Superman was nervous, shaking in his cape.
It’s true, before the most important drive in as long as anyone can remember for the Jets, Brett Favre was shaking in his cleats as he walked to the huddle in overtime against the Patriots with the future of a franchise hanging precariously in the balance.
“I was nervous as heck,” Favre conceded after leading the Jets to their epic and electrifying 34-31 overtime win over the hated Patriots on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium with the kind of flawless performance that will further forge his legend en route to the Hall of Fame.
“Everyone’s coming up (and saying), ‘Hey, this is where you do your thing.’ And I’m thinking, ‘My God, why can’t we make this easier?’ ” Favre said. “It’s true, that’s what I’m capable of doing, but believe me there was no one more nervous in this building than me.
“I’m no different than anyone else.”
That’s where Favre is wrong. Dead wrong. This guy is different. Just look at the results. Just look at how many times he has done this. Just look at the way he conducts himself under the most excruciating of pressure.
Just ask his teammates.
“You get into the huddle and you look into No. 4’s eyes and you know you are going to have a chance to win,” running back Leon Washington said yesterday. “The first thing he said when he came into the huddle was how sure he was that we were going to go down and put points on the board.
“I heard he said he was nervous, but to me that’s more a confident nervousness. When Brett has ball in his hands at the end of the game you know you’re going to have a chance to win.”
Favre, methodically leading the Jets into game-winning field goal range, showed his character, his resilience, and why he was brought here with the hope that there will be more and more of these moments to carry the Jets deep into January and perhaps beyond.
“Brett just instills confidence in the group,” coach Eric Mangini said. “There’s a sense of ease when he has the ball, because you feel like he’s going to get it to the right place. If the play doesn’t look like it’s supposed to look, he’s going to make something happen that makes it right.”
Wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery said he “didn’t see any nervousness” on Favre’s face in the huddle during that game-winning drive.
“I just saw a quiet confidence when he stepped into the huddle,” Cotchery said. “When he stepped into the huddle we knew we were going to be able to get it done because that’s the way he’s been the entire year.
“We brought him in here for situations like (Thursday) night – to lead us down in those crucial moments. We brought him in to be able to lead this team to where we need to go.”
The Jets, who own first place in the AFC East by themselves for the first time in some seven years, cannot fall into a trap of contentment after finally vanquishing their rival.
The division is still very tight. The Titans, their next opponent, depending on what happens this Sunday between Tennessee and Jacksonville, still could be undefeated when the Jets go to Nashville on Nov. 23.
And the Jets will be coming off one of their biggest recent victories.
“Who knows what happens from this point forward, but I think it does a lot for our team,” Favre said of beating the Patriots. “It’s a big win, but the Patriots still have a lot of football left, they’ll be right in the thick of it as always. We just gave ourselves a much better shot.”
Indeed, the Jets took a one-game lead on the Patriots and tied the season series in taking first place in the division.
“It wasn’t the Super Bowl,” Favre said. “We’ve still got a lot of football left, but that was fun. It was one game. A big one, I’ll say that.”
