I hope your smelling salts are handy, because I’m is about to write a few words about Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre. . . which makes about as much sense as Brett Favre writing about Grand Opera. A football expert I am not, although I’ve followed the game more than most people would ever guess. I started watching the NFL when I was in sixth grade because of an ad in the Weekly Reader for helmet-shaped pencil sharpeners, each with the logo of a different NFL team. I chose the Pittsburgh Steelers as my team because I loved their brilliantly colored logo, and that turned out to be their miraculous breakout year when they made the playoffs for the first time in 40 years. (I watched their playoff game in which the famous “Immaculate Reception” took place and won them the game. As a good Lutheran, I didn’t even understand the play on words- but I’ll never forget that amazing play for as long as I live, and my unlikely interest in professional football took hold.)
Anyway, I watch football with the profound ignorance of someone who basically has never stepped out on a football field – not even as a member of the marching band! (I can remember sitting in the chair as “The Corner Barbers” in downtown Decorah- and it never failed that if the big, burly linebacker-ish barber was cutting my hair, he would inevitably ask me if I ever played football – and every time I would answer the same . . . yes, and that my position was Safety. I knew just enough about the game to know that one of the only positions a relatively small guy might successfully play was safety. Of course, what I meant by the term was the Safety of the Stands.)
But I digress. I never played football – and never even thought about it – and have very little grasp whatsoever of the finer points of the game. But I know what I like and who I like- and sometimes it has been battered warriors who have valiantly played on through tough times with so-so teams. . . such as Archie Manning (Peyton’s dad) with the New Orleans Saints or Jim Plunkett with the New England Patriots back in an era when neither of those teams was much good. I liked the Minnesota Vikings QB Fran Tarkenton because he was a preacher’s kid. I of course loved so many of the Steelers, and I can still rattle off many names and jersey numbers from their Super Bowl years- Jack Ham, 59 – Jack Lambert, 58 – Andy Russell, 34 – L.C.Greenwood, 68 – Joe Greene, 75 – Ernie Holmes, 63, you get the idea. Later on, I had the good fortune of living in Chicago just as the Bears happened to win their first Super Bowl title, and it was really fun to be caught up in that euphoria – which by now dates back more than twenty years.
But though I have flirted with the Steelers and Bears – and was of course devoted to Nebraska football back when I was a grad student there- my heart now belongs to the Green Bay Packers and to the superb quarterback who leads them. The Packers organization itself is such a class act and really the only NFL team that belongs so profoundly to the ordinary citizens of its city. . . which is also, I’m pretty sure, the smallest city to have an NFL franchise. There is something so wholesome and inspiring, so Norman Rockwell, about this team . . .
And then there is a superhero at the helm, Brett Favre. I have recently interviewed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Kertscher about his newest book, Brett Favre: A Fan’s Tribute, which celebrates every facet of this man’s accomplishments. My single favorite moment in the book is a chart which fills a whole page in which he lists the names of every quarterback that has started at least one game for the various teams of the NFC’s central division over the past 17 years. I don’t have the book in front of me, but at least one of those teams has more than a dozen names listed, and another team almost that many – and on it goes. At the bottom of the chart is this:
Green Bay Packers: Brett Favre
But it’s not just that he is amazingly durable – it is also that he plays the game with as much open-hearted joy and delight as anyone I can think of. I always love it when we are able to see on-the-field exchanges before and after games- and it is there that we so often witness just how warmly Favre is regarded by his opponents. It’s hard to imagine anyone garnering more respect and affection. He loves this game, and he gives himself over to it in a way that is absolutely irresistible. And even through his missteps, we have to appreciate his guts and courage. Fortunately for Packers fans, there have been hardly any missteps at all this season and it’s started to look like his decision to come back and play another season (a decision which I thought was nuts) is the smartest thing he could have done.
It wasn’t that long ago in this blog that I paid tribute to opera star Luciano Pavarotti upon his death at the age of 71. There are some interesting parallels, it seems to me, between the two: Both were adored by fans – deeply loved by competitors and colleagues – astonishingly durable – courageous in the face of challenges – and richly blessed by their Maker with talent galore. One difference- Pavarotti seemed over time to become more and more interested in Stardom . . . while to this day, Stardom and Breaking Records seem to be of no interest whatsoever to Brett Favre. And that’s one more reason to love him. For the greatest heroes among us don’t have a selfish bone in their bodies. For them, it is all about the Greater Good. And unlike Pavarotti, who found all kinds of reasons to cancel various performances with disturbing regularity, Favre has always found within himself the strength not only just to show up – but so often to get the job done and in spectacular fashion. Think of that amazing night several years ago when Brett Favre’s dad just died quite suddenly – and rather than leaving his team behind – for which no one would have blamed him had he chosen to do so – Favre went out and threw five touchdown passes as he powered the Packers past the Raiders. Now that’s what I call a Hero. Not that Favre isn’t devoted to his family- and doesn’t have a life off of the field . . . but he approaches football with such focus and determination, coupled with puppy dog delight – and I find myself absolutely loving the guy and wishing that it could go on forever and ever.
pictured: towards the end of the Packers emphatic win over the San Diego Chargers- a game in which Favre threw three touchdown passes, which ties him with Dolphins QB Dan Marino for career touchdowns. (420)