Where the hell did he come from? This past Sunday Matt Flynn, the backup quarterback for the defending champion Green Bay Packers, had a record-setting game in which he threw for 480 yards and 6 touchdowns against the Detroit Lions. Both of those numbers are records for a Green Bay Packer quarterback. That’s right! The records for most TDs and passing yards in a single game by a Green Bay quarterback is now held by Matt Flynn. Not Brett Favre. Not Aaron Rodgers. Not Bart Starr. Matt Mothereffin’ Flynn. So…how does the media covering the NFL interpret this statistical anomaly? Do they give Matt Flynn, Mike McCarthy and the Packers skill players their props? Some, but not as much as you might think. What I’m mostly hearing is the effect Matt Flynn’s performance has on Aaron Rodgers’ chances of winning the MVP this season. In their defense that argument has some weight. From their perspective, if the back-up can do that against a playoff team, then maybe Drew Brees is the MVP and Aaron Rodgers is merely the talented beneficiary of an unbelievably well-run offense. That makes some sense, but we need to keep things in perspective here because Drew Brees also benefits greatly from having talented skill players with Colston, Graham, Meachem, Lance Moore, Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles. And Brees, unlike Rodgers, actually has a running game and plays 8 games a year in a dome where he can run his explosive offense in a weather-controlled environment, so I would consider them both about equal in terms of the offensive weapons they have at their disposal. And let’s not forget that Sean Payton and Mike McCarthy are both great head coaches who are currently wearing Superbowl rings.
If we go back about 10 years the New England Patriots were playing the New York Jets in a regular season game in which Drew Bledsoe suffered a hit that caused internal bleeding, resulting in the 2nd string quarterback coming into the game. That 2nd string quarterback was a 6th round pick out of Michigan and was the 4th string quarterback at one point. You might have heard of him. His name is Tom Brady. I won’t go into the details, but Tom Brady has gone on to become one of the greatest quarterbacks of this generation (possibly ever) because he capitalized on an opportunity to prove himself. I’m not going to suggest that Matt Flynn is going to be the next Tom Brady, or even the next Matt Cassel, but I’m simply going to ask the following: Why can’t the back-up be any good? Why does it reflect negatively on the skill level of the starter if the back-up has a great game in his place? Every bench player in the NFL wants to start and is always looking for an opportunity to prove himself to his own team as well as the rest of the league who all have seen this game and will take a long look at Flynn when his contract expires. I’m sure the Jets, Redskins, Browns, Dolphins and Broncos (sorry Tebow fans, but he sucks) think differently about Flynn than they did before Sunday.
Flynn’s spectacular performance this past Sunday only proves one thing: Matt Flynn has the potential to be a good NFL quarterback if given the chance to start. Pro athletes, and especially NFL players, have short careers and even shorter primes. When an opportunity presents itself, only a fool wouldn’t do everything possible to make the most of it. Matt Flynn did what every back-up quarterback wishes they could do: He vaulted his way out of obscurity. He’s no longer just another back-up. He has value now. He will get a starting job at some point, and it’s because he did exactly what Tom Brady, Kurt Warner and Matt Cassel did: He took advantage of an opportunity. Other than that, there is nothing else. The media has created a story from a non-story. Aaron Rodgers led his team to a 14-1 season prior to Week 17 with victories over New Orleans, at Chicago (before Cutler and Forte got hurt), at Atlanta, at Detroit and at the Giants. Of those key wins, only Chicago isn’t a playoff team and that’s because Cutler and Forte got hurt. His one loss was to a mediocre Kansas City team. Meanwhile, the Saints’ most difficult games were a loss at Green Bay with wins over Chicago, Detroit, the Giants and Atlanta twice (once at home and on the road). But, they had bad losses to St. Louis and Tampa Bay (both of whom are awful with Tampa at 4-12 and St. Louis at 2-14) which hurts Drew Brees in his bid to win the MVP way more than Matt Flynn’s performance on Sunday or Green Bay’s loss to the Chiefs could ever hurt Aaron Rodgers’ chances of winning the MVP. I’m sick of the media trying to make stories out of nothing, especially during the playoffs when there is never a shortage of intriguing storylines and matchups. Aaron Rodgers is the MVP this season. It’s locked up. He is the best player on the best team in the NFL and could possibly win his 2nd straight Superbowl. Let’s just give him the award and move on to something else.