Green Bay Packers Deserve to Lose to Brett Favre and the Vikings on Opening Day.

Ingrates.

Backstabbers.

Traitors.

These are not the words we generally associate with Green Bay fans, who are notoriously some of the most loyal and knowledgeable in the NFL. 

These are the fans that brave sub-freezing conditions to keep Lambeau field’s mind-boggling consecutive sell-out streak at over 250 regular season games, a streak that started in 1960 and doesn’t include games that were played in Milwaukee before that.

These are the fans that have over 74,000 names on the waiting list in the hopes of one day securing season tickets. 

The fans who were recently awarded tickets first put their name in the hat in the mid-1970s. 

These are the fans that sold out all those games in spite of having only FIVE winning seasons between 1968 and 1991. But then came 1992.

This was the year that the Packer’s acquired Brett Favre from the Atlanta Falcons for a first-round pick. This was the year Favre replaced Don Majkowski (a.k.a. Aaron Rodgers, the can’t-miss kid) and promptly won the Packers their first game of the season, starting an INSANE streak of 271 consecutive starts for the club.  He’s never missed a game. 

He brought his fiery best to each one of those starts, even becoming addicted to painkillers just so he could trot out onto the field for the adoring Green Bay faithful.

Over the next 15 seasons, the Packers had 13 winning seasons (and one .500 season), or roughly three times as many as they had been privy to during nearly a quarter century of futility prior to Favre’s arrival. 

For all the talk of Green Bay’s titles, only three have come in the Super Bowl era, and the first two were from times when the AFL and NFL were separate leagues. 

Green Bay had become a laughingstock, equivalent to the Lions or Cardinals, and was consistently among the league’s worst. 

You think Matt Millen’s drafting of Mike Williams was a fiasco? Try drafting Tony Mandarich when Barry Sanders, Deion Sanders, and Derrick Thomas were still on the board. 

Favre brought respectability back to Green Bay at a time when the franchise was teetering on the brink. He brought the playoffs, the NFC championship, the Super Bowl title, the MVP, the Sports Illustrated covers, the reemergence of a sports tradition, and the notoriety of a forgotten, backwoods, small-market team. 

Brett Favre brought Green Bay respect.

One would think that he deserves a little respect in return.

Apparently, not in Green Bay.

The pressure started building during the disastrous 2005 season when Green Bay went 4-12, and Favre suffered his worst season as a pro. Despite throwing for over 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns, Green Bay fans were quick to point out his league-worst 29 interceptions, and gave him little slack for losing half his offensive line, having no running game, and throwing to receivers who consistently ran the wrong routes. 

No quarterback can play on an island, and Favre was definitely the only man worth a damn on that team. Add to this the turmoil of Hurricane Katrina and the leveling of his family’s Mississippi home, and it is no wonder that Favre had a down year. 

Though you can pin many of those interceptions on him, you can’t pin the losses.  That team was terrible, but the calls for newly drafted and unproven quarterback Aaron Rodgers became rallying cries as if everyone had forgotten sense, reason, or any semblance of loyalty.

The next year, the team got better, as young, inexperienced players started to step up and the offensive line improved, but the options were still limited. Favre again had a sub-par year, throwing 18 touchdowns, but a more reasonable 18 interceptions. The rumblings for Rodgers were becoming a roar.

Then, 2007 happened.

Acute free-agent moves and the maturation of a young core presented Favre with a legitimate team once again, and his numbers were insane. He posted one of the best quarterback ratings of his career and threw for over 4,000 yards, pitching 28 TDs versus only 15 interceptions. 

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?