Brett Favre, The Man, The Myth, The Legend, The Gunslinger

The long nightmare of Brett Favre's mouth seems to have finally come to a close. Don't get me wrong. I love the man, the myth, the legend, the gunslinger, the greatest Packers quarterback (by statistical analysis), the face of the Packers, the man who brought the team out of the Wilderness Years and made Green Bay relevant again.

 

I watch the games in my town in what is now known as a Bears bar. This makes watching the games a Maalox event because Bears fans are absolutely the worst people (even worse than Seahawks fans only because they have been at it longer) to watch games with in general and to be a Packerbacker in the same room with them. They go out of their way to hurl insults at us when we just want to watch the game and don't make comments about them (unless provoked, since I have been known to make comments back, but only if hurled at first).

 

Anyway the excellence that is Favre (interceptions withstanding) seemed to have really got under their fur. Anti-Favre comments are the majority of their insults, but since he left they seem to have settled on just insults in general.

 

But I digress again. A little more historical context. I'm not a fan of Ted Thompson (the list of many reasons will be another rant) and I felt (seems I'm in the minority on this one) he wasted Favre's last years, especially the 2007 season when we lost to the Giants in overtime at Lambeau.

 

Favre openly campaigned for getting Randy Moss since he had worn out his welcome in Oakland. When the Patriots finally made the deal all they gave up was 2007 #4 (pick 110-DB John Bowie). A look at the Packers draft of the 2007 we could have sent our #4-119 and added our #5-157 to sweeten the deal. That would be giving up T Allen Barbre and WR David Clowney. Barbre was a bust crapping out as a starter at right tackle three years later and Clowney was cut, signed to the practice squad and claimed by the Jets. He never amounted to much either.

A trade of Barbre and Clowney for the use of Moss for, let's say, just the 2007 season would have been a steal. He was always on his best behavior in the next town after he has been run out of the previous town and he had a All-Pro season with the Patriots catching 98 passes for 1,493 yards and 23 touchdowns. He then has two more All-Pro seasons before crapping out for the last and final time.

 

So I contend having Randy Moss as a target for the 2007 season would have been the difference between losing the NFC championship game and winning another Super Bowl. The Packers top three wide receivers that year were Donald Driver (82-1,048-2TD), Greg Jennings (53-920-12TD) and James Jones (47-676-2TD). I think Favre was right. Moss would have been the final piece, but Thompson very seldom adds that final key piece. But once again more about him later.

 

I fault Favre for retiring when asked. He should have just delayed his decision, but he was pressured by both Thompson and Coach McCarthy to make a decision. I'm guessing they might have pushed him out anyway since it was time for Aaron Rodgers to take over.

 

I don't fault them for this, especially how it has turned out, but throwing the man who made the Packers without the fanfare he deserved was wrong and is still wrong. I blame both Favre and Thompson for this. Favre as it turned out still had two good years left in him. Seeing Favre in another uniform in 2008 was hard, but I guess the 49ers fans had the same feelings seeing Joe Montano playing for the Chiefs.

 

I agreed with Favre when Thompson ripped his locker out of Lambeau Field and sent it to him in Mississippi. Here's how Favre recalls that incident when he was informed of it by phone taken from a post on ProFootballTalk in 2008.

 

"Then he kind of gets quiet," Favre said, recalling what Thompson said to him, "and says, ‘We want to do something special for you, and what do you think if we …’ and these were his words exactly, ‘dismantle your locker and send it to you.’

"I was like, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ I was like, ‘Um, OK Ted, great.’

"He said, ‘It’s going to be your locker, we’ll send it to you. Now, it’s going to be in a box.’

"I’m thinking, ‘Way to get my ass out the door.’ That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of. What the hell am I going to do with a locker? So I just said, ‘Oh, OK, Ted, that’s great.’"

 

I'm totally in Favre's corner on this. I had no trouble with Favre's time with the Jets and at the time moving him seemed to be justified when he came up with arm trouble despite the fact Rodgers and the Packers were 6-10 in 2008. I still held Favre in high esteem, but that would soon change.

 

It was after that I began to have problems with Favre. However, I didn't know at the time that he went out of his way to contact the Lions to help them prepare for an upcoming game against the Packers. According to the New York Daily News, one NFL source insisted free agent Brett Favre "can't peacefully retire until he finds a way to get revenge on the Packers." "Favre can't stand Green Bay," the source said. I would have had a problem with him much sooner if I knew that happened.

 

After he retired again, in order to get his release from the Jets, so he could sign with the Vikings, he began to make resentful statements in public about the Packers.

 

He had stated before he was traded to the Jets he wanted the Packers to release him so he could sign with the Vikings so he could beat them twice a year. It seems the Bears and the Lions weren't good enough to give him that chance.

 

He did that and more and had the Vikings within a typical Favre interception of possibly winning his second Super Bowl. If he had retired his last pass would have been a crucial interception with his starting streak still intact. Seemed fitting at the time and a lot less worse than what really happened.

 

In his last and much lamented season with Vikings the Bears put a licking on him and after the game he had a short discussion with Julius Peppers and said, "Go beat the Packers in a few weeks." That was the last last straw for me. I said at the time, "SHUT UP!!!!! Someday you will want to come back to Green Bay and saying these things will make it difficult if not impossible." You can say one thing about Brett Favre. When he gets mad he stays mad.

 

Like I said he should have retired after the loss to the Saints. But I also know he couldn't have then, since he had his best statistical season ever (as far as quarterback rating was concerned and completion percentage). He ended that Saints game with an injured ankle and began training with it still healing from surgery, but who knew that wouldn't be the problem, but getting old all of a sudden would be. I'm guessing he knew in training camp, but just ignored it.

 

Allow me one more crowing time. After he did what he wanted to do - beating the Packers twice in 2009 - the Packers beat him twice in 2010, including breaking his foot. Karma.

 

It was sad to watch him go out in such a manner. He looked as pathetic as Johnny Unitas with the Chargers, Joe Namath with the Rams and Willie Mays with the Mets.

 

Farve always said he would leave before he got to that point, but his hatred and ego got the best of him. He said after the season that the only reason he came back was that the money was too good to pass up. I hate him for leaving me with that pathetic old man image burned into my memory.

 

The greatest irony was Aaron Rodgers winning the Super Bowl while Favre was sitting alone in his room recovering from the concussion given to him by the Bears considering the season before it was Rodgers throwing or whatever you would call it an interception in overtime to end the playoffs while Favre was taking the Vikings to the championship before - another irony - throwing an ill-conceived interception when holding the ball and going for a field goal would have sent him to the Super Bowl.

 

Later he would give backhanded compliments about Aaron Rodgers sparking the feud scenario. It took a big man like Rodgers to break that impasse and get the ball rolling for Favre's return.

 

Now it seems Brett Favre is coming home. He thinks both sides are at fault for all the ugliness of his divorce. He's right. Thompson and McCarthy for wanted to move on the Rodgers and him for going out of his way to do things and say much more and more often on how much he hated the Packers organization and in extension the Packers fans.

 

But it seems in his mind all of that didn't happen and its time to come home by saying, "That’s what I am, is a Packer. I will always be remembered as that, and that’s the way I want to be remembered."

 

I've been doing some research recently and that's something Herb Adderley once said after he forced himself out of Green Bay after Phil Bengston and staff didn't promote him for the Pro Bowl. He ended up playing three years for the hated Cowboys and winning a Super Bowl with them.

 

After it seemed he hated Green Bay he later said he didn't take out his Cowboys ring because he was and is a Green Bay Packer. Favre seems to feel the same way.

 

I'm guessing when Favre returns for his induction into the Packers Hall of Fame, the retirement of his jersey #4 and inclusion onto the Ring of Honor the Packer fans will greet him as the favorite son he deserves to be. I also agree with him that this ceremony should be on the field and not in the atrium because more people than say they were at the Ice Bowl will want to be a part of that.

 

As longtime Packers executive Bob Harlan said, "It’s great to have old friends home again."

 

I agree. I loved Brett Favre for 16 years. I hated Brett Favre for six years. And now I am willing to love him again and if, at all possible, I want to be at his ceremony and will cheer for him and not boo. He has earned that, despite suffering from post-concussion syndrome. That's how I will explain what has happened over the last six years. And that's my story and I'm sticking to it, so I can now sleep at night with that decision.