I'm not going to cover any new ground here (NOT THAT IT'S STOPPED ME BEFORE), but just to put this in perspective: I've never really had any feelings about Brett Favre. At all. He's just....there, like an accent table. I am completely uninterested in the fortunes of any NFC team unless they're facing mine in February. Once the Packers started advancing through the playoffs last year, though, the coverage got old fast (LIKE HIM AND HIS LIMBS). January 2008:
Livia: I mean, how do you not root for Favre? Or Eli? Because let's be honest: it is the only chance either of them is ever going to have.That indifference has been transformed with haste into a rapid boil of loathing over this past month. He wants to show up in training camp, and call their bluff, but he doesn't want to be a distraction? And now he's reinstated, and NBC cuts away from Indy's first snap to show his private plane landing in Cheese Lick, Wisconsin, and Madden and Michaels are reporting there's an open competition at quarterback afoot in Green Bay?
Nastinchka: I'm finding it pretty damn easy not to root for Favre, just so I don't have to hear the word "gunslinger" ever again. I just want his boyish heart of a champion to go live on a farm and chase squirrels.
NOW I'm happy. I'm wild with exuberance that he didn't get traded, and will be able to throw gamebreaking interceptions and lumber all over his legacy from the comfort of his home stadium. The whole thing reminds me of the "elitist" slanders being slung around in the 2004 election--"Oh, John Kerry's bike cost eight thousand dollars and Bush's cost five thousand, and THAT MEANS HE'S A MAN OF THE PEOPLE." Favre is not Just Folks. He's not down-home. He's a peacock like all the rest, a creature raised on the fat teat of Middle American idolatry who couldn't take one offseason of eyes trained on his backup. Hating Favre doesn't put me in a particularly small club, but this came out of NOWHERE. I can't emphasize enough how NEVER this guy has crossed my radar over the last sixteen years, but I can't be the only fan whose complete disinterest has turned to outright contempt over this rigamarole.
Posted by Nastinchka at August 3, 2008 06:21 PM
I have never in my life heard or seen you use the word "teat". This is serious, folks.
Posted by: Stella at August 3, 2008 06:42 PMI think I've even hit people for using that word in front of me before, but we can all agree these are special circumstances.
Posted by: Holly at August 3, 2008 06:45 PMThis sums everything up quite nicely. My mother, the most lovely, gentle woman on the planet, the goddaughter of Johnny Unitas, had this to say on the subject of Brett Favre: "Someone needs to just take out his knees. Step aside, STEP ASIDE, I SAY."
Posted by: j at August 3, 2008 07:34 PMBrett's gonna be havin' breakfast with Snap, Crackle, AND Pop!
me = dork who thinks up labored one-liners.
Posted by: Extra P. at August 3, 2008 08:31 PMThey've handed him enough rope with which to hang himself, and he just couldn't get back fast enough to form the season-long noose.
Mind you, I can't see Aaron Rodgers being much of a replacement. Isn't he the same guy who set a Pac-10 record for completions against SC in 2004 and had Cal at 1st and goal with a chance to win the game, and couldn't finish the game off? I mean, if Stanford can do it with a first-time starter...
Welcome to the club. I started hating Favre when he decided to inject himself into Javon Walker's holdout a few years back. Everyone knows the golden rule regarding money matters: stay the fuck out of someone else's dispute with the bosses over pay.
He has transformed himself into the Roger Clemens of the NFL with the Middle American idolatry you write of.
You are not alone, Favre is making a complete Jackass of himself. He is a so-called LEGEND and he is trouncing his own legend. This is a guy who did cross my radar quite a bit in the past 16 years, being a Bears girl and NFC North girl, and I'd always admired him, if for no other reason than he seemed classy and he clearly enjoyed playing the game.
But you know what? He just looks like a whiny fool right now. He's gonna fall on his face. It is inevitable.
Posted by: Gridiron Goddess at August 4, 2008 12:45 AMAs I've said before, if this were a movie, the part of Brett Favre would be played by Kevin Costner*.
And that just makes it worse.
*Or "Kevin Costnre".
Posted by: J-Money at August 4, 2008 07:51 AMAnd see, if I'd read MJD's take on the matter before this morning, we all would've been spared this post. There. Yes. Those are my problems too, except I'm unencumbered by starting from a position of "liking" Favre.
p/s In the middle of typing his name, my temperamental trackpad skipped on me and put the r beterrn the a and v. MY LAPTOP SHARES MY SCORN. (Or the kingdom of machines are all Vikings fans.)
Posted by: Holly at August 4, 2008 09:01 AMEven as a Vikings fan, I had a lot of respect for Favre. The way this has been handled, I've lost most of it.
Posted by: SpartanDan at August 4, 2008 10:12 AM