Brett Favre or Kurt Warner? Who has had the better NFL career?

In the NBA you have Kobe or LeBron. In the NHL you have Crosby vs Ovechkin. For the most part in the NFL it’s always been Brady vs Manning deciding who’s the best quarterback in the NFL.

I decided to go beyond the usual comparison of who is the best quarterback in the NFL right now with Manning and Brady. I decided to compare two forty year old quarterbacks who’ve been making “comebacks” for three years now.

Warner with Arizona and Favre with Green Bay, NY Jets and most recently Minnesota.

I’ve never heard someone compare Brett Favre and Kurt Warner so I decided to be the first and even though I was born and raised by my father (Randy Hanson) who was a Green Bay Packers fan now turned Oakland Raiders fan I don’t have a bias for or against either quarterback.

Adding the two future HOF’s together you get two Super Bowl titles, five MVP’s, 16 Pro Bowl selections, 101,673 passing yards, 705 TD’s and 445 Int’s along with tons of other milestones and stats.

Just the shier volume of those stats says a lot about the two quarterbacks. However the question is which one has had a better NFL career?

Before I break down both players I would like to explain the question. When comparing who has had the better career I’m going by stats, Super Bowls, awards and team success (determined by win/loss record).

With that being said it’s time to break down arguably two of the best QB’s in NFL history along the likes of Joe Montana, Joe Namath and John Elway among many others.

Brett Favre:

69,329 passing yards (1st all time)
497 passing touchdowns (1st all time)
6,083/9,811 completions
86.4 QB rating

11 Pro Bowl selections
3 first team all pro selections
3 second team all pro selections
3x NFL MVP
2x NFC champion
Super Bowl XXXI winner (31)
181 career wins
13 playoff wins
Madden 2009 cover boy(just for humor)

Examination: The good old boy from Gulfport Mississippi was a second round draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons in the 1991 NFL draft. Favre only lasted one year in Atlanta, attempting only four passes in that time. He was traded to the Green Bay Packers for running back Tony Smith and a first round draft pick. Favre’s NFL career started off unlike any other.

After being traded to Green Bay he replaced starting quarterback Don Majkowski in the second game of the 1992 season and after Majkowski had to be finished for the season by week three Favre became the starting quarterback and finished his first season in Green Bay with a 9-7 record missing the playoffs by only one game. He was elected to his first Pro Bowl that season.

Favre led the Packers to their first playoff birth in 1993 while earning his second consecutive Pro Bowl selection. That off season Favre agreed to a $19 million dollar, five year deal.

In 1994 Favre led the Packers to consecutive playoff appearances. A first since the Vince Lombardi era.

From 1995 to 1997 Brett Favre won three consecutive MVP awards in which was arguably one of the best times in his career, which also came at a price.

In May of 1996 Favre went into rehabilitation for Vicodin addiction, which caused a seizure during a hospital visit for various injuries.

From 1998-2002 Favre was entering the middle portion of his now storied NFL career and in 2001 Brett Favre signed a “lifetime contract” with the Green Bay Packers. $180 million, ten year contract to remain a Green Bay Packer, essentially for the rest of his NFL life. Something that would eventually be broken.

On December 21st 2003 Brett’s father died of a heart attack. The next day Favre elected to play on Monday Night Football in one of if not the most memorable games in NFL history, if not at least for Brett Favre. On that night, a day after Favre lost his father he threw for four touchdowns in the first half, 399 total yards in a 41-7 win over the Oakland Raiders.

After the game he said “I knew that my dad would have wanted me to play. I love him so much and I love this game. It’s meant a great deal to me, to my dad, to my family, and I didn’t expect this kind of performance. But I know he was watching tonight”.

2007 could be nicknamed Brett Favre’s milestone year for the simple face that he broke at least three major NFL records in one year. Favre passed John Elway on the all time wins list with 149 against the Giants. Favre passed Dan Marino’s all time touchdown record on September 30th against the Vikings in which he connected with Greg Jennings on a 15 yard slant route to give Favre his 421st touchdown pass in his career.

Favre’s first attempt at retirement came in 2008 when the Packers decided to go with Aaron Rogers as the starting quarterback, at the same time keeping Favre’s contract and not granting him his release.

On August 7th 2008 the Packers traded Favre to the New York Jets for a conditional fourth round pick. In New York Favre started out hot but that diminished toward the end of the season when he was having problems with his throwing shoulder.

One year after trading for Favre the Jets released the quarterback and he was able to sign with any of the 32 NFL teams should he decide to. However Favre made it very clear which team he was going to play for if the deal came right.

That team was the Minnesota Vikings.

After informing Vikings officials that he was retired he later changed his mind and on August 18th 2009 the Vikings and Favre came to an agreement on a two year $25 million dollar contract.

Now five months later the Vikings wait has paid off with the team only one win away from a shot at Super Bowl title.

So reflecting on Brett Favre’s illustrious, history and towards the end controversial career, it’s without a doubt in anyone’s mind that Brett Favre is a sure lock for the NFL hall of fame in Canton Ohio. The only thing standing in the way is Favre’s retirement which no one knows when that will truly happen.

However, is Favre’s career better than Kurt Warner’s? Let’s see.

Kurt Warner:

32,344 passing yards
208 touchdown passes
2,666/4,070 completions
93.7 QB rating

5 Pro Bowl selections
2x MVP
2x first team all pro
Super Bowl XXXIV champion
Super Bowl XXXIV MVP

Examination: Starting out as an undrafted free agent in the 1994 NFL draft being signed by the Green Bay Packers. When Warner was signed he was the fourth quarterback on the depth chart along with Brett Favre(wow two HOF QB’s on the same team), Mark Brunell and Ty Detmer.

Warner was released before the start of the 1994 season. However Steve Mariucc, who at the time was the Packers quarterbacks coach with Mike Holmgren told Warner that he had a lot of potential but was not ready to be an NFL quarterback, not yet.

After Warner was released by the Packers a well known part of his life his the fact that he was working at Hy-Vee stocking shelves.

Warner signed on with an Arena Football league team called the Iowa Barnstormers where he had great success in his short tenure with the league. He’s 12th on the all time list of best AFL players of all time.

In 1998 Warner signed on with the St Louis Rams and was then sent to the NFLE Amsterdam Admirals where he excelled to the top of the league. He returned to the NFL as the Rams third string quarterback.

Warner, much like Favre got the opportunity to start in 1999 when newly signed quarterback Trent Green went down with a torn ACL during the pre season. Warner was named the starting quarterback with the support of Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt and others on the Rams offense.

What do you know the luck of these two quarterbacks continued an in 1999 Kurt Warner exploded onto the scene throwing 41 touchdowns and 4,353. That was the beginning of what was nicknamed the “Greatest Show on Turf”.

In the following season Warner continued his top performance by leading the Rams into the playoffs but due to their poor defensive team the Rams lost to the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the playoffs.

In 2001 Warner led the Rams to an NFL best 6-0 start for three years in a row and a 14-2 record to end the season. The Rams would wind up losing a heart breaker in Super Bowl XXXVI when Adam Vinatieri kicked the game winning field goal to give the Pats the win and the title.

For the next two seasons Warner fell off the table, dropping from his Super Bowl caliber talent down to eventually being replaced in 2003 by Marc Bulger.

In 2004 the Rams elected to release Warner and in two short days later he signed with the New York Giants. He was named the teams starting quarterback in 2004 but was eventually replaced by Eli Manning due to two game losing streak. Before that Warner had the team winning five of their first seven games.

In 2005 Warner’s career would take him to the desert out west when he signed a four million dollar one year contract with the Arizona Cardinals and Dennis Green. Warner was mediocre at best and due to a groin injury he was replaced as the starter by Josh McCown.

Green named McCown the starter for the rest of the 05 season but with McCown struggling two games into his new role as the starter Cardinals head coach Dennis Green gave the job back to Warner. Warner finished the season on a high note defeating his former Rams team before he went down with an MCL injury in week 15.

On February 14th 2006 the Cardinals and Warner came to an agreement on a three year $22 million dollar contract.

To start out the 2006 season Warner broke 20,000 passing yards in only his 76th game becoming the second fastest to reach 20,000 yards.

However two weeks later Warner was replaced by rookie quarterback Matt Leinart where he would remain the start until he went down with a shoulder injury in week 16 giving Warner another start to finish the season.

To start 2007 Matt Leinart was named the Cardinals starting quarterback but due to poor performance in both week three and week four Warner had to finish both games for the struggling quarterback. Leinart was placed on IR and Warner finished out the 2007 season with almost all career highs in touchdowns, yards and completion percentage.

Starting 2008 new Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt named Matt Leinart the starting quarterback for the third year in a row but this time Whisenhunt said that Warner could be the starting quarterback come week one.

And that’s exactly what happened.

In 2008 Warner led the Cardinals to their first division title and playoff birth since 1998. The Cardinals where the biggest underdog in the playoffs and not one person, analyst or fan outside of Arizona gave them a shot but they did what any underdog did and prove everyone wrong.

Warner’s career year kept on going and he led the Cardinals to their first Super Bowl appearance against the Pittsburgh Steelers. For about five minutes in the fourth quarter the Cardinals had the lead but Ben Roethlisberger pulled a miracle in the last minute of the game.

Roethlisberger connected on an amazing reception with Santonio Holmes with :42 seconds left in the game to give the Steelers the lead.

In the off season he contimplated retirement but said he would only play for the Arizona Cardinals. Warner eventually resigned with the Cardinals on March 4th 2009 on a two year $23 million dollar deal.

Warner led the Cardinals back to the playoffs and another NFC West title in 2009. Warner became apart of NFL history when he led the Cardinals to a 51-45 win over the Green Bay Packers. The two teams combined for 96 points, the highest combine total in NFL playoff history.

However the Cardinals lost to the Saints in the divisional round of the playoffs, knocking the team out of another shot at back to back Super Bowls.

Now with Kurt Warner out of the playoff picture it’s time to move into his decision to either retire or come back in 2010 to finish out his contract.

With Matt Leinart still on the roster and Warner being battle tested at the age of 38 some question if he will comeback and that last week Warner hinted that he might retire this off season.

Conclusion: As I’ve been writing this article I’ve gotten to see the two greatest stories in NFL history in my opinion. Favre being drafted and traded to the Packers where he was the third string QB turned hall of famer. Warner went from being an undrafted free agent signie with the Packers to stacking shelves for $5.50 an hour at Hy-Vee before turning into a Super Bowl and NFL MVP quarterback with the Rams and later the Cardinals.

Both of these two quarterbacks are going to be hall of famers but for now both still remain in the game, Favre still fighting for another shot at the Super Bowl.

So what’s the answer to the question at hand? Who has had the better NFL career? Brett Favre or Kurt Warner?

For me it has to be Brett Favre. The guy has broken all major quarterback records and is still playing at an extremely high level at the age of 40. Jerry Rice retired at 41. Will Favre give it another shot? Well I’m betting that will depend on if he’s lifting the Lombardi trophy on February 7th.

To you, who has had the better NFL career? You decide.

You can follow Lars at Twitter http://twitter.com/larshanson