Okay, for the past four years now I have been very frustrated with the Brett Favre Files. Like many other Green Bay Packers fans, I was begging for some sort of end to what we believed to be Favre’s story book career. It never came, and now we are forced to endure another season of Favre in a non-green-and-gold jersey.
Although it is very difficult to see Favre in a Vikings jersey, the legend has finally won me over again. I realize admitting this on my blog might cause Wisconsin readers to question my sanity, but please hear me out.
Brett Favre ’09 is Rocky VI. Both Favre and Rocky have heart. They’re passionate about their sports. Football and boxing are pretty much all they know and what they do best. It appears both will play and fight as long as they remain vertical. Neither age nor injuries can stop them from competing and giving it all they’ve got.
Brett Favre is not Michael Jordan, and that’s a good thing. Jordan’s retirements seemed calculated for attention and marketing purposes. Favre just doesn’t go that deep. He doesn’t think that way. Pretty much all he thinks is grab ball and chuck ball, hoping to throw more touchdown passes than interceptions to help his team win more games than they lose for a chance at the playoffs and a shot at another Super Bowl appearance.
Brett Favre is the epitome of my all-time favorite quote: “You don’t stop playing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop playing.”—George Bernard Shaw
As long as Favre continues to throw a uniform on—no matter what colors—and competitively plays the game he loves so deeply, he will remain young at heart.
Bo knows; Favre doesn’t. See, Favre doesn’t know who he is without football. Without it, he’s a starving, homeless orphan. Let the man have his football, so he can eat, drink, and be merry. You don’t have to root for him, but don’t root against him. Just watch him and respect his passion for the game.
He’s not the only sports legend who has hung on long enough to receive their AARP card. Rickey Henderson played independent minor league ball clinging to his dream of another Major League contract in his late forties. At the age of 49, Julio Franco’s exotic batting stance continued to grace Major League batters boxes. And only God knows exactly how old Satchel Paige was when he pitched his last professional baseball game. There is something magical about these men and their quests for the fountain of youth in their sports. Although we know their bodies will eventually fade, their boyhood innocence and contagious spirit is eternal.
Read the poem below and try to recall other sports legends who embody the Satchel Paige timelessness of sports? (Feel free to comment below.)
“To Satch”
by Samuel Washington Allen
Sometimes I feel like I will never stop
Just go on forever
Till one fine mornin
I'm gonna reach up and grab me a handfulla stars
Swing out my long lean leg
And whip three hot strikes burnin down the heavens
And look over at God and say
How about that!
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/115602-Samuel-Washington-Allen-To-Satch
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@bpritzl Nice blog post on Favre. I remember from RockyIV, Rocky can't change "Cause I'm a fighter. ... We can't change what we are."
ReplyDelete"Favre doesn’t know who he is without football." Exactly. He needs counseling, and a lot of it, before the day comes when he can no longer play. If he doesn't address that now, his depression will be unbearable then.
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