Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Quarterback Brain-Types

A so-called expert in brain-typing allegedly has Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers pegged.

The recent book by football writer Bruce Feldman titled The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks was released on Wednesday and to promote it, FoxSports.com published an excerpt.

For Packers fans, the excerpt is notable for references to quarterbacks Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.

As part of the narrative, Feldman describes how former NFL and college football coach June Jones met Jonathan Niednagel, an expert in brain-typing, although one without any scientific credentials.

Niednagel allegedly discovered a way to catalog people's brain-types into one of 16 different combinations.

According to Feldman, "Niednagel said he could talk to a person and gauge how his mind was wired by his voice inflection and diction as well as by eyeballing his facial features."

It all sounds highly speculative, but as the story goes onto illustrate, some of the game's greatest quarterbacks all fell into the same category, players like Joe Montana, John Elway, Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Jim Kelly, Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw, Fran Tarkenton and Brett Favre.

While not known for being highly cerebral and adverse to structure, all the quarterbacks are notable for an ability to improvise and thrive under pressure.

An anecdote is related about Jones coaching Favre his rookie season in the NFL and his eventual trade to Green Bay:

Jones actually was the Falcons’ offensive coordinator when the team drafted Favre in the second round in 1991. Favre lasted one season in Atlanta before he was traded to Green Bay. He attempted four passes, had two of them intercepted, and the other two went incomplete.

“I thought Favre was inaccurate and drunk for 18 straight months. [Atlanta starting QB] Chris Miller was in the Pro Bowl, and we needed help on defense,” recalled Jones, who wasn’t surprised to learn that Favre was wired to thrive under pressure. “If you go back in college, he won so many games on the last drive. In two years, I think he had 13 wins and, like, 10 of them came on the last drive.”

Jones said if he knew then what he knows now, the Falcons never would have traded Favre to Green Bay. “I[t] would’ve been different if I knew and I knew how to coach him,” he said. “In two-minute situations, let him call his own plays. In those heated situations, Kelly went no-huddle; Favre, Elway, Marino -- they all called their own plays. Let them lead.”

Rodgers, meanwhile, apparently doesn't fit into the same brain-type as Favre and the other aforementioned quarterbacks, but his does fall into a group of other quarterbacks thriving in today's NFL:

“Type No. 13s are typically the ace on baseball pitching staffs, but their wiring isn’t optimum for quarterbacks,” Niednagel said. Still, it seemed that as the NFL was becoming more open to mobile QBs, more and more No. 13s were thriving. Aaron Rodgers was a No. 13, and so were Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III.

You can read the entire excerpt here, which goes in-depth into the Peyton Manning/Ryan Leaf debate of 1998.

NFL Categories: 
0 points
 

Comments (7)

Fan-Friendly This filter will hide comments which have ratio of 5 to 1 down-vote to up-vote.
Amanofthenorth's picture

October 31, 2014 at 04:26 am

As a number 69 I find this interesting.

0 points
0
0
JimTaylor31's picture

October 31, 2014 at 08:42 am

Oh my!!! LOL.....

0 points
0
0
Doug_In_Sandpoint's picture

October 31, 2014 at 11:48 am

Cow's brain must be #2.

I use infantile scatalogical humor because I care.

0 points
0
0
Bearmeat's picture

October 31, 2014 at 12:36 pm

Great read. Thanks

0 points
0
0
Paul Griese's picture

October 31, 2014 at 10:05 pm

Hand size, and then this. Maybe.

0 points
0
0
tundravision's picture

November 02, 2014 at 10:41 am

Danny, I'm a big Myers Briggs guy myself, and thought exactly the same when I saw 16 types.

And as an ENTP myself, I find it rather complimentary to think AR and i have something in common besides good looks. :)

0 points
0
0
packsmack's picture

November 03, 2014 at 01:18 pm

Yeah....athletic brain-typing is a pseudoscience. This is like saying wearing a magnet makes you a better athlete.

0 points
0
0