Thoughts on Brett Favre

“Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, money takes wings, those who cheer you today may curse you tomorrow. The only thing that endures is character.”

Horace Greeley spoke the above words, and if he were alive today, he might add “and Brett Favre” onto the end of his quote. It is truly inspiring to watch the 40-year-old gray-bearded jeans-wearing wonder continue to step up in the pocket, deliver his pass, get hit, and watch his receivers dance into the endzone. A few times in our lifetime we may be fortunate enough to see an athlete defy Time—Rivera still shuts the door for the Yankees, Jordan was still in his prime in his 30’s and still averaged over 20 points a game when he came back when he was close to 40, and the ageless Favre does it in a game of intense physical contact, just turning 40 himself.

Perhaps I am just part of the sentimental cliché for continuing to list Favre as one of my favorite athletes. My favorite NFL team the last three years has been the Minnesota Vikings (2009), the New York Jets (2008), and the Green Bay Packers (2007). I never thought I would be that type of fan growing up and always cheering for the Raiders; perhaps Al Davis has something to do with my NFL polygamy (that’s a different story). But there is something so human that we all love, some of us secretly, about Brett Favre.

Call him wishy-washy…go ahead. He’ll just make a commercial making fun of himself for that same reason. His presence is transcendent. His smile lets you know that he gets it. His tears when asked about what it was like to play in Lambeau again remind us of what it means to love. He is the ultimate American male. He is a hero refusing the sunset. He has been subject to more criticism than anyone else in his profession who hasn’t had an off-the-field scandal. His gray just makes him more attractive. He is a gunslinger in the pocket; throwing interceptions he fears not. Those amazing plays he makes could be disasters—sometimes they are. He’s not afraid to look like a fool trying to win. He’s the girlfriend you ultimately can’t be mad at for her flirtatious nature because at the end of the night she’s coming back…to you.

But some fans don’t want to acknowledge his loyalty to being human, his capability to love. I would speculate that these same fans who boo or deride him fail to acknowledge their own shortcomings. I’m sure at some point we’ve all danced with the idea that there is something greater out there for us, that we’ve been working so long somewhere and it’s time for a change or to retire, and then we come back. We come back to what we know. We come back to what we love. However, there aren’t too many us who know what it’s like to put one’s body through the rigors of an NFL season, be old, and wonder if we can go through it all again. I could somewhat sympathize. I played the last six years of my athletic career significantly hurt, especially while I was playing in college. I had college baseball playing days when I was playing where my surgically repaired knees and shin splints disallowed me to go down stairs, so I walked them backwards. I wanted to quit every day, but I kept coming back because I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t fathom my life without playing a sport. I’m guessing Favre experienced some of this—perhaps you can forgive an old man for being old.

And perhaps you can forgive an old man for being upset when he wants to come back, and his job has already been given to someone else. And yes, it would have sucked for Aaron Rodgers to have been promised the job, for Favre to come back, and to ride the pine. But such is life. Nothing is guaranteed. So why do Packer fans who boo Brett Favre think it’s their guaranteed right to boo someone who has gone to play for the rival team? Does that change everything Brett did for the Packers? Did they suddenly forget how much love he always had for them? Do they think it changed?

Those who boo Favre are like those who suddenly think their ex has become the worst person in the world simply because he or she is an ex. Maybe things just didn’t work out. Maybe it was the wrong time. But if the relationship had its great moments, and there wasn’t any bad scandal, why boo the ex? You boo the ex, you boo yourself. You take away those great moments—the moments of passion, celebration, education…. That’s exactly what those who cheered Favre but now boo him are doing—failing to acknowledge the greatness of the past.

But ultimately the fickle don’t matter. What does matter is that Favre continues to defy Time when some of the football cheering world flashes stopwatches. He doesn’t quit, he doesn’t stop, he continues to have fun. His character endures.