Brett Favre is Coming Back For One More Year, and You Should be Happy about it

I am glad that Brett Favre is coming back to play one more season with the Packers. As a sports fan, I would say that Favre is one of my top 10 favorite non-Philadelphia professional athletes of my lifetime. First of all, he is great. He has been a superb quarterback in this league for a long time. We all know that. There is no reason to spout on about how many yards or touchdowns he has, we all know that. But what makes him special to me are the intangibles. The fact is that he is unlike so many professional athletes because he wears his emotion on his sleeve. He actually cares about winning and losing. He smiles. He cries (note: at appropriate times, not when outcomes are still in the balance like Adam Morrison).

I do not think he is going to turn down a paycheck to play this season, but I do not think this season is about the money to Favre. I do not think it has ever been about the money to Favre. He is one tough S.O.B. He has never missed a sport. His ironman streak of consecutive starts is even more impressive than Cal Ripken’s when you consider the beating that all quarterbacks take, and the fact that he obliterated the old record by a lot higher percentage than Cal beat the Iron Horse. Who doesn’t remember Favre getting decked by Warren Sapp and getting up and laughing and head slapping Sapp as if to say “Atta Boy, but I am still here. Bring it Again.” All of us have probably watched some of these ungrateful, arrogant, obnoxious pro athletes, and say that they do not know how good they have it, and how lucky they are. I would guess nobody has ever said that about Brett Favre.

One thing that has been a terrible consequence of pro sports as salaries have continued to rise, separating athletes in economic stature from the vast majority of the general public, is that there is not the same bond that existed between the fans and their players that was there 30, 40, 50 years ago. The public resents athletes, and athletes could not care any less about the public if they tried (just ask Allan Iverson and Chris Webber if you do not believe me). Brett Favre is the rare exception. Somehow, we have all watch as he as battled personal demons (remember he overcame a painkiller addiction in the middle of his career). We have also seen him face personal tragedy, losing his father suddenly just before a Monday Night game a couple years ago, helping his wife face and overcome breast cancer, and learning that his hometown and the house he grew up in were decimated by Hurricane Katrina. We have seen that this is a real guy with real emotions and real crises, just like all of the rest of us. It is somebody that can throw a football as well as anyone who has ever done so, but yet does not cast an arrogant shadow over the rest of us who cannot. He is a real person, with real passion and emotion that happen to be coupled with talent that have enabled him to do the thing he loves best at one of the highest levels in history.

Yes, I am glad Brett Favre is going to come back and do it for us all one more time. Unlike many out there, I think he still has more ability than last year’s stats would suggest. I think he can get out there and lead his team to at least a .500 season while throwing more touchdowns than interceptions. And I, for one, will be rooting hard for him to have a great year so we can remember him going out near the top of his game. Well, at least in 15 of his 16 games nest year. I will be booing him mightily when he leads his club into the Linc for a Monday Night battle with the Birds on October 2nd.