Wednesday (Brett Favre) edition: Wha’ Happened?
Posted on March 5th, 2008 – 7:48 AMBy Michael Rand
As the syrupy tributes to No. 4 kept pouring in yesterday, we couldn’t help but think of two things about Brett Favre: 1) His last NFL pass was an interception that lost an NFC Championship game in which he was clearly not having his trademark “fun.” 2) The Onion’s hilarious book “Our Dumb Century” contained a story from the 1970s with this headline: “Elvis Dead — Is Elvis Alive?” Let us go on record as saying we aren’t convinced the ol’ gunslinger has thrown his final pass. If he waffled so much in his yearly decisions to keep playing, he can certainly keep doing it now, even though he’s “officially” called it quits. For now, goodbye to a QB we grudgingly admit was supremely fun to watch, even with his odd habit of doing impromptu, head-clasping sit-ups in the middle of games (Star Tribune photo, 2006, not really what he was doing). See you in Week 10? Or 2009?
What else?
*Slimmed-down Boof.
*Another domino in the demise of the Red Sox. We’re not sure we can do a We Said, She Said with Lizzy on this one. But man that would be great.
*The state boys’ hockey tournament starts in about three hours, which explains why it is snowing outside.
*Fasola-link: Rockets!
24 Responses to "Wednesday (Brett Favre) edition: Wha’ Happened?"
There is no truth to the rumor that Favre has chosen his brother Raul to succeed him.
(I wish that I could take credit for that line, but the credit goes to MPR http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/polinaut/archive/2008/03/another_favre_r.shtml)
I couldn’t agree with RandBall more. I hated when Brett Favre would do sit-ups in the middle of games. It was just showing off. Save it for the driveway, punk!
Also, I think he’s coming back. This might be the pinnacle of his off-season oscillation between playing and retirement in order to garner attention. He was world class player and now, for the last half dozen of off-seasons or so, he has become a world class waffler. I’d like to think that, when we look back on these shenanigans, we will all collectively agree that Favre’s last accolade should be for his victorious championship in jackassary.
By the way, this is the perfect time to resume pimping my book.
http://www.myleastfavoriteteam.com
The chapter on the Packers is now more relevant than ever…
Favre will be back, He just has to wait until the latest round of HGH and vicodin has gone from his system and he’ll be good to go by about mid August.
Get a load of MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell butcher Brett Favre’s last name:
I think there is only one Packer fan that is a regular on here but I have a question.
If you were a Packer fan would you be upset that Favre waited until after Free Agency started to announce this? With his roughly $10 million coming off the payroll couldn’t the Packers have been pretty big players in the Free Agent market? I haven’t seen this mentioned at all. Was this his last F you to the Packers?
He may/may not be back, but to call the stories “syrupy” seems to imply they are not deserved, or, maybe put more accurately, that the stinkin’ Vikings have ever had Anyone of his caliber…So, even in his “retirement”, real or not, give him his due as the Purple Hate Mongers many of you are. He, clearly, was one of the best qbs that ever played the game. If you can’t see that, and can’t say that, you are not a fan but a bigot…
I got a little electric up there, since not only now after his “retirement” but for years, living in MN, most of what I interpreted as negative feelings toward Favre stemmed from jealousy alone. So, get real. There was never a time in the last many years you would not have traded him for any qb you had, whether a decent qb like Culpepper or the many hacks you had before or since. Favre was great..deal with it
P3
Are you a little sour at all that Favre waited until after Free Agency had begun before “retiring’? Now they have to find a new backup and have a lot more cap room than they had before.
I just got back from a trip to Biloxi, MS and one of the people with us was a Packers fan. She totally lost it when we drove through Hattiesberg, home of #4 and the best human being on the planet*. She even called her parents to tell them. What was scarier was when she mentioned she had his prom picture at home. I later found out it was a pic in a book and not up on her mantel.
* Madden’s words, not mine.
Are we going to see this same lovefest for another retiring player that is probably going into the hall of fame?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/nfl/03/04/sapp.retires.ap/index.html
Actually, I didn’t think of the cap, nor do I think did he. I think the guy just was tormented by this decision. I mean football is all he knows, probably all he’ll ever know with that degree of expertise, so which of us could say when we would decide this. In retrospect, he probably should have done this earlier, but, no, I don’t think he has any “Fs” for the Pack. It’s only been a few weeks since his last awesomely accurate pass ended the Pack’s miracle season, so a few weeks doesn’t seem too long to me. Hell, sometimes, I take that long to decide which bar I want to go to boooo the Vikings..
I don’t see why there is any reason that we as Vikings fans shouldn’t hate Brett Favre. That is what sports is all about, competition and the thrill of the game. And would packer fans really want all the Vikings fans to just bow down and go “Oh Brett Favre is such a good guy, I am going to miss him flicking off all of the Vikings players after games.” No, absolutely not. My opinion, Brett was a really good football player, but I still and always will hate him. And all you packer fans out there with your stupid cheese heads need us to hate him. Oh and in case you were wondering, I am going to hate Rodgers too.
To say football is all Favre knows makes all this overwhelming coverage pointless. Football is not all Favre knows. Favre knows how to deal with grief and loss, he could be a bereavement counselor; Favre knows addiction, he could open a rehab clinic (or start dealing); Favre knows how to pick a wife who will stick by you through thick and thin (and write a book to maximize your profits), he could be a marriage counselor; Favre knows how to throw a ball so hard it will break your face off, he could be a rocket scientist and hang out with those nerds in the desert. Kidding about that last part, that video was surprisingly cool.
Brett Fav-ruh retired?
You’re right, P3, we’ve never had anyone of his caliber here in old Minnesota. Certainly not a guy named Francis who held a whole pile of those records that Fav-ray broke for like 20-25 years (until Marino came along).
I kind of hope that he does come back now–if just so the Packer fans who have already been calling the HOF about tickets to the 2013 induction ceremony have to try to scalp all their tickets…
I mean football is all he knows
Have sadder words been spoken?
But Toon, surely you can’t compare Frances the Scrambling Mule to Favre if only since I always felt a qbs job was to scramble first then throw not just scramble and scramble and (you get the idea)…but old Frances was ok in his time, but he couldn’t have dealt with football in Favre’s time….being too slow, and having that weak arm to boot, but he did hold “a whole pile of records” ..from the Dark Ages before NFL teams became specialists, became much better killing machines.
As for the need to hate the guy, Ricky, because he plays on another (better) team), I disagree. I never liked the Vikings but always admired Moss, Culpepper even Phat in some truly ghastly way.
And StraightCash, you are right on..he’s had one hell of a tragic life off field, and knows far more about himself than just football. I just meant to say that now when he retires, as happens when anyone ceases to do what they excelled at, there must be an enormous hole where football used to be. Everyone goes through that. Luckily I was never any good at anything 
How does he order coffee?
“Brown! Halfcaff Right! Z-Skim! Hot! Hot! Hot!”
Dave, many commentators in past years said just that..that Favre would not retire soon since “football was all he knew”..honestly, I read that often
I know, I just wouldn’t want anyone to say that anything was “all I knew”… It makes you sound like an idiot or someone who didn’t have their priorities straight…
Look at Bradshaw..not the guy I want fixing my brakes Hardehar
I have no trouble comparing Favre to Fran. It’s not like Fran played back when guys were playing both ways, and splitting time between tackle and running back, like a Bronko Nagurski. And I’ve always thought it was the QBs job to get points on the board, whether that’s through scrambling then passing, scrambling the whole way, or throwing some stupid left handed, under handed shovel pass to a running back that makes John Madden go into convulsions while trying to fellate the player from the booth.
Yeah, Fran might not be a real hot commodity after the combine in today’s NFL. But every once in a while, NFL execs get is wrong at the combine…”cough” Tom Brady “cough”.
I have to agree, though, that as much as I want to hate Favre, I do have to respect him. The longetivity, and the ability to do some of the things he did despite the gunslinger mentality that gets a lot of QBs in trouble is impressive.
Not sure I view his life as a uniquely tragic one–sure, losing a dad that way sucks, and a wife with breast cancer isn’t fun, and painkiller addiction is probably hell, but lots of people deal with worse every day. Often without the huge contracts he’s signed.
I agree everybody’s tragedy is “unique” because everybody carries their own particular burden, but not too many have that much stress in total pressing down on them Toon, so let’s get real..and ask Favre if he would have played for free if only his dad was alive..so that line about huge contract was just lame…like saying rich people deserve cancer or something..lame
Yes, P3, that’s exactly what I said. Rich people deserve cancer.
All I’m saying is his life doesn’t seem like that tragic of one to me. Yeah, he’s had some tragic times. But does that make it a tragic life? By that definition, it seems like EVERYONE’S life is tragic.
I think it’s because it all happened at the same time. And I responded to your line …”Often without the huge contracts he’s signed” since it sounded cruel like money should have anything to do with grief.
