No Substitute for Sundays: Brett Favre and His Year in the Huddle with the New York Jets - Hardcover

Based on interviews with dozens of players and significant team personnel, including owner Woody Johnson, long-time New York Post columnist Steve Serby brings to light juicy new information about Brett Favre's season with the New York Jets. This powerful account reveals:

• Behind-the-scenes details of the negotiations, including key correspondence, that brought Favre to the Jets
• Woody Johnson's thoughts on the ineffable appeal of Namath, Favre, and top draft pick Mark Sanchez
• That Favre kept trying to convince himself that he had made the right decision to play in New York
• How Favre tried to fit in, but also resisted team rules
• The pranks Favre would play, even on his coaches
• How Favre elevated Woody Johnson?s expectations for the team, which ultimately doomed Head Coach Eric Mangini
• Woody Johnson's admission on why Mangini was fired
• The tackle that hurt Favre's arm, as described by the player who made it, and how the team didn?t adjust to his weakening arm
• That Favre, over the last 4-5 weeks of the season, threw the ball sparingly in practice; instead, he often handed off to rest his arm as Kellen Clemens made most of the throws
• How discarded Jet quarterback Chad Pennington handled his signing with the archrival Miami Dolphins and his final showdown against the man who replaced him with the division title on the line

With scores of black-and-white photos and a color insert, No Substitute For Sundays shows why Favre can?t give up the game or give up on himself.

On August 7, 2008, the New York Jets announced that future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre would come out of retirement and pilot Gang Green through a suddenly much more promising season. Jets Nation was electrified. The tri-state area mobilized for action, ready for the most exciting autumn since the days of Joe Namath. And the fans would not be disappointed?at least not right away.

In No Substitute for Sundays, longtime New York Post sports columnist Steve Serby captures the ups and downs of Favre's bold, brief tenure with the Jets and what seemed destined to be the swan song of his legendary NFL career.

How does a team coming off of an utterly dismal season persuade one of the greatest and most famous athletes in any sport, a man who holds records for everything from the most career touchdown passes and the most consecutive starts among NFL quarterbacks to the most career victories as a starting quarterback, to climb aboard what looks like a sinking ship? Serby takes you behind the scenes for a fascinating look at Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum's furious campaign to woo Favre, keep ahead of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who also had a strong interest in aquiring him, and craft a trade deal acceptable to the Green Bay Packers.

It's not often that an NFL quarterback gets to face the man he replaced, or the man who replaced him, twice in one season. Serby provides absorbing parallel portraits of Favre and former Jets quarterback Chad Pennington as they battled each other in blistering heat in the season opener. The Jets' victory seemed like the best of omens for Favre and his new team at the time, but the rivals would meet again.

With an opening rant by WFAN's Joe Benigno, this action-packed account includes extensive coverage of the 2008 season, including the thrilling highlights of the game against the Cardinals in which Favre threw six touchdowns, a career high. It also tracks the at-first subtle, then unmistakable, signs that Favre's fragile shoulder was failing, and the Jets were failing with it. Serby takes you deep inside the momentous final game of the season in which the team faced Pennington and the Dolphins again, this time with a very different outcome.

Packed with the kind of savvy insights that only Steve Serby can deliver, as well as scores of photos of Favre and his teammates, No Substitute for Sundays takes a bittersweet look at a season filled with hope, exhilaration, and compelling drama as well as disappointment and despair. It is essential reading for Favre and Jet fans or anyone who loves football.