Columnist Dean Juipe: Favre's wily ways a plus for Packers

He refers to himself as a riverboat gambler and that's how he plays.

Risks? Brett Favre takes them all the time as he quarterbacks the Green Bay Packers.

He likes to run, in spite of the negatives.

He likes to throw the ball to a pinpoint crease, seemingly defying defenders.

He likes to get involved, extending his fakes with playground-like audacity and blocking for a running back when need be.

He smiles, he laughs, he comes across as perfectly content to be labeled a grown-up, madcap juvenile.

He is also one of the most popular players in the National Football League and has been its Most Valuable Player the past three seasons.

Favre, who just turned 29, is in the midst of a Hall of Fame career, having guided the Packers to three consecutive NFC title games and two straight Super Bowl appearances.

Yet before he stepped on to Lambeau Field for Sunday's game with the Baltimore Ravens, he found himself in the curious position of having to pacify a legion of testy interviewers and analysts. Their chief insinuation: Favre had taken his daring into the danger zone and had become predictably undisciplined.

Nine interceptions in his three previous games fueled their fire.

A 28-10 victory extinguished it for at least a week.

The Packers are 5-2 with these difficult games immediately ahead: San Francisco; at Pittsburgh; at the New York Giants; and at Minnesota. A month from now they may not look like Super Bowl contenders.

But it's too soon to write them off just yet, although Las Vegas bettors are now putting their money elsewhere when it comes to Super Bowl XXXIII futures. Green Bay, once the 3-to-1 favorite to win it all, has since fallen behind Denver, San Francisco and Minnesota.

A word of advice: Don't blame Favre if the Packers are toppled. It's his play-making ability that provides the team with its only real offense.

"Making plays got me here where I am," Favre said before the Baltimore game. "I'm still going to run around like a chicken with its head cut off."

It's his style and it's effective. The drawback these days is the lack of diversity in the Green Bay attack, the result of an injury to running back Dorsey Levens and the failure to develop an outside receiving threat to complement Antonio Freeman. The team also lost three 1997 starters to free agency last summer.

Favre, and head coach Mike Holmgren, showed the Ravens a few new wrinkles, intermittently going to a no-huddle offense while allowing Favre the freedom to improvise. He looked good even if the team sputtered at times with penalties and errors.

"He's still slinging the ball and not stepping forward," critiqued TV analyst Sam Wyche, and perhaps it's a valid complaint. And maybe sometimes Favre puts a little too much mustard on his passes, as Baltimore head coach Ted Marchibroda pointed out when he said "I've been around the league 30 years and I've never seen anyone throw the ball so hard."

So Favre is unorthodox. And he's wild. But he's also durable, having started 100 consecutive games, and he's a winner.

He's the focal point of the Packers and a player with terrific mystique.

Critics should look elsewhere for a whipping boy even if Green Bay doesn't win another game.

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