20080306

Our Folk Hero


I think I’ll always be sad on Tuesdays now from here on out. Tuesday, I’ll say when I wake, you’ve turned rotten on me. I wish you were Wednesday already. No doubt a super-majority of Wisconsin and a good part of the folks in North America will be spending the rest of the week drowning their sorrows in the flowing bowl. I spotted at least two-three dozen flags at half mast before lunch-time today. And I never went further than to fetch a sandwich down the way. Was it foggy out there? I couldn’t even tell you. Think I’m probably dizzy stunned right here in this rocking chair.
I spent the after-noon stoking the wood stove and listening to the sporting radio frequency, trying to really understand the impact of the news. Brett Favre has retired. Well I’ll be. Well I’ll be.
Did you all know that Brett Favre only has half his intestines? Isn’t that something? The guy on this planet with the most guts actually had a bunch of his guts removed. He was about to start his Senior Season at Southern Mississippi and he got in an auto wreck. Almost died. Had to have emergency surgery and all he wanted to know was, Will I be able to play again? In no time at all, sure enough, he recovered and led the team to an up-set win over Alabama. That pretty much just says it all when it comes to Favre’s dependability, dear readers. There ain’t much you can count on for 17 years in this life. Not these days. My pick-it-up truck just turned twelve. It’s got dents all over and it rides like a wild blue-gill thrashin in your palm. But on a really cold morning that rascal starts if you feed it some gas. The heater works yet. Doesn’t mean I should drive it over a ramp, though. I got a Brett Favre sticker in the back window that I bought at the grocery store on a whim.
I would say this much about Brett Favre with great confidence:
He has been the greatest player in Green Bay Packer history. And that’s really saying something. He is amongst the top echelon, even amongst Hall of Fame athletes. In the minds of Packers Fans, he is all of these things and more, and he is also one of our most legendary folk heroes. I imagine Brett Favre hangs out with a mysterious band of Sasquatchie out in the woodlands, all of them wearing Wrangler Blue Jeans, roasting quail over a bon-fire and playing harmonicas.
Brett Favre now holds most NFL quarterback records, but the one most impressive to me is that he played 275 games without missing one. And during that time, he rarely missed a practice. Yip Cabbage! As Brett would say. Yip Soy Beans!
I’m glad that he went out before the wind died down. That he made the choice, and not the other way around. This last season was one of his finest yet. I’d say 2007 ranked up in his top three… So things didn’t end perfectly. They rarely do.
This winter has been tough, no doubt. I can’t wait, oh I can’t wait for the ice to melt. And that’s saying something. We’ve got a few more weeks of the grey and brown fog, snap cold nights and darkness. Most of it I’ll spend appreciating Brett Favre and replaying his art. Did you all know that the Packers have been the winning-est team percentage-wise since that week Brett Favre charged the field a way back when? It’s true. We’ve had it real good, dear readers. We’ve had it real good. We were there. And we saw him do all of that which should not be real but is. Until next time, then.