This really should have been my first post since I have been deeply disturbed by this since last summer. However the Haiti thing was so current I had to comment on it first.Okay, to set the stage, I have been a Green Bay Packers fan for as long as I have been alive. I saw everything they did in the 60's as a kid and still remember to this day watching the Ice Bowl against the Cowboys.
Brett Favre has been an amazing football player and remains one to this day. Green Bay was lucky to have him for 16 years at the helm because in today's free agent market that is a rarity. I knew every game they played they had a chance to win (and sometimes lose) because Brett was under center. No lead was too safe for the other team. No lead was ever safe enough for the Packers. With other personnel changing it always felt comfortable knowing Brett was always there to start. He made players around him better and he enjoyed the game win or lose. I believe that he is the greatest quarterback to ever play the game for many reasons.
When he retired the first time I was devastated. It was the aftershock of the stunning loss to the Giants in the NFC Championship game that year. I thought after that game, surely he would be back for one more year with that great team so close...then BAM a retirement speech!
After I got over the initial disappointment (I take my Packers football very seriously) I actually felt good about Aaron Rodgers being the next Packers QB. He had understudied with Brett for 3 years and had played pretty good in the Cowboys game that year when Brett got hurt in the first quarter. You saw glimpses then of what he has now become as a starter the last two years.
Yeah, Yeah, I AM getting to my point just shut up.
Then Brett unretired and ended up with the Jets. That ended up a flop, cost the Jets coach his job, and Brett retired again. I thought, Okay, he is done now and life will go on. Nooooooo!
Rumblings started in the spring about will he or won't he sign with another team. Then I hear whispers from my friends about talks with the Vikings. I paled when I heard those rumors. Anyone with half a football brain knows the Vikings and Bears are the two hated rivals of the Packers and have been as long as I've known what a football was. And here was my favorite Packer player joining one of them...the enemy! Ahhhhhhhhh!!!
I was in DEEP denial over the possibility of Brett going to the Vikings. For chrissakes they already had Darren Sharper play for them and Ryan Longwell IS playing for them! This can't be happening, I kept saying. It won't happen. I was going to will it NOT to happen. Alright calm the hell down...breathe...better, okay.
Well of course I affected nothing and Brett joined the Vikings at the last possible moment to learn any plays at all before the season started. For all I know they changed the play book to the last plays Brett remembered from Green Bay. I was stunned and confused...and pissed off! I know it's a business and only fans talk loyalty, but shit Brett, the Vikings???
To make matters worse, the first game of the season? You guessed it...Vikings at Lambeau. Fuck me! This really can't be happening, oh yeah...it was on national TV at night! I love the Packers...I love Brett and seeing him run out of the visitors tunnel in a Purple Vikings jersey at Lambeau field??? Tell me if that is not a sign of the Apocalypse, football fans, I dare you. I was very disturbed the whole game.
Of course the Pack loses. The Vikings looked very strong. Of course they go on to start the season undefeated for several weeks (while beating the Packers a second time in their Dome). The Packers stumble to 4-4 while the Vikes go 8-0. There are no words to describe this nightmare. I had been all revved up for what I thought would be a good season (I figured 10-6 would be a fair turn around from the prior year) and here we were .500 half way through. WTF plus one!
Well to the Pack's credit they finished the season strong at 7-1, pummelled the Cowboys (loved that game, should have recorded it), and finished one game behind the Vikes at 11-5. They were the hottest NFC team coming down the stretch. A split with the Vikes and a win in Pittsburgh (that should have been) and they win the NFC North!
Now to the playoffs.
Stunned again as the Packers routed the Cardinals mightily in the final game of the season... and then play a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde game the next week against the Cards in the Wildcard game that featured invisible defensive players on both sides, to lose 51-45 in OT and Rodgers missing a wide open man after winning the coin toss that would have ended the game.
Vikings drilled the Cowboys like new meat in a prison shower and are off to the NFC Championship against a good Saints team.
Now at long last the purpose of this post...I am rooting for the Packings to beat the Saints this weekend. Brett will always be a Packer in my heart no matter what and I want him to set records that will never be broken in two lifetimes. For the next two games I am a rabid Brett Favre fan in spite of the uniform he wears. I want to see him crush the Saints in their own Dome and destroy whoever the AFC might send against him in the Big game.
So go Brett! Go Packings! (It's the best I can do.)
-)Chuck
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