Now I know that lots of you want to talk about shopping (I heard the Gap Outlet has some very good deals right now) or politics (hmmm, silence for now), or love (didn’t you see the handsome pictures of my husband yesterday), but I am here to talk about something much more important.
Well, first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my husband. Because, of course, that’s most important.
But I digress. Since our son was two years old, the child has loved football. This love is something I don’t entirely understand, although I am passionate about other things, so I suppose I recognize his enthusiasm. But how a three-year old can sit and watch an entire NFL game, and actually learn things, this I don’t get. He didn’t get it from me, surely, and not from his dad, either. My husband likes football, but he’s no lazy-all-weekend in the armchair quarterback kind of guy. So we raise this boy, this boy who absolutely loves this game, and this year, he got to play quarterback. And he loves it.
But unfortunately, his favorite NFL QB no longer plays for his favorite team. The guy he’s cheered for since he learned about this game up and left the Packers, in a much ballyhooed departure, and is playing for the Jets.
(Photos from better days.)
Despite the heartache, my boy has remained a staunch Packers fan. Just the other day he told me, “Mom, you’re a little too angry about Brett Favre.” He’s right. Good thing kids have perspective these days.
I know it’s controversial (hey, at least I’m not talkin’ about Palin here, you betcha), but I think the Packers made a bad call on this one. Brett’s given an awful lot to the game of football, and if he had another year in him, I think they should’ve cheered him on to the end. Clearly, the coaching staff missed my note on that one. Darn. And I thought I explained it so nicely.
Yesterday, in the NY Times, Greg Bishop wrote a wonderful article about “The Brett Favre Backup Club,” the 18 men who played backup QB to Brett during his 17 years with the Packers. To a man, they all said good things about our favorite player, even though they didn’t see much time on the field playing behind Brett Favre. But what I most appreciated in the article was something I already knew: that, despite his waffling about retirement, Brett’s a good guy. When Hasselbeck came to the team as a backup QB ten years ago, Brett Favre was already on his way to being the big-time player he is today. Greg Bishop interviewed Hasslebeck about what it was like to meet Brett, and in his article, he writes,
“At their first meeting, Favre turned to Hasselbeck and said, “Hi, I’m Brett.” “He introduced himself as if I didn’t know who he was,” Hasselbeck said. “I had this image, from the quarterbacks I had been around, of this QB attitude. Brett was normal.”
Seeing him in a Jets uniform is anything but. I’m not posting any pictures of that.
Next time, no football, I promise. Maybe shopping, or politics, or love… Stay tuned.
And if any of you have thoughts on this, I’d love to hear them. Am I crazy? Am I right? (Oh, come on, you know I am!) Check the team stats: bet the Packers are having second thoughts now!
One last thing: Happy Birthday to you, too, Brett Favre.
