Written By Chris Schad
For any sports fan flipping channels over the weekend, you may have learned that the Green Bay Packers inducted legendary quarterback Brett Favre into their Hall of Fame. You may have also learned that Packer fans were jacked up for this as they sold tickets (at $4 a piece) to have their fans watch the ceremony on their giant screen. (The actual ceremony, by the way, was inside the stadium’s atrium, but we are talking about Wisconsinites and the John Deere Cult, so I guess it makes sense.)
On the other side of the Mississippi, there may be a “Who cares?” mentality among Vikings fans that Favre will have his number retired for the rival Packers. However, it is important to acknowledge one of the most bitter rivals the franchise has had during its existence.
If this article were written a couple of years ago, the entire state of Wisconsin would probably have put out a warrant for my arrest. As a kid growing up in an extreme Minnesota Vikings family, it would have been grounds for disownership had I put Brett Favre on my favorite quarterbacks to watch.
There were just so many reasons to hate Favre from a Viking fan standpoint. For one, announcers would never refer to him as Favre. He was always “BrettFavre” as if his name had been compounded into one word. As someone who would go on to become a writer, this was something that just had my juices flowing.
Favre also seemed to always have the Vikings’ number. With one comeback, you always sat and thought “he can’t do this to us again.” But then he would, with the absurdity level rising every time he mounted a comeback. If I had been paid for every time he burned my beloved team, it’s quite possible that I would have never had to take out a student loan to pay for college.
Then, there was the hope that someday you could just get rid of Favre … but there is no getting rid of Brett Favre. Even if my childhood dream had come true where he were hit by a bus, dragged halfway across the country from the bumper and set on fire, he’d still find a way to walk out of the Lambeau tunnel to fight another day.
There were plenty of reasons to hate Favre then, but as I write this today, I find a new level of respect for a guy that metaphorically showed up on my doorstep to kick me in the groin on a weekly basis.
The crossroads came in July of 2009. The Vikings were about to trudge to Mankato for another (likely) unsuccessful campaign with Tarvaris Jackson as their quarterback. As I sat there in my duplex with six other college students, a had an aggressive conversation about the possibility of Favre ending his second retirement to join the team.
We all know what happened from that point on. Favre showed up with a media entourage that made the O.J. Simpson car chase look tame and led the Vikings to the 2010 NFC Championship. While the team’s success probably had a factor in my sudden appreciation for a bitter rival, there were things that I saw seeing him play on our side every Sunday.
There was never any “give a damn” with Favre on the football field. While many Vikings fans would point out this led to the NFL’s All-Time interception record, his tendency to let it rip triggered most of those Packer comebacks throughout the years and even helped Minnesota pull off one memorable victory at the Metrodome.
Favre also seemed like a normal guy rather than the “Cheese God” our neighbors had made him out to be. He had a sense of humor about his multiple comebacks and just seemed to enjoy being around his teammates … which drives me to another thing that used to drive Viking fans crazy … He seriously looked like he was having fun out there.
Now, before anyone thinks John Madden has hacked my computer, think about it. Favre was great in a fun kind of way. He would leap up into the air, smack his teammates on the butt and play football as if he were a lunatic. It was seriously fun to watch him play as opposed to the cocky and brash nature of his successor, Aaron Rodgers (who can do more than back it up).
All of these things make should make Viking fans glad to see that the Packers had come to their senses and let him into their Hall of Fame four years after he played his final down at a frozen TCF Bank Stadium. In the end, Favre will always be known as a Packer, but one that Viking fans can respect after the two seasons he spent in purple … like in a polite golf-clap sort of way.