I Hate Favre

Here's a great piece from ESPN.com on why it's okay not to be a Brett Favre fan and why he's more myth than legend. Great stuff!!!!

SPORTS WITHOUT GUILT #47 IT'S OK NOT TO CARE ABOUT BRETT FAVRE

Usually good. Sometimes great. Always plays. Loves football. Once upon a time – like, when Netscape Mosaic seemed destined to dominate the Internet browser market – Brett Favre even quarterbacked his team to a league championship, joining the immortal company of Earl Morrall, Mark Rypien and The Hoss.

Now the winningest signal-caller in NFL history, Favre has long been more myth than man. And a tedious myth at that. The Green Bay quarterback, we are told, is a symbol of rage against the dying of the light, a Wild West action movie gunslinging hero incarnate, jus' one of the good ol' boys in an era of creeping metrosexuality, a throwback reminder of the sporting glory that once was and can be again.

All of which is metaphorical claptrap.

In reality, Favre is an accomplished football-thrower, Jeff George with better results and a generous dollop of aw-shucks country charm (but not so charming that he can hawk jeans without the help of a Golden Retriever). Favre has enjoyed an indisputably long and successful career; he also is a guy who chucks scrambling, underhanded, over-the-scrimmage-line ducks into triple-coverage, offers unsolicited contract advice to teammates unlikely to earn a fraction of his net worth, cajoles the television audience to purchase lawn tractors, tooth desensitizers and heartburn medication, belly flops to facilitate bogus sack records and calls non-news conference after non-news conference to announce his non-retirement.

More to the point – and this is crucial – Favre is not the quarterback of your team, not unless you: (a) live in Green Bay; (b) are so old that you actually jumped on the national Packers bandwagon, which roughly corresponds with the heyday of the Gemini space program. Just because you love Football in America doesn't mean you have to love, like, care about or root for Favre. You can be indifferent. Jon Kitna can be your guy. No apologies necessary.

Oh, and still jonesing for a dose of inspiring mythology? Try reading a book. "The Iliad" is a good place to start. At least Achilles' tedious dithering involves fighting in a freaking war, as opposed to whether lobbing jump balls to Donald Driver for yet another season is worth the trouble.--Patrick Hruby