GO FIGURE!!!!
The “I told you so’s” win it. Brett Favre is now a Minnesota Viking moving the next state west, the arch rival team, from the Green Bay Packers, in the town where he built his legend. No city in major sports is as unique as Green Bay, a team that would at best perhaps host Double AA minor league baseball if it weren’t so far north on an isolated bay on the north western corner of Lake Michigan. For the close knit community of Green Bay where the Packers are the story, the only team owned by share holders from the city itself, seeing the fellow who was their Sunday afternoon idol for so long leading the arch enemy to destroy them has to be the ultimate sports nightmare. Ah, but 275 miles to the west, a drive across the northern width of Wisconsin, hearts are pounding with joy. The Vikings, who've been to the Super Bowl and lost and have fallen in the championship round too many times before, the dream is red hot that the Lombardi trophy could come to the Twin Cities this year.
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So what will life be like at 1004 Brett Favre Pass, two blocks east of Lambeau Field, home of the Brett Favre Steakhouse? http://www.brettfavresteakhouse.com/steakhouse/index.html
With all the artifacts celebrating Favre's brilliant career in Green Bay, how would a premier steak taste knowing the city's favorite son is pigging out in the big city to the west?
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By the way, the Brett Favre Steakhouse serves Crab Cakes: "Fresh Maryland blue crab seasoned and pan fried. Drizzled with a remoulade sauce." Gotta love that, in Northern Wisconsin, no less!!!
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Green Bay Packers fans are a special bunch, their players like family. How does it feel? Are the angry, heartbroken, some of each, or just overwhelmed?
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Reminder to all, when it comes to the real essence, all sports are but a part of a bigger entertainment industry. It's a business, a reality colder than the frozen Tundra in December.
The early line is Brett Favre is the missing piece that can propel the Vikings to at least the NFC Championship game if not beyond. Surely, the guy has unbelievable talent and a unique mind for the game, but the dude turns 40 on October 10th the day before his team takes the field to do battle in St. Louis against the Rams.
There’s no knocking his career with the Packers. The man performed brilliantly perhaps turning in his most inspired performance in his final season with the Cheesy Poofs in 2007 where they were but a move or two from going to the Super Bowl going down in defeat to the surprising New York Giants. His season with the New York Jets last year is one of the classic glass half empty/glass half full debates. He looked like Brett Favre of old and led the Jets to their best season in years just missing the playoffs, but from mid-October forward, Favre looked old and tentative throwing up interceptions and at times looking bewildered. He was injured and faced off-season shoulder surgery that is now behind him. Was that the answer or has father time caught up with him?
Fans generally rallied behind Favre’s effort to continue his career after retiring early in the 2008 off-season with speculation running wild that was not the last the NFL would hear from the Louisiana gun slinger from the swamp. Green Bay Packers leadership clearly wanted to move on behind Aaron Rodgers and was not going to let Brett Favre delay his decision and in their minds string them out for making his decision on his terms. The dog days of summer played out as the Brett Favre soap opera yearning to return to the Packers but then dictate his terms for playing elsewhere. He wound up with the Jets with stipulations he could not go to Minnesota.
When he announced his retirement from the Jets, most felt this was the timely decision. He got his second chance, move on, but there was quite a rumble the world hadn’t heard from Favre. That he got the necessary arm surgery and there was a not so secret dialog going on with the Vikings made his return a little more than a matter of speculation.
The public wasn’t as kind this summer seeing Favre more as a spoiled brat who wants everything on his terms. As camps opened and Favre wasn’t there, the folks in Minnesota felt a sense of letdown and disbelief. They felt they were being led along by Favre, and with his announcement he still intended to stay retired, they were cut off from pursuing some options that might have benefitted the team. All the while, Brett Favre was working out with high school players down in the swamp and continued to do so. What was up?
Entering the weekend of the first week of preseason play, the buzz got loud. Vikings players were telling the press, Brett’s coming back. Were they crazy from the heat of practice? Was it wishful thinking? Did they know something?
Today, the question was answered; Brett Favre is not only coming back. Today’s Tuesday, but he’s supposed to be ready to play in the Vikings second preseason game at home Friday night against Minnesota.
Thank God, we have a story like this to take our attention away from the Michael Vick disaster, but how will this play out? Will Brett Favre provide the spark to take the Vikings to new heights or will he look like a fellow who was just too drunk on his ego to know when he should have called it quits and have this whole story turn into a huge embarrassment?
Perhaps the sorest loser in this scenario is Jerry Jones with the Dallas Cowboys. All the attention is on the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles who are also being often spoken of as the possible contenders in the NFC Championship game. There’s not much buzz about the Cowboys other than suggestions that Coach Wade Phillips is playing for his job. Terrell Owens is gone, but is there peace and harmony in Cowboy town? Do they have the pieces to win? Oh what about the big story – their huge, billion dollar plus new stadium, that’s supposed to be the greatest sports arena in the world where big thinking Texans will fork over record ticket prices to cheer “How ‘bout them Cowboys!”
As the NFC drama plays out and dominates the headlines, AFC fans are thinking come Super Bowl time, bring ‘em on. The Steelers and Patriots look like favorites to top the division but there are teams like Baltimore who feel pretty hot entering the season ready to take on the best. One would have to pick a top AFC competitor over the NFC is just about any possible Super Bowl match up.
There’s no knocking his career with the Packers. The man performed brilliantly perhaps turning in his most inspired performance in his final season with the Cheesy Poofs in 2007 where they were but a move or two from going to the Super Bowl going down in defeat to the surprising New York Giants. His season with the New York Jets last year is one of the classic glass half empty/glass half full debates. He looked like Brett Favre of old and led the Jets to their best season in years just missing the playoffs, but from mid-October forward, Favre looked old and tentative throwing up interceptions and at times looking bewildered. He was injured and faced off-season shoulder surgery that is now behind him. Was that the answer or has father time caught up with him?
Fans generally rallied behind Favre’s effort to continue his career after retiring early in the 2008 off-season with speculation running wild that was not the last the NFL would hear from the Louisiana gun slinger from the swamp. Green Bay Packers leadership clearly wanted to move on behind Aaron Rodgers and was not going to let Brett Favre delay his decision and in their minds string them out for making his decision on his terms. The dog days of summer played out as the Brett Favre soap opera yearning to return to the Packers but then dictate his terms for playing elsewhere. He wound up with the Jets with stipulations he could not go to Minnesota.
When he announced his retirement from the Jets, most felt this was the timely decision. He got his second chance, move on, but there was quite a rumble the world hadn’t heard from Favre. That he got the necessary arm surgery and there was a not so secret dialog going on with the Vikings made his return a little more than a matter of speculation.
The public wasn’t as kind this summer seeing Favre more as a spoiled brat who wants everything on his terms. As camps opened and Favre wasn’t there, the folks in Minnesota felt a sense of letdown and disbelief. They felt they were being led along by Favre, and with his announcement he still intended to stay retired, they were cut off from pursuing some options that might have benefitted the team. All the while, Brett Favre was working out with high school players down in the swamp and continued to do so. What was up?
Entering the weekend of the first week of preseason play, the buzz got loud. Vikings players were telling the press, Brett’s coming back. Were they crazy from the heat of practice? Was it wishful thinking? Did they know something?
Today, the question was answered; Brett Favre is not only coming back. Today’s Tuesday, but he’s supposed to be ready to play in the Vikings second preseason game at home Friday night against Minnesota.
Thank God, we have a story like this to take our attention away from the Michael Vick disaster, but how will this play out? Will Brett Favre provide the spark to take the Vikings to new heights or will he look like a fellow who was just too drunk on his ego to know when he should have called it quits and have this whole story turn into a huge embarrassment?
Perhaps the sorest loser in this scenario is Jerry Jones with the Dallas Cowboys. All the attention is on the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles who are also being often spoken of as the possible contenders in the NFC Championship game. There’s not much buzz about the Cowboys other than suggestions that Coach Wade Phillips is playing for his job. Terrell Owens is gone, but is there peace and harmony in Cowboy town? Do they have the pieces to win? Oh what about the big story – their huge, billion dollar plus new stadium, that’s supposed to be the greatest sports arena in the world where big thinking Texans will fork over record ticket prices to cheer “How ‘bout them Cowboys!”
As the NFC drama plays out and dominates the headlines, AFC fans are thinking come Super Bowl time, bring ‘em on. The Steelers and Patriots look like favorites to top the division but there are teams like Baltimore who feel pretty hot entering the season ready to take on the best. One would have to pick a top AFC competitor over the NFC is just about any possible Super Bowl match up.
How Favre's signing with the Vikings will affect the long term history of his career is hard to say. Much of that depends on how well the Vikings play and what roll Favre plays in their success. Six years later, does anybody think about Michael Jordan playing for the Washington Wizards from 2001-2003? Here's a guy who left with the game in his hands having shot the game winning basket in the final seconds of the 1998 Championship leading the Chicago Bulls over the Utah Jazz. Does the time spent in Washington amount to anything?
For Favre it's a little different since there was no lapse in time. He played for Green Bay in 2007 and would have had the magic Michael Jordan moment had the Packers held on to win the Super Bowl instead of losing an upset at home against the Giants. His play last year with the Jets seemed understandable with no one wanting to see him flame out like Johnny Unitas did with San Diego or Joe Namath with the Los Angeles Rams. He made it through that to now play for the Packers greatest division rival.
Welcome back Brett! Whether we still think of you as the boy from way down south who will never grow up like an eternal Huckleberry Finn or a spoiled brat who can’t leave the spotlight, the 2009 season just got more interesting and fun to watch. Isn’t that what it’s all about?
Welcome back Brett! Whether we still think of you as the boy from way down south who will never grow up like an eternal Huckleberry Finn or a spoiled brat who can’t leave the spotlight, the 2009 season just got more interesting and fun to watch. Isn’t that what it’s all about?
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