Brett Favre Tuesday, August 18, 2009

To steal a line from Mark Hoppus, a lot of people are just starting to jump on the "I hate Brett Favre" band wagon. I'm old school. I've been hating Brett Favre since 1995.

Well, more like since January of 1997. That's when the Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, 35-21. I remember Favre throwing a touch down bomb early in the game, taking his helmet off and sprinting up and down the field in a manner that today would have earned him at least two personal fouls. I've despised the man ever since.

I gave him a chance to redeem himself once. At the end of the 2002 season, the Patriots needed to beat Miami in a 1PM game and they needed Brett Favre and the Packers to beat the Jets in a 4pm game in order to win a division title. The Patriots came from behind to beat the Dolphins. I swore I'd forgive Favre and love him like everyone else (or at least tolerate his existence) if he beat the Jets. What did he do? He single handedly eliminated the defending champions from contention by throwing incompletion after incompletion after incompletion after interception. You could tell he didn't want to be there or even really care about the outcome. Jets fans can't say he never got them into the playoffs. My hatred escalated.

I always hated that Favre was like Jeter in that he could do no wrong in the eyes of the press. I remember watching a Sunday Night game in 2004 where the Packers were beating the Texans by two scores. Favre then threw an interception in the red zone and David Carr led the Texans down the field to bring them within a field goal from looking at the final score. Favre threw another red zone-interception and Carr led the Texans into the red zone and threw an incomplete pass or something on 4th down or the last play of the game...memory is a bit hazy. The announcers were all over Carr, saying he needed to be more like Favre, who would never make a mistake in the red zone in such a close game. Apparently their memories were a bit hazy too.

But the thing I really hated about him was that no one else hated him. On the contrary, everyone loved him. I was at a Bible Study, and afterwards we watched Monday Night Football. I think the Packers were playing the Chiefs. Everyone was going on and on about how great Favre was and asked me what I thought of him. I told them I didn't like him. The kid next to me said "Get out of this room, Satan!"

I use to root for the Packers to go 0-16 every year. It unfortunately never happened, though they went 4-12 in 2006 and I was pumped because I thought it meant the end of Favre. He came back another year, and wouldn't you know it, he got me again. Not only did the Packers do really well, going 13-3, but they also had homefield advantage in the NFC Championship game against the Giants. Favre threw two interceptions, including one in overtime that punched the Giants tickets to Super Bowl XLII. There's no doubt in my mind the Packers would have been destroyed by the Patriots that year. It's tough to say which I hate Favre more for: losing the 2007 NFC Championship game or winning Super Bowl XXXI. I'd have to go with the former, as if he had won the Patriots would have avenged the latter infinitely many times over.

So, then Favre retired but didn't and instead came back as a Jet. Let me be honest with you. This was the first thing he ever did that I approved of. Why wouldn't I want one my least favorite players* on my least favorite team, especially as a washed up bum? But he got me again, as only Brett Favre can do. The Patriots needed to beat some crappy team on the final day of the season in a 1PM game and have Favre beat the Dolphins in a 4pm game to win the division. A quick Google Search tells me it was the Patriots opponent was the Bills, and New England obviously beat them. Wanna guess how well Favre did? Just go back up and read my 2002 summary.

To summarize the above, since I started watching football religiously in 1996, Brett Favre has been directly responsible for ending 3 Patriot seasons and indirectly responsible for the worst loss in not only Patriot history, but professional sports history itself. Now he's back with the Vikings. The one prediction I'm going to make is somehow Brett Favre will single handedly ruin this season for me.

* Brett Favre and Peyton Manning are 1A and 1B. I can't decide which I hate more.