My Memories Watching Brett Favre in Person

As a Detroit Lions fan, Brett Favre was always one of the most hated athletes in town. The Detroit Lions hadn't had a good quarterback since about 1957 and here Favre was leading the Packers to NFL glory and beating the Lions just about every time they played, especially in Lambeau Field.

Overall, Favre will be remembered as one of the top 5-10 QB's of all-time depending on who you ask. His offensive statistics in terms of TD's and yards are up there with just about anyone. He also was the leader of several good-to-great Packers teams and continued to flourish even when his top target, receiver Sterling Sharpe, was forced to retire early due to neck injury problems.

Favre's ability to sell play-fakes to confuse the defense and to make something happen out of nothing by using his instincts on broken plays despite his lack of overall foot speed was second-to-none. He was often one of the most fun QB's to watch in the game as he constantly jawed with opposing defensive linemen and seemed to just have a lot of fun playing in the NFL at all times. Many announcers took note of that behavior and seemed to put Favre on a pedestal, namely John Madden, which seemed to rub some fans the wrong way. But overall, Favre was greatly respected by anyone who know anything about the NFL or football in general.His interception total was fairly high and he had a few bad playoff games in his career, however.

But even those bad games can't overshadow just how dominant he was and how easily he could carve up defenses when given the chance.

One such occasion happened at the 2007 Thanksgiving Game at Ford Field in Detroit which I unfortunately chose to attend. The Lions came into that game needing a win badly to help salvage their playoff hopes, but Favre showed his dominance yet again. He carried out perfect ball fakes the entire game and froze the Lions' defense on several occasions, and the result was wide open spaces in front of him that he exploited time and time again. Greg Jennings and Donald Driver in particular tore up the Lions' defense on that afternoon.

I remember being struck by Favre's arm strength which was astounding in person for such an old quarterback. But at the same time he threw it with amazing accuracy every single time and always threw a perfect spiral. It was almost as if he were practicing against the practice-squad defense as he completed seemingly every pass from a variety of angles with ease. The great ones always seem to be able to anticipate how the play is going to go before it happens and Favre did that with ease on this afternoon.

He threw several balls to receivers' back shoulders before they turned around and put them in the exact proper spot just about every time. That was the one thing that impressed me the most about Favre. He trusted his receivers and they each had their timing down to a tee so that they were able to go out and make the other team look like they were playing in slow motion. Of course, it could have just been that the Lions were that bad, but still, the fact remains that it was an amazing performance.

The one Favre play that will stay with me the most is the one I didn't see, however. The Lions were playing in a playoff game at the Silverdome in the 90's and they had just beaten Green Bay a week earlier to secure homefield. The only problem was that Detroit didn't manage to sell out the game because the Silverdome was so huge and it was only a few tickets short of a sellout. The Lions had the lead late but then disaster struck as it often does.

Brett Favre rolled out to his right and looked downfield late in the game and lofted a perfectly-thrown pass to the back corner of the end zone to a streaking Sterling Sharpe who caught it for the game-winning touchdown. The radio broadcasters as well as several fans across Detroit were distraught. That was the beginning of a tortuous decade or so of domination by Favre over the Lions.

Of course, anyone can dominate the Lions. But Favre did the same to just about every other team in the league and won a Super Bowl and that's why he will be a lock for the Hall-of-Fame.