NFC Championship - "Favre's Final Playoff Game"
NFC Championship - "Favre's Final Playoff Game"
2009 - Vikings vs. Saints

NFC Championship - "Favre's Final Playoff Game"

"Let's go to the Super Bowl, boys." - Sean Payton
Peter King
by Peter King

The 2009 NFC Championship game between the Vikings and Saints in the Louisiana Superdome on the evening of January 24, 2010 was one with two major storylines: New Orleans, less than five years after Hurricane Katrina and coming off consecutive seasons without a winning record, were looking to win their first-ever conference championship. And the Vikings, quarterbacked by the 40-year-old Brett Favre in perhaps his final playoff game, were trying to reach their first Super Bowl since the 1970s. The game didn’t disappoint: the teams exchanged touchdowns throughout, with neither side leading by more than 7, and when the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson scored a touchdown with under five minutes to go, one of three for him on the night, it was 28-28. Favre had been bruised and battered throughout the game by a physical Saints defense. In the final moments, Favre again led the Vikings down the field, but with 19 seconds left, a pass intended for Sidney Rice was intercepted – one of five Minnesota turnovers – and the game went into overtime. After New Orleans won the coin flip, a 40-yard field goal by the Saints’ Garrett Hartley lifted the Saints into the Super Bowl. “It’s a moment I’ve been waiting for for a long time and obviously we’re not done yet,” quarterback Drew Brees said afterward. And he was right: the Saints upset the Colts, 31-17, to win Super Bowl XLIV.

Peter King
Peter
King
Peter King is a three-time National Sportswriter of the Year who is currently an NFL insider for NBC Sports. As a former reporter at Sports Illustrated, King wrote the widely-popular “Monday Morning Quarterback” column from 1997 to 2018. For NBC, he contributes to the studio show “Football Night in America” and writes a weekly NFL column for NBCsports.com. He is the author of five books on professional football, and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s board of selectors.
Profession:
reporter
Place of Birth:
Springfield, MA