A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

I KNOW I NEED TO STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS, BUT I CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS: From yesterday's MMQB by the worst national football writer in America who is not named Len Pasquarelli:

a. Remember what Steve Mariucci once told me about Favre, and apply it to learning a new offense. "He's got a photographic memory, or very close to it,'' Mariucci, his former quarterback coach, said. "You think he's sleeping there in the meetings, and he still knows everything he has to know and doesn't make mental mistakes.''

Have King and Mariucci never watched a game of football in their lives? Favre doesn't make mental mistakes? Brett Favre holds the NFL career record in interceptions thrown. His 29 INTs in 2005 are the highest single-season interception total among active players unless Testaverde is considered active (and Testaverde's worst INT year came his first full year as a starter). Favre has had 31 multi-interception games in the last five years (10 of them were games with 3 or more interceptions). For comparison, in the last five years Peyton Manning has 9 multi-interception games and Brady has 14. In somewhat less time (ranging from a few games to about a season or so's worth missed), McNabb has 9, Hasselbeck has 17, Bulger has 17, Brees has 19, and Carson Palmer has 19. I think those are all of the QBs who have started about 80% of the games since the beginning of 2003 (Garcia and Kitna rode the pine too much to qualify).

Certainly not all of Favre's interceptions are mental mistakes, but a lot of them -- the ones where he does the classic Favre thing of running around and then chucking the ball up at a greater-than-45-degree angle -- I'm pretty sure that's not how the plays were drawn up. And yes, I realize that interceptions are not the only gauge of mental mistakes, but they're a pretty good proxy, just like walks are a decent but imperfect measure of control for a pitcher. So there is at least some reason to think that Favre actually makes mental mistakes more frequently than any other QB in football and zero reason to think that he makes almost none. But King likes Mariucci's quote, and he likes Favre's Billy Bob Thornton impression (nope, not making this up), so screw the facts.