Brett Favre: Matt Ryan ‘is so deserving’ of Super Bowl

Brett Favre is happy with Matt Ryan.

He isn’t happy that the Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback led his team to a trouncing of Favre’s former club, the Green Bay Packers, in the NFC Championship Game.

‘He’s always handled himself in a classy, respectful manner’

But Favre is thrilled Ryan has a chance, finally, to play on the game’s biggest stage in Super Bowl LI against the New England Patriots.

“I think he’s so deserving,” Favre said during his regular appearance on the SiriusXM Blitz. “And I say that, it’s not that I’m pulling for him or against him, but he’s always handled himself in a respectful, classy manner, win or lose. He has been labeled with, ‘Yeah, but,’ and that’s not the case anymore. So kudos to him.

‘The most pressure-packed game he’s ever played in’

“And, quite frankly, you have to admire the way he played in, really, up to this point, the most pressure-packed game he’s ever played in. And I don’t care how good you’ve played up to that point, again, the pressure builds. I say this all the time — a guy like Aaron Rodgers, he would know what I’m talking about; Tom Brady, Big Ben, (Drew) Brees, all these guys — what happens is, when you set the standard of play that is like astronomical, I found that each week, it’s hard to live up to that and play to that capability.

“If you made a hole-in-one three times in a row and people expected that a fourth time, at some point, it ain’t going to happen. And so you’ve got to feel like playing at a level that really is untouched by many guys is hard to keep up week in and week out. And you throw into the element of the defense and just the factors of the game — a guy trips and falls, you throw a pick that was just a perfect pass — so when it’s really hitting on all cylinders, it’s really impressive. And I don’t think people who are not directly associated with the game have no idea how really hard that is to do.”

Photo: AP Photo/David Goldman