A Reflection on Brett Favre From The Perspective of a Bears Fan

Brett Favre.

Just seeing his name makes my blood boil. The yearly beatings. The season after season of seeing the Packers at the top of the NFC Central. Watching him cut our secondary apart again and again and again.

Every season I would wish him harm and every season he would dominate. Each Bears vs. Packers game would leave a trail of smashed chips, spilt drinks and profanity laced tirades...and that was when we would actually win a game.

Brett Favre has caused me more mental anguish than any other professional athlete in my life.

I hate him. I loathe him. I curse his very name and most importantly, I respect him.

Let's just take the past two years and forget about them for the moment. Brett Favre has had a sparkling career. He was the iron man of football. Playing a position that takes some of the more brutal hits in the game, he not only persevered, he excelled.

His gun-slinging mentality is famous. His love for the game was evident in everything he did on the field. He played with guts and moxy. Sure he would force throws, but who doesn't? A lot more of those passes would end up in the right person's hands.

He led the Packers to the playoffs more times than I care to remember. Many of those times, he wasn't supported by the greatest of running backs or suffocating defenses.

He won a well deserved Super Bowl. He led one of the more prominent NFL franchises back to glory. He was a good ole boy. A person that could have been your next door neighbor. What made Brett Favre so popular was his easy demeanor, his likability, and his dedication to the team that gave him a chance.

If Favre stays retired, five years from now, no one will really care about the Jets experiment. It will be viewed much like Montana's stint with the Chiefs. And that is how it should be.

The day Favre is inducted into the hall of fame, I will applaud. I will applaud that he is gone. I will applaud that the Bears no longer have to face him. I will applaud I won't have to see No. 4 celebrating another touchdown pass in our end zone.

But most of all, I will applaud a career that has been spectacular. I will applaud Brett Favre because he is a man that I would have cheered on had he not been a HOFer playing for a rival in my division.