Football: Hallowed Be Thy Name

I don't talk much about my football passion, but now that there's no football I'm depressed. Somewhere down the line, I became an avid fan of the sport. I mean, I didn't grow up loving the Packers or watching college ball. But I'm totally, absolutely, devastatingly in love with football now. And no team more than the Green Bay Packers and my team's football icons.

Of course, the Pack has been more exciting with Brett Favre at the helm, sure...but I was there when it was "Majik." I remember Dickey, Brunell, Hasselbeck, Whitehurst...so mark me down as a blooming fan in the mid 1980's. I've had my favorite receivers and RB's too. Workman, Jervey, Levens, even Edgar Bennett (who coaches for the Packers now). Gimme Lofton, Ferguson, Rison, Brooks (YES!), Driver, Freeman, Schroeder, but most of all gimme DON BEEBE! He vies for my all-time favorite Packer against the omnipresent Brett Favre. I've always been a fan of Frankie "bag of donuts" Winters, Henderson, big Gilbert Brown (his Burger King burger was to die for), Doug Evans, LeRoy Butler, Ken Rutgers (I met him!), Keith Jackson, Bubba Franks, Desmond Howard, Chuck Cecil... Well, you get the idea. I love football and the men who play on my team!

So now that I've flung enough Packer names out there for you to believe that I really do love my team, let's talk a little about Brett Favre. Oh man! This guy is amazing. Us fans have been incredibly fortunate to have this guy on our team! And he's earned our trust, even when he is in the midst of a bad streak and riddled with interceptions and bad choices. We don't call for him to be taken out of the game or replaced with the guy on the bench (poor Doug Pederson). We LOVE our Favre man, and no matter what other team's fans say, I know they are jealous that we got this bad boy. Sure, sure....the debate of the day is whether he should be coming back or not, but I assure you that even the fans of the Green Bay Packers who believe Favre should hang up his pads and clear out his locker will be sorry to see him do just that. I'm happy he's playing at least one more year because I did not take advantage of being an hour and a half away from Lambeau this year. My first priority of the new year is to get me some tickets, no matter what they cost, to see the legend on the Frozen Tundra one more time before he does exit stage left.

I don't love Brett Favre just because he's a football hero. I love Brett Favre for being real, for sharing so much of himself as he's played through the pain of his life. And you all know about that stuff. What you probably don't know is that in his autobiography, he is brutally honest about his Vicoden addiction and how it overtook his life. Writing that openly about such a horrible part of your life is gutsy. I also loved the part where he saved his own life after he was in a car accident. He'd been hospitalized, then released after surgeries, etc to heal him. He went back in and demanded that they open him back up, saying he knew there was someting wrong, still. The doctors fought him and turned him away, but he was persistent, so they finally did go back in to look at his intestines. Turned out, Brett was right. He had twisted intestines that would have killed him had they not been taken care of. The man isn't perfect, and I don't put him on a pedestal. I just really like what he stands for and the way he handles himself now that he's mature. I hope he breaks every record he's close to this time around, and goes down as the all-time greatest QB who ever played the game. He's already the all-time greatest "down home boy" in my book. :)

Don Beebe is another Packer I've always admired. He got into the NFL on a quirk of fate. The scout was at his college and he got wind of it, but didn't have his running shoes with him. He went to the tryouts and scored the best 50yd dash that day--in his bare feet! He's a Godly man, and his work ethic was second to none when he was on the field. I met him once when he had a book signing (another great book). The man had arms like an ape, even though he's only like 5'9"....unbelievable fitness about him. I wish the men in the NFL today were as classy as Don Beebe was when he played.

I miss football from the time the SuperBowl is over until the preseason games start in August. Training camp serves as a great warm-up, but I'm usually so busy with the summer tourist season that I can't pay attention to it all. At least Autumn brings the pigskin back. If it didn't, I'm not sure I could endure the waning light of the shorter days that descend on us in September. To help bridge the time from now til then, a fellow avid Packer fan friend and I have decided to have a little football party on Sunday. We'll be watching the last game of the season when we whooped on Da Bears. It'll be the feel good event of the winter! At the end of the game, we'll see the teary-eyed Brett Favre and listen to the speculation about his retirement with glee in our hearts because the verdict is in. The Pack is back, and so is Brett Favre!