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Go Favre yourself
By VR Bryant
Already spiraling out of control, it seems, is the veritable sh-tstorm of bile and hatred for Brett Favre. With the Vikings' season coming to a crushing end, at least in some part because of a classic Favre miscue, all the most vociferous of Favre's detractors are out in full force. But then, are we surprised? One man only identified as "Rob" posted the following on the official Vikings blog:
"Favre jersey: $180
Airfare to New Orleans: $345
Ticket to NFC championship game: $850
Rooting for the man you spent 16 yrs hating: $(your soul)
Watching Favre throw an interception at the end of the game and dash your superbowl [sic] dreams ... PRICELESS"
Priceless indeed. There are so many legitimate and defensible positions on Favre at this point, that just about everyone between the ages of 15 and 75 in this country has some kind of opinion on the matter. Can you blame certain Vikings fans for feeling let down? One could certainly argue that Favre's interception was one of the team's less impactful gaffes on the day, yet the walls echo with people screaming "VINTAGE FAVRE" - and rightly so.
For the Vikings fans who want Favre back, who can fault them? The acquisition of number four was the only significant personnel change from a year ago, and the team winds up having its most successful season in more than a decade. They can see that if you took away just a couple of the freak turnovers committed by Adrian Peterson, Percy Harvin and Bernard Berrian, the game might have ended differently. The 40-year-old Favre just had arguably his best season as a pro. Who's to say they couldn't be there again with him next year?
I can also identify with the average football fan who has no real horse in the race (say, Browns fans) who were made to loathe the very mention of the man because of the media's constant and senseless reporting and tabloid portrayal of his clear resistance to true retirement.
For me, a kid who grew up looking at Favre as everything from a friend to a father figure, a kid who used to cry every year when the Packers would lose to the Cowboys in the playoffs, a grown man who got misty when Favre came off Soldier Field at the end of the 2006 season looking completely spent - for me, it's an amazing mélange of emotion. I'm happy and sad that he failed. I want him to come back and I don't. Mostly, with the beating he took on Sunday, I just don't want him to wind up in a wheelchair.
What we know to be true is that, regardless of what Favre says at this point regarding his future - if he chooses to say anything at all - we will all find ourselves enraptured by the story and the legacy, and so we should be. It's polarizing, sure. Some people love him and some people have come to hate him. You can say that about a lot of legends. It doesn't make them any less iconic.
The numbers are undeniable. He's first in everything that matters (yes, interceptions too), now including career playoff passing yards. He has his three MVP awards and his Super Bowl ring. I didn't buy that malarkey he was spewing, by the way, about having to remind people that he played in a Super Bowl. You can't watch a promo for the game without seeing a clip of the spritely young Favre sprinting across the field with his helmet off (the 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct will be assessed on the kickoff) after tossing that strike to Andre Rison.
But so long as he is part of the national consciousness and his name is being bandied about in the rumor mill, we had all better just get used to hearing about it. It became hip at some point, the excessive groaning and eye-rolling at the mere mention of the "F-word," but I think we've come out the other side. He has proven that he can still play, and play well. No one can deny that. And maybe - just maybe - if we fans and media simply move on, then perhaps he will too.
Of course, some part of me (a very small and shameful part, mind you) is right now envisioning Favre shuffling around his back yard in Mississippi next winter, tossing beat-up footballs through a beat-up tire, with Packers coach Mike McCarthy sauntering up behind him, working up the gumption to ask the old man to call the signals just one last time because Aaron Rodgers separated his throwing shoulder lifting a bus off a basket of kittens. But that's just me.
Originally Published: January 27, 2010
