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Favre played with rare passion for the game
by Michael Rosenberg
The NFL is watching Brett Favre now, as he rides into the Mississippi sunset. But was the NFL watching Favre all these years? Does the league realize what made Favre the most popular player of his generation?
It wasn't just his greatness. The NFL has always had great players and it will have many more. Favre did not win as much as Tom Brady or put up numbers quite like Peyton Manning, though at his peak he was as good as either of them. No, what made Favre special — what will make even some Bears fans miss him — was that he loved the game.
He loved it more by the year. That is an extreme rarity in the NFL.
It's hard for fans to understand, because fans never tire of their playoff hopes and fantasy teams. But a lot of NFL players get beaten down, literally and figuratively.
Favre was different. You've heard of players playing every game like it's their last. Favre's appeal was that he played every game like it was his first. You would think that somewhere around the 400th touchdown pass, the thrill would wear off a little bit. That never happened with Favre.
With him, there was never relief, only joy.
As Favre ran off the field in his final regular-season game — with a 21-3 lead in a game the Packers didn't need to win anyway — he almost ran into a referee.
Most players would have apologized and gone back to the bench.
Favre? He high-fived the zebra.
This is what we will miss about Favre. It is what the NFL will miss.
Other quarterbacks will throw 80-yard bombs, and somebody else might even become the face of the Packers, but will they enjoy it as much?
And you wonder: was the NFL watching all those years?
The NFL earned the No Fun League label long ago; it is more accurate to say the league is humorless. How many NFL coaches ever crack a joke in a press conference, like their NBA, MLB and NHL counterparts do?
How many ever give the hint that they get paid to coach a kid's game?
I think the league fines players who don't take themselves seriously enough. I could be wrong on that. But the league has long fined players whose uniform was slightly off what the league mandated, so what's the difference, really?
This goes beyond self-aggrandizers like Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens. Favre never showed up his opponent. He just played with a joie de vivre (which he would surely pronounce "joy de verve").
The NFL is easily our most popular sports league. I know as well as anybody that the league doesn't need my marketing advice. But the NFL is always caught up in the present: winning the next game. The league churns through players like they are bodies, not people; no player is guaranteed to get his salary next year, and nobody cares what you did two years ago. It is the least sentimental sports league I have ever seen.
And as a business plan, that has obviously worked. Everybody watches the NFL, to the point where it is almost impossible to imagine the league dropping from its perch.
But sometimes it seems like the league is raking in all that cash and not really enjoying it all that much. Brett Favre was more than just a great NFL player. He was a player in a way we don't see in the NFL.
And that, as much as anything, is why he will be missed.
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IMO One of the many reasons that Romo reminds people of Favre.
by Michael Rosenberg
The NFL is watching Brett Favre now, as he rides into the Mississippi sunset. But was the NFL watching Favre all these years? Does the league realize what made Favre the most popular player of his generation?
It wasn't just his greatness. The NFL has always had great players and it will have many more. Favre did not win as much as Tom Brady or put up numbers quite like Peyton Manning, though at his peak he was as good as either of them. No, what made Favre special — what will make even some Bears fans miss him — was that he loved the game.
He loved it more by the year. That is an extreme rarity in the NFL.
It's hard for fans to understand, because fans never tire of their playoff hopes and fantasy teams. But a lot of NFL players get beaten down, literally and figuratively.
Favre was different. You've heard of players playing every game like it's their last. Favre's appeal was that he played every game like it was his first. You would think that somewhere around the 400th touchdown pass, the thrill would wear off a little bit. That never happened with Favre.
With him, there was never relief, only joy.
As Favre ran off the field in his final regular-season game — with a 21-3 lead in a game the Packers didn't need to win anyway — he almost ran into a referee.
Most players would have apologized and gone back to the bench.
Favre? He high-fived the zebra.
This is what we will miss about Favre. It is what the NFL will miss.
Other quarterbacks will throw 80-yard bombs, and somebody else might even become the face of the Packers, but will they enjoy it as much?
And you wonder: was the NFL watching all those years?
The NFL earned the No Fun League label long ago; it is more accurate to say the league is humorless. How many NFL coaches ever crack a joke in a press conference, like their NBA, MLB and NHL counterparts do?
How many ever give the hint that they get paid to coach a kid's game?
I think the league fines players who don't take themselves seriously enough. I could be wrong on that. But the league has long fined players whose uniform was slightly off what the league mandated, so what's the difference, really?
This goes beyond self-aggrandizers like Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens. Favre never showed up his opponent. He just played with a joie de vivre (which he would surely pronounce "joy de verve").
The NFL is easily our most popular sports league. I know as well as anybody that the league doesn't need my marketing advice. But the NFL is always caught up in the present: winning the next game. The league churns through players like they are bodies, not people; no player is guaranteed to get his salary next year, and nobody cares what you did two years ago. It is the least sentimental sports league I have ever seen.
And as a business plan, that has obviously worked. Everybody watches the NFL, to the point where it is almost impossible to imagine the league dropping from its perch.
But sometimes it seems like the league is raking in all that cash and not really enjoying it all that much. Brett Favre was more than just a great NFL player. He was a player in a way we don't see in the NFL.
And that, as much as anything, is why he will be missed.
___________________________________________________________________
IMO One of the many reasons that Romo reminds people of Favre.
