The Monster In The Mirror: Who Will Grow Up To Wear Number Four?

Two of the greatest five quarterbacks to ever play the game are still playing it, but as things might have it, one of them is going to the Superbowl and one threw his last pass tonight (perhaps? I can never be certain, after all).

Favre's last pass in enemy purple was ironically the same as his last pass in homefield yellow: an interception in the NFC Championship game.

And it was similar to his last pass in green, which was also an interception.

But fate seems to have worked things out for the best as God has clearly indicated to Brett that no matter what he puts into the game, for whatever team, he's going to throw one last interception to fall just short of that glorious victory in Superbowl 31.

This wasn't supposed to be a night for the Minnesota Vikings.  There will be nights for their true star, A.D. (All Day for anyone out there who is still foolish enough to call the Oklahoma superstar A.P.) and I have little doubt they'll be coming soon.  In fact, the Vikings have so much talent these days that I'm not sure a lot of quarterbacks wouldn't fit in mighty fine there.

Heck, I even think its the one team where Tim Tebow could thrive.

But Brett Favre?

The consequences of a Minnesota victory tonight would have been too much for the football Gods to stomach.  Even Brett had to look at himself after the game in the locker room and admit that purple just doesn't fit him.

Favre was playing this season on borrowed time, leaking into an alternate reality where he was sporting a pair of horns and gunning for a showdown with another top 5 great quarterback.  He was trying to be a link in time from the best of the past to the best of now--the only man who had faced down John Elway and Peyton Manning in the Superbowl.

The problem was who he was playing with and against.

This wasn't one last battle for Favre's Packers of yesteryear, it was the Minnesota Vikings versus the lovable-loser New Orleans Saints.

If anyone in America outside of Indianapolis is cheering for the Colts when the Superbowl comes around, they have no heart.  New Orleans deserves the uplifting of a World Championship to help mend the still deep wounds of Katrina.  But I will say watching the game made it hard to want either team to lose.

Favre was just out of place, stepping on the shadow of Peterson and dragging himself along the coat-tails of the future.

For one of the greatest of all time, things ended exactly the way they should have.

If he had made it to the Superbowl for two different teams, the purple monster in the mirror would have driven a stake into the heart of his legendary, historical persona.  The monster would have become reality.

And no one would grow up to wear a number four jersey in the NFL.

But thankfully, the gunslinger went out on one last interception, just like he had in every town he rode into.

It had to happen, you see.  He'll always be a Packers' legend as the Universe intended.