Brett Favre Is The N.Y. Jets' Marketing Savior

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Brett Favre, the great National Football League quarterback, is a marketing savior for the New York Jets.

The Jets desperately needed to add the star power of Favre, a three-time NFL Most Valuable Player. He is the NFL's all-time leader in touchdown passes, passing yards, pass completions -- and, lately, melodrama. The team traded a draft choice to the Green Bay Packers to acquire Favre and is parting ways with its long-time quarterback, Chad Pennington to make room.

Favre, who will turn 39 during the football season, retired from the Packers, his team since 1992, after the end of last season. He then subsequently announced his intention to play again this season in the NFL. The Packers, fearing that he might be washed up, had committed themselves to Favre's back-up. A soap opera ensued on where Favre would wind up playing.

In terms of publicity, at the very least, the news is a godsend for the Jets. The team is marking 40 years since its stirring Super Bowl championship with Joe Namath at quarterback and have almost always been regarded as New York's "other" pro football team. The New York Giants, one of the NFL's oldest and most storied franchises, have owned the city.

Topping off the Jets' anguish, the Giants emerged out of nowhere last year to win the Super Bowl, knocking off the Jets' nemesis, the then-undefeated New England Patriots in the last minute of the big game. The Jets' status is symbolized by the fact that the team has played in GIANTS Stadium, in New Jersey, for a quarter-century.

Favre gives the Jets an opportunity to compete against the Giants in the back pages of the city's tabloids and on sports talk-radio station. In the past 24 hours in New York, the Olympics, the Yankees, the Mets and the Giants have all been second-string stories to the bombshell that Favre had joined the Jets.

There is a tangible business story as well. The Giants and the Jets are getting a new stadium. Favre's emergence makes the Jets just about as important of a story as the Giants' quest to defend their championship. The Jets will have a better shot at selling licensing rights to fans in the new stadium as well as wooing corporate sponsors who will want to run shoulders with the fabled Favre.

New York is a city that feeds on stars, whether they're appearing on Broadway or playing on sports teams. Suddenly, the New York Jets have a superstar of their own.

Of course, the naysayers grumble that Favre is ancient by the standards of the NFL. There are questions of whether he will be past his prime this season and even capable of staying healthy for an entire 16-game season. Can Favre help the Jets rebound from a disastrous season when the team failed to qualify for the playoffs? (And as a corollary, can the Packers, who made it as far as the National Football Conference championship game last season, win without their longtime leader?)

Jets chairman and Chief Executive Woody Johnson sounded as much like a business executive as a diehard fan when he said early Thursday: "I am looking forward to seeing Brett Favre in a New York Jets uniform. He represents a significant addition to this franchise, and reflects our commitment to putting the best possible product on the field."

For now, anyway, Jet fans aren't worrying about the "what-if" questions. They're celebrating the arrival of one of the most glamorous sports stars in the country.

Whether Favre is still great or not, he is making the Jets big time overnight. And that represents a major victory in itself.

What do you think of Brett Favre joining the New York Jets?

By Jon Friedman