The picturesque beachfront city of Gulfport, Mississippi is known for producing one of America's favorite sons, Brett Lorenzo Favre, but I am definitely not a fan of his.
At one point he was my favorite quarterback in the game not named Dan Marino. Maybe it was his love for the game, his wide grin, or maybe it was his appearance in There's Something About Mary. Whatever it was, I liked Favre. Alas, the feelings have fled, faster than Lindsay Lohan at an accident scene.
There's no denying that Favre isn't worthy of praise. The guy has seemingly done it all in the game. For many, NFL stood for Not For Long but Favre has been the Cal Ripken, Jr. of the NFL starting in 281 consecutive games, regular season and playoffs.
He's number one in career touchdown passes, career passing yards, career victories as a starting quarterback, and interceptions thrown. He's the only player to win three MVP awards. He led the Green Bay Packers from years of despair to prosperity, taking them to the playoffs seven times since 1992. They were able to win Super Bowl XXXI in 1997 over the New England Patriots.
So why after such an impressive resume (minus the interceptions) do I dislike the man? For one, the fanfare is just sickening. I can understand the fans of Green Bay loving him but what about the journalists? John Madden and those at ESPN seem to wet themselves every time they cover Favre. As if the man can't do any wrong.
The man is the career leader in interceptions yet whenever he throws up a pass that gets picked off we hear, "Favre was trying to make a play there" or "That's Favre being Favre." I'm sorry, most of the time, "that's Favre being stupid." Let J.T. O'Sullivan throw three picks in a game and see how fast people stone him.
That little shovel pass he tossed last year to Donald Lee that made everyone go nuts. Okay, it was thinking on your feet but has no one ever improvised and done something similar. What if it got intercepted, I wonder? Or how about Tyler Thigpen tried that and a defender picked it off? I'm sure the announcer would have said Thigpen should have taken the sack.
All the tragedy that has happened to him, while sad and unfortunate was used by the media to heighten the love everybody had for the man. He played that game in Oakland the day after his father past. But Favre passed for four touchdowns in the first half in a rout and we were constantly reminded of how amazing Favre was for doing this. Again, it's sad, but there are countless men and women who go to work after hearing similar sad news.
Men are out there, who don't play football, and have wives or loved ones with breast cancer or had their homes destroyed by Mother Nature. We don't hear of them because they are not in the public eye and that is understandable but just because you are a public figure shouldn't make your life seem more important than the rest. But, again, there is no humor in having cancer, losing family members, or your home.
Moving on...
Why are we cheering a guy who showed he is extremely selfish? Do we all forget the two-step Favre seems to do after each season as of late? We all thought he wouldn't play after 2006...pause for dramatic effect, Favre will return. The year after, same story.
How fair is it that one man can hold an entire organization hostage while they wait to hear him mimic Arnold Schwarznegger and utter, "I'll be back"? A team is more than one player, yet you wouldn't know that watching what use to happen in Wisconsin. Team officials couldn't decide which direction they would take because they didn't know what Favre was going to do.
Shift to March 4, 2008 where we officially get Favre's retirement from the game he loves so much. Just over three months later we hear Favre is thinking about unretiring. So just when the organization is moving ahead with the future of the organization, here comes Favre.
Fans in Green Bay began clamoring for No. 4 to return as well as heckling Favre's successor, Aaron Rodgers. Hey, Cheese Heads, do you think Favre is going to play until he's 50? Don't you think you've got to move on some time?
Favre and Green Bay management got into a war of words and it was all we heard about over the summer. The NFL even threw in their two cents and showed they wanted Favre back in the game by extending deadlines for Favre's reinstatement papers.
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