A Legend Bids Farewell

    Brett Favre retired this week after 17 years in the National Football League, leaving Packers fans devastated and leaving the rest of the sporting world to wonder what exactly he meant to the NFL. My opinion: Everything. Brett Favre embodies everything we could ever want in a professional athlete. Records, championships, awards, leadership, longevity, looks, class, and grit. Number Four had it all. He might not have won four Super Bowls and he might not have won in every stage of his career, but when you look at the complete package that was wrapped up and given to us in a green and yellow jersey, Brett Favre has to go down as the most complete quarterback of all time - and perhaps our era's greatest player.

    Favre's numbers speak for themselves. His 61,665 yards and 442 touchdowns are both iconic records and make Favre the most productive quarterback of all time. Some, including ESPN's Sal Paolantonio, make the argument that Favre's numbers were a product of his longevity and that those stats do not accurately reflect his performance on the field. I disagree. Strongly. The previous holder of both records, Dan Marino, played just as long as Favre and with far less success. Marino never won a Super Bowl (the best and most common argument against his greatness), won only one MVP award to Favre's three, and turned in a disappointing performance in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Favre only had one losing season in his sixteen years in Green Bay (2005) and took the Packers to the playoffs 11 times, the Super Bowl twice, and brought Green Bay its first championship in nearly thirty years. As for the longevity questions, the man won 13 games in his final season, threw for almost 4,000 yards, and led his team a Lawrence Tynes field goal away from Super Bowl 42. I think it's safe to say he left the game with gas in the tank.

    Paolantonio argues, rather strongly, that the lackluster second half of Favre's career greatly diminishes his legacy. I understand where Sal's coming from here. Number Four did throw a lot of interceptions and made a ton of questionable passes toward the end. But once we take a deeper look into his situation, it is easy to see that Favre's passing woes have less to do with his own failures than they have to do with the lack of talent surrounding him. Favre played his entire career in Green Bay without any stud receivers. He never had a dependable deep threat like Marvin Harrison or Randy Moss or a game-changing, slot receiver like Wes Welker. He had a some very good options (Sterling Sharpe, Antonio Freeman, and most recently Donald Driver) but imagine what he could have accomplished if he played the majority of his career with Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark to throw to, as Peyton Manning has. Favre also has never had the luxury of phenomenal backs to take the pressure off his passing game. If he had Emmitt Smith behind him, as Aikman did, or Edgerrin James and then Joseph Addai, as Manning has, he wouldn't have had to throw as much in recent years and his interception totals would be significantly lower. For years, Favre has been asking - no, begging - for some help and the Packers made absolutely no effort to get him a premier receiver, even when Randy Moss was on the market last year. The Packers knew they had a great team with Super Bowl potential going into 2007, but they passed on the one player who a) would have put them over the top and b) who the greatest player in franchise history desperately wanted on the team. Imagine how different the 2007 campaign might have looked if Moss played in Green Bay instead of New England. For sixteen years, Favre did more with less and accomplished what he did in the harshest weather environment in professional sports and surrounded by far inferior talent than the other great quarterbacks of his era.

    As impressive as his stats and wins, though, is the fact that he did it all for so long without any breaks, and without any physical help. From his first start with the Packers to his last game, in the NFC Championship Game this year, Favre never missed a single start. His Ripken-esque streak of 275 consecutive starts is an NFL record and is especially impressive when you consider that he did most of it without the assistance of painkillers. In 1996, Favre became addicted to Vicodine after being prescribed the drug following a series of injuries. He entered rehab, went public with his illness, and came back the next year, drug-free to lead the Packers to a Super Bowl victory. Since, he has endured the physical stress of over a decade of professional football without the aid of any painkillers or drugs. Think about that. A quarterback never missing a start in sixteen years while not being able to numb any pain he endures by playing. It's incredible. Favre has also played through an array of personal hardships -- the addiction and subsequent media attention for one, but also his wife Deanna's battle with breast cancer and his father's sudden death of a heart attack at the age of 58. The day after his father's death in 2003, Favre suited up against the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football and threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns, just another example of his iron will and his ability to play through any challenge life threw him.

    Brett Favre has been a model player over the past two decades, but he has also been a great role model for his millions of fans in Green Bay and across the world. His Brett Favre Fourward Foundation has donated over $1.5 million to disabled and disadvantaged kids in Wisconsin and Mississippi and Deanna Favre's Hope Foundation has helped others fight the disease she was lucky enough to survive. The thing about his charitable activities, though, is that we're not at all surprised by them. There has always been something accessible about Favre, a good guy quality about him that you couldn't help but admire. You could root against him, for sure, but it was almost impossible not to like him. Favre is the most prolific passer of all time, a three-time MVP and Super Bowl Champion, and the greatest football icon of my lifetime. But while Tom Brady is the pretty boy of the NFL and Peyton Manning is the poster boy, Brett Favre is just a farm boy. He's just your average guy who happens to be perhaps the greatest quarterback of all time. The kid from Kiln, Mississippi never dated supermodels or pop stars and he never donned a funny moustache on national television. He never threw to superstars and never had a stud running back to take the pressure of the passing game. Favre's game was his own and he played it with grit and guts unrivaled by any quarterback we've seen. Soon, Canton will call and Favre will smile in bronze in the halls of greatness, the last stop in the man's journey through every up and down football has to offer. Favre started every game for sixteen years and battled injury, addiction, and heartache to do it. And through it all, Number 4 kept his head down and played his game - and played it as well, if not better, than anyone before him.

Comments

[Wade]

Easily one of the most fun players to watch. Him, and Tony Siragusa.

[David Teesdale]

I agree with every word said here. No doubt many of Favre's woes are linked to his abysmal teams and his will to win at any cost, rather than pad stats by preserving the ball in games the Pack were behind. The best ever. Sal and Michael Silver, along with many other foolish people, have been ragging favre for years. Sal for being "overrated" and Silver for being, well, loved--and a number of other things that Silver will never be with those nasty eyebrows.