The NY Times 5th Down blog loves Brett Favre. Good or bad, not much more than a week goes by without Toni Monkovic finding a reason to write about the guy, sit back and let the comments section go nuts. Last week was obviously a big week around there, with a handful of great posts, analysis and some questionable comments pro and con.
I blog about Favre a bit, too. For some sad reason, I am and always will be an apologist for the guy. Maybe it’s because being raised in Wisconsin, I know the history of the franchise, and had to suffer through it for the duration of my childhood. (For quite a while, well before the Bears won the Super Bowl, I cheered for them—they sucked, too—because I loved Walter Payton and because, honestly, there was NO PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM PLAYING IN WISCONSIN during those years.) And history tells me that all the crybaby Packer fans now gloating about his interception against the Saints, and/or acting all jaded about what “Brent’s” “done” for the Packers (not much in their eyes these days), like this commenter:
“..,We Packer fans have plenty of playoff-trainwreck stories to tell…”
…are SPOLIED, IDIOTIC SHITHEADS who need to (a) shut the fuck up, (b) go fuck themselves, and then (c) go kill themselves. The PACKERS famously won the first two Super Bowls ever, and then were MIA from anything remotely resembling SUCCESS until Favre took over at QB. I’ve done a little tally of the years starting at the time I was actually cognizant and able to sit through a 3-hour game, and this is what it looked like in Wisconsin if you were a Packer fan:
PRE FAVRE
1976 5-9 did not make playoffs
1977 4-10 did not make playoffs
1978 8-7-1 did not make playoffs
1979 5-11 did not make playoffs
1980 5-10-1 did not make playoffs
1981 8-8 did not make playoffs
1982 5-3-1 ....STRIKE 1-1 in the playoffs *
1983 8-8 did not make playoffs
1984 8-8 did not make playoffs
1985 8-8 did not make playoffs
1986 4-12 did not make playoffs
1987 5-9-1 did not make playoffs
1988 4-12 did not make playoffs
1989 10-6 did not make playoffs
1990 6-10 did not make playoffs
1991 4-12 did not make playoffs
97-143-3 ... 1-1 in the playoffs
WITH FAVRE
1992 9-7 did not make playoffs
1993 9-7 ...1-1 in the playoffs *
1994 9-7 ...1-1 in the playoffs *
1995 11-5 ...2-1 in the playoffs *
1996 13-3 ...3-0 in playoffs SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS*
1997 13-3 ...2-1 in the playoffs LOST SUPER BOWL*
1998 11-5 ...0-1 in the playoffs*
1999 8-8 did not make the playoffs
2000 9-7 did not make the playoffs
2001 12-4 ...1-1 in the playoffs *
2002 12-4 ...0-1 in the playoffs *
2003 10-6 ...1-1 in the playoffs*
2004 10-6 ...0-1 in the playoffs *
2005 4-12 did not make the playoffs
2006 8-8 did not make playoffs
2007 13-3 ...1-1 in the playoffs *
161-95 ...12-9 in the playoffs. (my math is probably screwy here, i can't add very well at the moment)
So to hear “playoff trainwrecks” … is hilarious. Oh, he let you down in the playoffs? Tough shit. For 16 years before Favre arrived, Packer QBs and everyone else on the roster routinely let their fans down in TRAINING CAMP. This was not just a couple of bum years, plagued with key injuries and bad luck, this was a putrid, hapless franchise that escaped the mecca of Green Bay for a few games a season to play in a baseball stadium in Milwaukee. They went to the playoffs once, and had they played a full schedule that year, who knows if they would have gotten in.
Having your favorite team lose in the playoffs is painful. Having your favorite player leave your team is painful. But I gotta argue that not ever getting into the playoffs is a lot more painful. Because that means Sunday after Sunday every fall, you can pretty much count on misery and/or being bored. But what would the people complaining about what a traitor, INT-god, and loser Favre is know about their favorite team NOT making the playoffs? Nothing. Because they are bandwagon-jumping sacks of pigeon shit who never even knew who David Whitehurst or Eric Torkleson were. The night the Packers won the Super Bowl in 1997, I was out at a bar in Wisconsin talking to a guy about how long he had waited for this day to come, and he didn’t even know who Chester Marcol was.
If you only grew up as a fan during the Favre-era, and know nothing but winning records season after season, and if you think that only winning one Super Bowl, going to another Super Bowl, and usually making the playoffs is just not special enough to make you not be a douchebag about what Favre does with himself professionally now that he’s left Green Bay, then WOW, you’re going to be disappointed a LOT later on in life. Good luck to you.
BTW... My biggest disappointment came when Favre and co. choked in 2002-2003 playoffs at home in COLD weather against Atlanta. Jesus that was sad. I felt like they could have gone a long way that year.
