Brett and Me

Last night at work, I realized just how much my perception of Brett Favre has changed.
Because I missed the end of the game to go to work, but heard through the grape vine they had pulled off the win, I mentioned to a coworker, 'Hey I heard the Packers won huh?'
To which he replied, 'Yea, and that sucks, I hate the f*cking Packers.'
To which I said, 'Oh yeah? Why do you hate the Packers so much?'
And at this point I'm expecting him to say because he's a Bears fan or something along those lines. And I can accept that if you're a fan of a rival team, it makes sense to think negatively of the other team. But no.
His answer was, 'Because of what they did to Brett Favre.'
To which I instantly became incredibly upset, and gave him a bit of a tongue lashing... I don't usually feel the need to berate someone because of their beliefs, but I let this guy have it. So wow, why would this fire me up so much?
Lets start at the beginning.

It was of course 1992, Green Bay is in tight game against Cincinnati, and one of my favorite Packers of the day Don 'Magic Man' Majikowski goes down with a ankle injury late in the 4th quarter. Twelve year old me even thinks to himself, well there goes this game, as some scrub back up Brett 'Fav-rey' comes off the bench and into the game. But low and behold, this relative unheard of, drives down the field as the clock ticks, and fires a game winning touchdown pass. And as they say, the rest is history.

Years go by and the accolades are piling up for number 4, Pro Bowls, MVP's, galloping gobblers, he won them all. But more importantly, he was winning games too. Sure he made seemingly stupid mistakes, and threw an awful lot of interceptions, but we accepted it, we were winning. He was "just a good ol' boy, gun-slinger out there having a good time because he loved the game so much." And of course, the peasants rejoiced.

The man inspired me personally. His pure athleticism is what really appealed to me. In the mid-90's after kicking his pain killer habit (rolling my eyes) when he got in the weight room and became almost obsessed with his fitness, getting down to a rumored 1% body fat. When during one of the little side-show competitions at the ProBowl one year, throwing a ball 86 freakin yards. Breaking numerous wide receiver and defensive back's fingers, because of how damn hard he could throw a ball. This is the stuff that really got me. So what did I do, I learned how to throw a football. More specifically, I learned to throw a football pretty fricken well. The long bomb? check. The rifle, finger breaker? check. The deadly accurate touch pass? check. 'Hey I bet I can throw a football over that...' check.

Furthermore. October 10th. It's my Grandma's birthday, it's my birthday. It also happens to be Mr. Favre's birthday. I was actually pretty proud of that for quite a few years (still proud to share it with my Grandma). And in fact, for a few years, before he started looking like OldMan Winter, I was indeed accused of actually resembling the man. No, seriously.
So I wouldn't say I was just a run of the mill fan. Besides a Packer fan, I was a Brett Favre fan.
And then it started to go bad.
Mr. Brett started to have a problem with showing up to training camp. So what would he do? He'd speculate retirement. Then with a week left, 'Oop, no I'm not retiring.'

And the peasants rejoice...
And then do that exact same thing for the next three years, and the team might start to get a little annoyed. And they did.
They had a fresh new talented kid waiting in the wings to play, and if he was going to be the starting quarterback, it would be nice to know sooner than the preseason. So they gave Mr. Favre a deadline. Let us know by this date if you're indeed retiring, or if you're coming back and playing again. Simple as that. And he choose a tearful, heartfelt retirement press conference. Sure, I even felt a little emotional watching him call it a career. But there it was, a legendary career, that we all as Packer fans could be proud of, retired. And the peasants rejoiced.

And then it got worse.
But wait, then as the season drew closer, what's this? The Jets are picking him up? Huh? wtf?
Well whatever, fine, go finish your career "because you love the game so much you couldn't quit" with a mediocre season on some shitty AFC team, whatever. Woulda been a lot better had you had just retired a Packer, but whatever.
Lest we forget, Reggie White played a season for the Panthers, hell even St. Vince himself coached the *Redskins... (but in both cases, neither retired and un-retired to do so)

And then he shit on Green Bay.
First news surfaces that he had closed room meeting with the president of the Lions, telling him in detail all the in's and out's of the Packer's playbook. WTF?
And then of course after another unsuccessful retirement post Jets, the sonnoffa bitch goes to the Vikings!? And is happy as a damn clam to 'finally be a Viking.' It's one thing for him to go to an AFC team on the east coast, but to go to one of the Packer's fiercest division rivals? WTF?
The peasants are upset. The morons buy purple shirts and say they're Brett Favre fan's not Packer fans...

But now, he's shitting on himself.
And this is, I suppose, the happy ending to the story. He's made himself such a media whore through the years of will he?/ won't he's? bullshit that every little thing he does became, for whatever reason news worthy. He plugs a Fox television show on Fox football of course, by singing about his pants being on the floor. Hilarious?
No. But you know what is hilarious about his pants being on the floor? The fact that a steady stream of women are now coming out of the woodwork to paint a picture of just how big of a chauvinistic piece of shit this guy really is. 'I'm Brett Favre, I can have the sex with whomevers I want!' Mmmm, guess not Brett.
And let me just mention the elephant in the room that nobody seems to have noticed yet. Brett Favre and Mark Chmura, best buds back in the day aboard the Packers, right? Remember what Mr. Chmura got busted and thoroughly chastised for involving a hot tub and some under agers? Point being, you know Brett was pulling this shit in Wisconsin, but because he was Mr. SuperStar Quarterback of the Packers, the blind eye was turned. For the love of God, I hope more of these women come forward.

Bottom line:
Packer's legend, beloved by millions, to egotistical, narcissistic, sexual deviant, joke, douche-bag, ass-hole, beloved by hundreds.

He's completely dead to me.

I hope the Packers give #4 to a kicker.