple fairness to the players and fans of both teams, such games should be scheduled annually at neutral sites, as is the Super Bowl.

The NFL should make that change no later than next season.

Otherwise, the rebirth of coldweather teams such as Green Bay and Pittsburgh, guarantees that, sooner or later, the NFL’s conference title games will test not football ability but arctic aptitude for football.

And those two things are, undeniably, different.

Season tickets in any NFL community-with a stadium of any size-are in the hands of about 12,000 mostly rich people, who, of course, want the event at home. But should the wishes of a handful outweigh the NFL’s pursuit of fairness for all?

I’d say not.

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New stylist: Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre has - shown enough now in two big seasons to strongly suggest that he is a radically different kind of passer, the progenitor, in fact, of what seems to be the century’s third kind of effective passing.

Favre positions himself to throw in much the same way that the great modern tennis players prepare to hit the ball-facing the net, hips square, legs spread, flatfooted, or with, even, both feet off the ground as they rise to meet power with power. In action today, good tennis players somewhat resemble good table tennis players.

Second, as Favre fires, he’s like a tennis champion going for an overhead-falling away, back arched, snapping the upper body forward as he smashes the ball.

Favre’s motion is, moreover, much like the overhead snapping motion of a beach volleyball star say, Karch Kiraly.

Favre’s style is unique in the NFL.

Years ago, the great passers, John Unitas and Terry Bradshaw among them, stepped forward to cast the ball. They took one, two, or three steps up before throwing over the top with a big looping motion.

Eventually, as NFL defenses improved, a quicker release became essential. And Joe Namath had it. Instead of bringing his arm back and then forward as Bradshaw did-and stepping forward to throw-Namath, standing in one place, merely twisted his hips and body swiftly around and whipped the ball out in one stroke.

Most of the great 1990s passers have followed suit-Troy Aikman, Dan Marino, Jim Harbaugh, even John Elway now. But not Favre.

For, as the pace quickens in sports, Favre has become the first to see that the concept of footwork is changing. In modern big-time tennis, for example, before returning serve, there’s no longer time to move one’s feet, as Bjorn Borg showed and as Andre Agassi and other winners have verified. The old ideal-solid footwork, stepping into the ball-is gone.

In quarterbacking, too, stylish footwork has been outdated by the speed of today’s rushing linemen and linebackers. If you have Favre’s arm, the way to pass a football now is to fall back-away from the rush-and then snap forward to launch the ball off a back foot, or off neither foot. Agassi would understand.

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He’s hamstrung: A winning quarterback is still one with one other asset, mobility, which aids Aikman, Young, Favre and all the other good ones, regardless of style.

But Jim Kelly has lost his. And that, in their big games, is what’s killing the Buffalo Bills.

Kelly’s severe hamstring trouble has been largely ignored by his critics in Buffalo, which is unfortunate. For it was Kelly’s youngman mobility combined with his play-calling that got the Bills to their four Super Bowls.

In those days, they were never the best AFC team. Their playcaller, when he could move around in the no-huddle formation, was almost the whole difference. He rates some respect.