I’m a Green Bay Packer fan (this from a decade ago)

I’m also a Brett Favre fan.

I recently got into a highly opinionated discussion about how I feel about Favre’s shenaningans in the past few weeks. After being chastized for my seeming lack of loyalty to a man who has led my team (yes, I own a piece) for the past 15+ years, here is how I laid it out:

What Favre is guilty of has nothing to do with money.

What Favre is guilty of is narcissism and a lack of understanding of the realities of the NFL.

He has has the luxury of being a good enough player that he hasn’t had to confront the ugly reality of the do-or-die-or-you’re-done mentality that 99.9% of the rank and file of the NFL understand. You either step up and contribute or you don’t, and you’re done.

He doesn’t understand the ramifications of his past decisions. He doesn’t understand that at some point, when you say you’re done, we have to believe you.

Brett Favre isn’t the Green Bay Packers.

He is the anchor of a beautiful era of the team; a beautiful era of the NFL. It will NEVER EVER be repeated. Mark my words…. in our lifetimes, no one will touch the most-starts record. Others will fall, but the iron man that he is/was will never be repeated.

However, he is not the Green Bay Packers. Others are now, and want to continue to show respect and fight for a legacy, to win in the name of a silly green and gold G, but to do so nonetheless.

He is not respecting that, and in so doing is tarnishing what could have been an epic legacy.

That man could literally have walked into downtown Green Bay (or Madison or Milwaukee or a hundred other cities in Wisconsin) and charged $100 for people to hold out their hands and accept his shit. Seriously, no doubt this is true.

Instead, he chose to badmouth the team he was so intertwined with in public.

I love the guy and he will always be a part of a beautiful legacy.

But this was not done in a good way.

At this point, let him play for whoever. Fucking Vikings, whatever. It’s his history he’s choosing.

On the flip side, I can imagine what it must be like to be completely, totally devoted to the idea of playing football and suddenly coming face to face with being a spectator, and watching John Madden ramble on about sweat stains while he sits and watches instead of playing. The man was born and bred to play the game; let him play until his bones are dust.

I’ll fucking root for him, even if he’s a Viking, a Bear, or a Lion. Maybe a Cowboy. But as soon as he is playing against the Green Bay Packers, I’ll be rooting for them to sack his old man ass.

Edit: Jets it is!

Highlights of 2007, his last as a Packer.