Green Bay Veteran Brett Favre Retires

Green Bay Packers General Manager Ted Thompson said Tuesday that the football team owes Favre a tremendous amount of gratitude for 16 years of wonderful memories, including a Super Bowl championship. "The uniqueness of Brett Favre—his personality, charisma and love of the game—undoubtedly will leave him as one of the enduring figures in NFL history,” Thompson said.

Sports Illustrated honored Favre as the Sportsman of the Year in 2007. “If Favre is weary, it's only because he has given so much of himself to Green Bay through the years,” according to the magazine.

Disappointed Favre fans should consider the fate of New York Jets' fans. The Jets famously passed on Dan Marino to draft Ken O'Brien, and then passed on Tom Brady to draft Chad Pennington. Well to rub a little more salt into the wounds, the Jets nearly had Brett Favre as well. Ron Wolf was a front office assistant for the Jets in 1991 and rated Brett Favre as the top player in the whole draft. Unfortunately, the Jets did not have a first round pick, and negotiated with the Cardinals to trade up several slots to grab Favre in the second round. But the Cardinals pulled the deal at the last minute, and Favre was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons. He threw a total of five passes his rookie year and was put on the trading block, and this time Wolf grabbed him. Unfortunately for Jets fans, by then Wolf had become general manager of the Green Bay Packers.

The Green Bay Press-Gazette wrote about varied fan reactions as news hit the Web about Favre’s decision to retire. “He brought in a lot of fans,” said Debbie Kowalefski of Milwaukee. “They come for him even if the team is losing.”

Blog Dead Spin did a tongue-in-cheek interview with writer and avowed Packer Backer Jeff Bercovici, who ruminates on his feelings about Favre’s retirement. Sadness is one reaction. Bercovici says: “Maybe Green Bay will get another quarterback as great as Favre during my lifetime, but…More likely, I will be sitting in front of a TV with my son 15 years from now, completely ruining his enjoyment of the game by explaining to him…how the starting quarterback whose jersey he saved up his lawn-mowing money to buy…Is this how it feels to be a Bears fan?”

While Favre’s retirement is certainly a loss for the Packers’ roster, Sporting News writes that second-stringer quarterback Aaron Rodgers is a worthy successor and more closely parallels Coach Mike McCarthy’s approach to offense. “Rodgers will have trouble matching the pure passion of Favre—which current NFL quarterback can, really? He has the skill set and enough time and ‘experience’ to keep Green Bay’s offense humming.”

Fox Sports writes that over his 17-year-career, Favre was “indestructible.” Columnist Mark Kriegel puts 1992, Favre’s first year with the Packers into perspective. “An upstart governor from Arkansas was running against George Bush the Elder. South Africa was still under white rule. The cell phone was an oddity. The Internet was, for most people, still a secret.”

Contests, links to the Deanna Favre Foundation, the Brett Favre Fourward Foundation and a fan store are available at Brett Favre’s personal home on the Web.

Brett Favre’s career statistics and lifetime achievements are available on the Packers’ Web site.

Brett Favre’s wife, Deanna Favre, wrote a memoir about beating breast cancer in 2007. The book, “Don’t Bet Against Me!: Beating the Odds Against Breast Cancer and in Life,” which was a New York Times bestseller, is available from findingDulcinea’s bookstore.