Flashback: The Pre-Favre Era

For those who missed it, Brett Favre had his consecutive start streak broken at 297 games last night. It was an amazing streak that probably should have ended a few years ago, but didn't because Favre was too stubborn and coaches to weak to make the decision to sit him. This week was a little different than the rest - he was simply too beat up to play. And at age 41, he appears to be finally done. No more guessing games. He is done.

Say what you want about Favre, but you must acknowledge how amazing his streak was. Think back to 1992 to see how much you have changed. I am 30 with a kid, a wife, a mortgage and a college education. In 1992 I was 12 years old, big into Starter caps and baseball cards and a huge Don Majkowski fan. I can't even think of anything else besides that. So much has happened in 18 years.

So I would like to take this opportunity to briefly touch on what my favorite sports teams looked like when Brett Favre took the field in 1992:

• The Mets were just finishing up a 72 win season and were about to suffer through a 59-103 season in 1993. The everyday starting line-up consisted of C Todd Hundley, 1b Eddie Murray, 2b Willie Randolph, SS Dick Schoefield, 3b Dave Magadan, LF Darly Boston, CF Howard Johnson, RF Bobby Bonilla. Their rotation was made up of David Cone, Doc Gooden, Sid Fernandez, Bret Saberhagen and Pete Schourek.
• The Devils had yet to win any of their 3 Stanley Cups and were just coming off an 87 point season in which they lost to the Rangers in the first round of the playoffs. The team's leading goal scorer was Claude Lemieux (41 goals), followed by Stephane Richer (29), Peter Stastny (24) and Kevin Todd (21). The starting goaltender was Chris Terreri. Scott Stevens was 28 years old and a 19 year old rookie named Martin Brodeur made his NHL debut.
• The Giants (as you may recall I was a Giants fan until the Dave Brown era) had just started what would turn out to be a 6-10 season. Jeff Hostetler, Phil Simms and Kent Graham each started at least 2 games. Rodney Hampton, a third year back out of the University of Georgia, ran for 1141 yards. Ed McCaffrey led the team with 610 receiving yards and LT led the team with 5 sacks. Ray Handley was sacked after the year in favor of Dan Reeves.
• The Nets were just beginning a nice 3 year span where they averaged 43 wins, but were still 10 years away from relevancy. Their starting 5 consisted of PG Mookie Blaylock, SG Drazen Petrovic, SF Chris Morris, PF Derrick Coleman and C Sam Bowie with Kenny Anderson, Terry Mills and Chris Dudley the first 3 off the bench.
• The US Men's National Team was 2 years removed from World Cup 1990, where they were outscored 10-1 and in three games. The country was still two years away from hosting the 1994 World Cup. MLS was not even a pipe dream. Jozy Altidore was 3 years old.