Skip to main content
My favorite football player, Brett Favre, failed to start a football game tonight for the first time in 18 years. On September 20, 1992, Favre entered for the Green Bay Packers at quarterback for an injured Don Majkowski, and started every NFL game since until tonight. A record 297-game streak for non-kickers. Favre is not only in the conversation for the greatest quarterbacks ever, the streak is comparable, and in many ways superior, to Cal Ripken's consecutive starts streak in baseball, which, if memory serves, stands at 2632 games. I would barely care about football if not for Brett Favre. He's one of a very few that I have to watch, just to see what will happen. Even when he fails, it's ridiculously exciting. When he was in his prime as the 3-time consecutive MVP in the mid-to-late '90s, I hated him, in a manner of speaking. The Packers walked around with a swagger, led by General Favre. And then Green Bay faced my favorite team, the St. Louis Rams, in the 2001 playoffs. Favre threw 6 interceptions that day, badly losing. I knew my feelings had begun to change when I wasn't happy at all. No true fan of sports wants the greats to play poorly. Perhaps it was the year after, when Favre made his 200th career start at Lambeau Field, also against the Rams, that I changed my opinion entirely. He crushed the Rams on Monday Night Football--and I was happy. After Mrs. Favre lost a family member in an ATV accident, and was diagnosed with breast cancer, these people had become more than sports personalities; they were real. And then, Brett's father Irv died of a heart attack 2 days before Christmas, and the very next night, Favre led the Packers in a rout of the Raiders on Monday Night Football. What was that score, 41-3? 4 TDs, no picks, 399 passing yards. I decided then I was a fan. He's not a perfect man; surely Mrs. Favre's biography could tell us that. And the old man's indecision about retirement the past 5 years annoys many. And this generation of football reporters and announcers has laid the veneration on a little thick. But we forgot him in the Era of the Quarterback. And now that he is about to leave us for the last time--the man of 41 has said this is truly it--those who nearly missed him are a bit nostalgic. You can count me among them. Manning is great, Brady wins, and Drew Brees is the unheralded champ. But Brett Lorenzo Favre is the prototype. To paraphrase one writer who stopped following another sport when a legend retired, when Favre retires, I don't care about football. Don't even show me a box score.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We Don't Need No Magisterium: (Jason's Version) (But Actually, We Do)

Hilarious Com-Box Quote of The Day: "I was caught immediately because it is the Acts of the Apostles, not the Acts of the Holy Spirit Acting Erratically."--Donald Todd, reacting to the inartful opposition of the Holy Spirit and the Magisterium. Mark Galli, an editor at Christianity Today, had suggested that today's "confusion" in evangelicalism replicates a confusion on the day of Pentecost. Mr. Todd commented after this reply , and the original article is here. My thoughts: By what means was this Church-less "consensus" formed? If the Council did not possess the authority to adjudicate such questions, who does? If the Council Fathers did not intend to be the arbiters, why do they say that they do? At the risk of being rude, I would define evangelicalism as, "Whatever I want or need to believe at any particular time." Ecclesial authority to settle a particular question is a step forward, but only as long as, "God alone is Lord of the con...
17 comments
Read more

Who Is Out Here Having Sex And Children With People They Don’t Like?

 And look, I’m not married. I’ve never been married. I have no children. I didn’t choose that; things just worked out that way. If you must know, I haven’t had sexual intercourse either. I probably should say “coitus,” so I am not arguing with some progressive activist about what “sexual intercourse” means. But I figured out from influencer videos or something what a “dead bedroom” was. Unless a couple mutually agrees that they don’t want to have sex/coitus anymore (hopefully to pray and serve) this is usually bad. I’ve known enough couples that it’s probably an indicator of trouble, especially for couples who are still able to have children. Is it really that wild to at least hope that Mr. and Mrs. Vance love each other? That a fourth child yet born at least might indicate that they enjoy each other?  Children are definitely not responsible for their parents’ happiness. That’s absolutely true. But wouldn’t any child hope their parents were happy, when they came into being? As...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I Should Have Said

 I was functionally fired from my teaching job in November, 2024, after an unjust administrative "process" initiated by HR , and triggered by false accusations the content of which I was never told. My "defense" therefore could have no reasonable basis or direction. I won't say the name of the Local Education Agency, but the town where I lived and worked was Cheraw, South Carolina. I think that once I was on administrative leave, they could use nearly any indiscretion of mine as the final straw to remove me. I did connect with students on social media in protest, and I did express hope that I would quickly be returned to the classroom. The principal of the high school where I worked--a true lackey of the bureaucracy, and fully committed to educational ideas, methods, and solutions that don't work--also allowed his personal dislike of me to take the form of a belief that I was a substandard teacher. He gave me an unsatisfactory review on October 12, and we ha...
Post a Comment
Read more