No Substitute for Sundays: Brett Favre and His Year in the Huddle with the New York Jets
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.
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Book details
- Author
- Steve Serby
- Imprint
- Trade Paper Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 312
- Formats
- Hardcover
- Subjects
- Sports & Recreation › Football
- ISBN-13
- 9780470464946
About the author
STEVE SERBY is a sportswriter and columnist for the New York Post with more than fifty years at the paper, and the co-author of the New York Times bestseller LT: Over the Edge. His books include No Substitute for Sundays: Brett Favre and His Year in the Huddle with the New York Jets.
In 2025, Serby was named New York Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association, sharing the honor with ESPN’s Rich Cimini. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Ohio University, earned in 1971.
When he’s not writing, Serby has covered the NFL for decades, serving as the New York Jets beat writer beginning in 1977 and as a national NFL columnist from 1983, while writing a weekly Sunday Q&A column since 2004.
