Brett Favre: Gum on the Shoe that Won't Go Away

As a life long diehard Green bay Packer fan, I spent nearly two decades cheering for Brett Favre and was absolutely thrilled he was our quarterback. He played for the right reasons. He was awesome. I even had personalized Texas license plates that read "FAVRE". He was the man. However deep in my gut, I had the feeling that as exciting as Favre was and could be, I knew he was not a big game player. In fact he was actually pretty poor in the playoff's, and his unbelievable choke jobs killed me because I really loved the guy.

The national media though went over the top in their idolization of him, and no matter how poor the play in the big games, He was Brett Favre the football god. As a Packer and Favre fan, I was happy to see the false accolades, but in my heart, I knew that he was not even close to a Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Reggie Jackson, Joe Montana type.They stepped up on the biggest stage every time they were on it. Favre clearly did not and yet he was treated by the media as if he were larger than life and better than the athletes who actually performed in the big games.

I won't get into the stats of his on big games, but believe me, they are poor. VERY poor. Favre was such a fixture with the Packers for so long that it is depressing because as much as I loved the guy and his era there, I now despise him with the equal amount of passion and his years with the Packers are now less than great to think about. There is no fondness of those years now for me. Worse is we found out that his image was completely false and carefully crafted. He professes not to know about his stats or even care, but one trip to his nauseating website and his bio lists every single honor from 7th grade on to the point when it talks about his baseball in high school, in parenthesis he lets the reader know he also led the team in batting average for three years running. Brett Favre is as insecure as he is arrogant and his stats are everything to him. I mean everything. No athlete of his stature has ever played so poorly in so many big games and yet continued to be the apple of the national media eye. The media has taken a big game choker, stripped the facts out of his actual performance, and built a false altar in which to worship him.

When he left Green Bay, he went on national television and tried to torch the Packers organization both as a team and select individuals with-in it including his personal friend James Campen. He called the Detroit Lions from New York (when he wasn't calling Jen Sterger) and tried to assist them with his inside knowledge of the Packers. He was petty immature and a jerk. When he got his freedom from New York, he immediately began his collusion with the Vikings and if anyone believes that major league tampering between Favre and the Vikings wasn't happening, they need their head examined. When he did get himself into a Viking's uniform at long last, he did so with this pathetic level of melodrama that the media enabled him with, and came to the Vikings on his terms, as in no practice, no camp, no nothing. That team was loaded with talent, and blew through the season all the way to the NFC Championship game, and true to form in the biggest moment of the biggest game of the season, Favre under no pressure with 10 yards to run in front of him lobbed an inexplainable pass over the middle only to be picked (as usual) denying them a Ryan Longwell field goal and they lose to the Saints. That might have been the biggest choke pass in the history of the NFL, but try selling that to the national media. Instead they begin the yearly annual Brett Favre watch that has been a nauseating ritual for a decade. In order for Favre to play, he needs to be begged, he needs to be coddled, and he needs the nation to pay tribute in order to play. The Vikings handed the team over to Favre and his agent Bus Cook ( whose native language does not seem to be english) and in doing so cease to be a team but rather a prop in the Brett Favre PR machine. They wilt, and the Packers, the team Favre despises, goes onto to win the Super Bowl.

I have always thought Favre was not a natural leader and needed a Reggie White or a Mike Holmgren around him that he could feed off of. Let's not confuse arrogance with insecurity, because you can clearly be both. Favre is for Favre and his carefully crafted but false persona is simply that. False. He is hardly a team guy, and you can't ultimately win with that typer of person, Favre thought himself to be bigger than not only the team but rather the entire NFL. His entire life is defined by football, and being out of the limelight is a bad thought for him. He can't seem to live without it. Sad. After turning the Vikings upside down, he is now rumored to be talking to Seattle and Philly to come back to.

I can't see Philly even with his puppet offensive coordinator Bevell there, because Jon Schneider is the GM who was under Ted Thompson in Green Bay, and that staff did not buy into the media hype. They knew Favre couldn't win big games, they knew he was above the team in his own mind, and they knew he was a fake. No way does Schneider let that onto the team, which leaves Philly. There is no doubt in my mind that Bus Cook and Favre Inc. are working the phones to get something done but in such a way that he can just lie and say he doesn't know what anyone is talking about. If Philly and Andy Reid are dumb enough to bring the Favre circus to town, then Reid's tenure will be short lived from here on out. also, Favre played in front of an adoring press in Green Bay and Minnesota ( moreso in Minny) but he did not fair so well with the New York press. Philly would be brutal because they would not sugar coat the truth. But Favre needs the spotlight and he would take that chance.

Favre, had he retired from Green Bay, would have been iconic and his hypocritical self serving life would have been kept form the public and he would be remembered just as his PR machine wanted him remembered. But now he has turned himself into a national joke, outside of the national media who still seems mesmerized by his horrific big game chokes. He will never be universally embraced in Green Bay. It will gall me to see him honored at Lambeau Field. And I was a Favre homer. What gets me is it obvious that Favre hates the Packers, hates Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy, and was willing to put on a Vikings uniform to act on the hate. His actions against Green Bay are extraordinary. That's fine. I also have read where Favre is despised with-in the board of the Packers. Why can't both sides just acknowledge that and tell him to go to Minnesota to retire his number an officially be a Viking for life. I would prefer that and respect that action rather than this fake make nice that is going to happen in Green Bay.

Whatever the case, Favre is like that gum you step on on a hot summer day in a Texas parking lot. Two hours later it is still on the shoe and slightly sticking. You can't even get it scraped off. That's Brett Favre now. he is not an iconic figure in sports. The media took him from choke artist to the worlds greatest competitor and handed him the image and he blew it. Now he just will not go away. Now it's Philly. All I can say is to Andy Reid is if you are looking for an early retirement and a team implosion, bring the old gunslinger who who is the words of John Madden "is just having fun out there."