Just How Badly has Favre Screwed Up His Legacy

Besides athletes that became felons or were involved in scandals, such as Michael Vick or Mark Mcgwire, I have never seen a player who was once as heralded as Brett Favre  lose as many fans as he has. What makes everything even stranger is that this has happened to Favre at the age of 39.

As I went on facebook two days ago, here were the first 6 updates on the news feed.

1. is calling Brett Favre a panzy...make up your damn mind...stay retired or play the game...stop retiring,playing,retiring,playing,retiring, thinking of coming back, going back to retirement, and now wanting to play...god dang...pick something and sti...ck to it, they said John Kerry flipped alot, he got nothing on Favre...Read More
2. ******* favre...what the hell is your problem
3. damn you favre!!!!!!!!
4. wow Brett seriously...
5. My sports mind is already overloaded with Michael Vick stories. Now I have to deal with Brett Favre stories overshadowing Sportscenter again because he's apparently signing today? I give up.
6. Hopes Brett Favres season ends as abruptly as Brady's did last year.

Five out of the six were negative to say the least, and the other one very well could be depending on the tone intended.  After checking facebook, I  immediately turned on ESPN, and not to my surprise, Favre was expected to sign with the Vikings.

After seeing all of those negative comments on facebook, it finally hit me just how bad Favre has screwed up his legacy.

Favre at one point was the face of the NFL. He was the NFL's loveable Golden Boy, who was known for loving to play the game so much. He seemed to be someone pure in a greedy world where loyalty and real love for anything is so hard to find. Favre brought that purity to the game that many had thought had dissappeared.

With players like Terrell Owens and Randy Moss seemingly being all about themselves, Favre reminded us of that llittle boy inside all of us that wasn't in it for the money or himself, but rather for the love of the game. Since the beginning of Favre's career people would always say, "He still plays likes a kid playing catch in his backyard"  Favre was type of player that even opposing fans couldn't help but like.

He was a great team leader, a family man, a down to earth guy, and of course a great football player. Favres career couldn't have gone any better. In a way, he even became a little overrated, because of just how much people liked him. Many people overlooked the interceptions, the failed playoff success, the low quarterback ratings, and ranked him as a top five quarterback.

Then after years of contemplating retirement, Favre prematurley did. Since then his legacy has been on a downward spiral.

When I look back at everything, there are so many things that most people would have handled differently than the way Favre did.

First off, why did he need to think about whether he wanted to play again every single off-season?

Besides the fact that the decision should have been pretty obvious, why didn't he just not mention anything and gone into every off-season like he was still going to play football. Then if he did want to retire at some point deeper in the off-season, he would have had the opportunity to do so. Many athletes have done this. Most recently Derrick Mason did this. Instead Favre wanted the off-season to be about him, and his last two to three games of the season to be about whether these games are going to be his last or not.

Besides, Favre never actually retired anyway, so if he had done what I said, everything could have been avoided and he would probably still be playing for the Packers now.

Secondly,  Why did Favre hold a news conference, cry, announce his retirement, ride into the sunset, and then come back before the season even started.

Yes I know other players have unretired, but how many have done it in the same off-season?

Normal people just don't behave that way. Did he really have a change of heart in those few months.

At the time he said,

"I know I can still play, but it's like I told my wife, I'm just tired mentally. I'm just tired," Favre, a three-time NFL MVP, told ESPN's Chris Mortensen in a voice mail message.

"If I felt like coming back -- and Deanna [his wife] and I talked about this -- the only way for me to be successful would be to win a Super Bowl. To go to the Super Bowl and lose, would almost be worse than anything else. Anything less than a Super Bowl win would be unsuccessful," Favre said in the message.

"I know it shouldn't feel unsuccessful, but the only way to come back and make that be the right decision would be to come back and win a Super Bowl. And honestly, the odds of that, they're tough. Those are big shoes for me to fill, and I guess it was a challenge I wasn't up for. "

So all of a sudden after a few months, Favre was up for the challenge, and believed he could win a Super Bowl for the Packers?

Then comes this off-season, in which Favre basically kissed most of his fans goodbye.

Last summer, despite Favre's behavior, a lot people took Favre's side over the Packers' side. But this summer, with Favre, changing his mind virtually every other week about going to the Vikings, a rival of the team he is suppose to be loyal to, he has pissed off a lot of fans, especially Packers fans.

I have no doubt that Favre delayed signing with the Vikings because he wanted to test out his arm and make sure he could still play. But let's not kid ourselves, the timing of Favre's supposed signing with the Vikings isn't coincidental. This is around the same time, just ten days later from when he was traded to the Jets last summer.

Many people predicted a long time ago that he would sign with the Vikings right before or in the beginning of pre-season.We all know that Favre wanted to miss all of the off-season training and workouts, which is understandable for a guy his age. However, couldn' t he have just told the Vikings that if he was going to sign with them, it would be afterwards. The Vikings clearly showed that they didn't care if he didn't partake in these activities because they just signed him. If this was Favre's plan all along, why did he need to play games with the Vikings, the Media, and the Fans?

Now that Favre has signed with the Vikings, he has in a sense betrayed the Green Bay Packers. Favre's thought for doing this is that Green Bay didn't want him anymore,  and he wants to win a Super Bowl. He believes he is the missing piece of the Minnesota Vikings. I'm still not sure why he wants to win a Super Bowl so bad, when he is just hurting  his legacy even more by trying to win one.

Most quarterbacks want to win Super Bowls to define their legacy. Favre signing with the Vikings is damaging his legacy in Wisconsin and Green Bay. Not to mention his circus flip flopping this off-season has basically destroyed most of it already.

It seems hypocritical in a way to be obsessed with winning a Super Bowl, something that is supposed to help define a players legacy, when the obsession      has damaged his legacy in other ways.

Now it seems, that his pure love for the game that he was heralded for having may have actually been his pure love for attention, winning, and playing in only regular season games.

I know there are a lot of Packer fans that are upset at Favre right now. But do the memories of the last 18 years disappear because of the last two summers?

It sad to say that sometimes in life, no matter how much good you have done for most of it, a big blimp at the end can change everything.

While this is an exaggeration, I hope you understand the point of it. If a man is a great man for most of his life, but at the very end he murders someone, nobody remembers that he was a great man.

The good thing for Favre is that he hasn't murdered anyone. Favre has just been very selfish and all about himself the last  5 years. Favre can still manage to save his legacy somewhat. But there is only one way to do this. If he wins a Super Bowl, many people will forget all of his craziness. But even so, when it's all said done, he will never be the golden boy he once was.