On the John
The man with the (green and) golden arm
Originally completed August 24, 2009
Of course, we dodged the cream pie when he went to the Jets rather than Minnesota; can you imagine having to play both Favre and Green Bay twice a year?
So Favre has a new shade of green, and the Packers fans are spared the horror of seeing their man Brett come to town as either a Bear or a Viking.
—Jack M Silverstein, August 11, 2008
******
So much for that.
Brett Favre is back, and he’s dressing Purple. And I feel…
…relieved?
…excited?
…frightened?
…blessed?
…ready to pounce?
Let’s start with Jack the Bears Fan, and the first question on the table: is Brett Favre better for the Vikings than Tarvaris Jackson? That’s simple enough: Good Brett, better. Bad Brett, worse.
But since the key game against Favre and the Vikes will be played December 29th in a Chicago cold on a Monday night…I would say we are likely to be the beneficiaries of one of Favre’s legendary Bad Bretts.
That is nothing new. Fact is, I have not feared Brett Favre since December 4, 2005, since the moment just before Nate Vasher got his hands on an errant Brett ball and sent the Packers packing.
Entering the game, we were atop the North with an 8-3 record and a seven-game win streak, while Green Bay was stuck miserable at 2-9. Still, we were cautious. When chicagosports.com posted the poll question “Are you worried about the Bears playing a 2-9 Packers team?” 76% of the 4500 responders chose, “Yes, anything can happen in this rivalry.”
Two days later I awoke to find this voice mail from my friend Tony, known best at these times as Tony the Packers Fan:
Jack…Jaaaaaack. It’s Tony. Hello Jack. The clock just passed midnight. That means it’s December now, Jack. First NFL game of December is coming up. Bears-Packers. Be afraid, Jack. You don’t need to be petrified, but the cold sweats are normal. The Packers are coming, Jack. We’re coming. Brett Favre is on his way. Take care, Jack.
Tony, the only Green Bay supporter at my Super Bowl XXXI party, the person who phoned two minutes after the Pack drafted Aaron Rodgers, and, when I picked up, bellowed: “Looks like we found our Favre replacement. Enjoy the next ten years.”
What a bastard.
And yet we battered Favre all afternoon that day. Knocked him around for two sacks and three fumbles and two picks, blasted him with blitzing corners and safeties and a front seven built like 12, drove him into the turf, made him wince.
And then, with the Bears clenching a 12-7 lead and Favre limping off consecutive lost fumbles, the ol’ gunslinger slung one to our man Vasher…Number 31 galloping the sideline unmolested for the 45-yard game-icing score, my Favre Fear dissolving like so many dandelion seeds in the wind, never to be seen again…
So no: no fear. But he is still a concern. We all know of Brett’s two and six mark against Lovie’s Bears, but as long as Brett Favre is lining up opposite a Bears defense, my anxiety over the 20-4 pre-Lovie Brett making a special appearance will remain.
******
As a kid, my mom often went to Wrigley Field with her father to watch the Cubs. During one game against the Milwaukee Braves, Hank Aaron came for his first at-bat, and my grandfather stood and applauded. My mom, understandably, was confused, and asked why he would cheer for a guy on the other team.
“There are some people,” he said, “who you cheer for no matter what team they’re on.”
When I think of that story, I think of Brett Favre.
And it’s not that I’m rooting for the guy to win. I’ve not reached that point, nor do I think that I ever will. But if I said that I was ever rooting against Favre, I would be lying.
—Jack M Silverstein, January 2, 2005
******
Of course, Jack the Bears Fan is not the only one watching these games. Jack the Sports Fan gets in there too. From that perch, Favre’s return is an opportunity to spend one more season enjoying the skills and enthusiasm offered by one of the premier competitors and athletic performers of my life. When Favre is on the field, gaining another of Those Moments is never far away.
Like the six-TD game he tacked on Arizona last year—that was Favre at his Favriest. His lone interception was an outrageous Favrian catastrophe: rolling to his right after a play fake, darting six yards out of the pocket, and then twisting back to catapult a most doomed of passes. But he posted a perfect passer rating after that pick and notched his career high in touchdown passes, the first of which an absolute missile from the fifteen to Coles in the back of the box.
Since he was busy tossing those six scores, we were also treated to loads of Favre celebrations, those burstings of joy that pour out of the man such as they did following his Super Bowl TD to Rison, his diving score to beat Atlanta in ’95 (thus knocking the Bears out of the playoffs), his game-winning pass to Sharpe in the ’93 Wild Card round, his game-winning throw in overtime against Denver in 2007.
And when I am old, when my memory has eroded, when I have lost track of which touchdown he threw to which player in which game in which season and what it may have meant, that grinning shouting face is what I will remember, the leaps into the arms of his favorite linemen, his headless chicken sprints around the field as he hoists his helmet high above and makes football fun again.
Brett Favre is back, for at least one more go. Vikings, Jets, or Packers, I’m just glad to see him playing.
Of course…
Brett Favre is kinda like a father who left Mom and got a new girlfriend, only to leave her and come back to screw Mom’s sister.
—Tony the Packers fan, August 18, 2009
Oh.
Copyright 2009, jm silverstein
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For clips on the aforementioned ‘End of the Favre Fear’ game, click here
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