Brett Favre is Back and You Should be Glad!

It seems official once again. In yet another sign of the impending apocalypse, Brett Favre’s coy flirtations with football have resulted in a contract with the Minnesota Vikings, a team that is considered by many to be just one player away from a possible championship this year. That one player, of course, is quarterback, the most difficult position in the sport and conveniently enough the spot where Favre plays. The mercurial gunslinger from Kiln, Mississippi has long indicated that he’s not in the sport for personal glory anymore, and that the only goals that matter to him are team championships.

While many football aficionados, fans and pundits alike, disparage Favre for his on-again/off-again love affair with America’s favorite sport and the megawatt spotlight that comes with it, I have to disagree. I don’t see this as about a swollen ego and a last desperate grasp at a lifestyle available only to the chosen few. If Favre was truly ego-driven and concerned with the public perception of himself and his legacy, he’d have happily retired two years ago from the Green Bay Packers and trundled snugly into a broadcaster’s jacket, a sure-thing first ballot Hall of Fame induction and lifetime Godhood in the state of Wisconsin. The path was open to him, lined with cheerleaders, paved with green and gold.

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Yet Brett Favre didn’t take the easy road. He stuck to the principles that had carried him to the heights of his sport in the first place – that personal glory and individual accomplishment were nothing without the accompanying team championships. It’s why he left Green Bay, his football home for the better part of two decades, in order to take a shot at another Lombardi trophy with the New York Jets. That’s something the Great Vince Lombardi himself would understand. The namesake of the Super Bowl Champion’s trophy didn’t end his career with the Packers, his legacy team, either. He left for one more shot with the Washington Redskins. It didn’t work out for Vince, but he did what he did – coach football, with no regrets.

I think that’s why with the Vikings, a team that is the natural rival of the Packers, Favre’s tempting fate and the football gods by turning his back on History and living in the Now. The Vikings need a quarterback, and Brett Favre is one. It’s all he’s ever wanted to be. Not a broadcaster, not a legend, not a god, just a quarterback. And a pretty darned good one. So here’s to you, Brett – you may never have this chance again, and that’s the best reason there is to strap on the helmet and wade back into the fray. If this is your last shot, make it a good one.