Depending on where your pro football loyalties lie, Brett Favre’s career affected your life in one of two ways. For the millions of fans that comprise “Packer Nation,” Favre’s arrival from the Atlanta Falcons in the summer of 1992 was nothing short of a godsend. The quarterback took a franchise that had fallen on mediocre times and turned it into a perennial divisional, conference, and league-wide contender, year in and year out. For everyone else, Favre was the face of the enemy, a monster that trampled the dreams of division rivals and playoff opponents on a regular basis. Favre looked good on the field only when buried under a pile of defensive linemen or tossing one of his NFL record 288 picks.

But behind the love-to-hate relationship many fans hold towards No. 4 is a sincere level of respect for an athlete that is truly an anomaly in today’s NFL. Favre personified the essence of sports, and not just because he didn’t run over traffic control officers or shovel thousands of dollars onto the floors of strip clubs. There’s something about the image of Favre racing around the field after throwing the game-winning touchdown against your favorite team, a huge smile painted on his face, that rouses a sense of awe at not only his ability to compete at such a high level, but the passion that allowed him to enjoy the game so completely after so many years.

Two words fell out of my mouth this morning when ESPN.com refreshed on my computer screen: “Oh no.”
After years of harboring resentment towards Favre and his beloved Packers, my initial reaction was not one of celebration or relief, but of disappointment with a trace of remorse. Favre was a competitor, and, above all, a winner, that played with the same vigor whether his team was in first or last. You can say all you want about Favre the Packer, but there is little honest criticism one can offer about Favre the football player.

SportsCenter replayed a telling interview this afternoon that Favre did with Rachel Nichols. In his college days at Southern Mississippi, the coaches would often have a difficult time locating the ecstatic Favre after a touchdown pass. “Where’s Brett?” they would ask. After seventeen years of exhibiting the same youthful infatuation with the game, there will be something missing from the world of sports now that No. 4 has departed.

No matter your disposition, fans everywhere will have one question on their mind when the new season begins in September:

“Where’s Brett?”

Entry was written by Kevin Kaplan

As the new intern at the DI, this is my first day at the office.

Luckily for me, I did not have to spend much time pondering what this first article would be about since this day coincided with one of the most attention grabbing broadcasts in all of sports. As a welcome change of pace, this announcement did not involve steroids, NCAA violations or an arrest of any kind. Instead, it simply marked the departure of one of the most popular and successful athletes in sports history.

At a press conference in the early hours of Tuesday, March 4, Brett Favre announced his retirement effectively the end of an era. Maybe some expected him to quit after going 4-12 in 2006, but surely not after a season that had him firing a career-best 66.5 pass completion percentage. Regardless of outside perceptions, Favre called it quits, citing the fact that he did not have the mental strength left to win another Super Bowl.

As all of the cheeseheads begin their mourning, the rest of sports nation must figure out what to make of this. As an admitted fan of all St. Louis sports, I spent 2007 with modest hopes that my Rams would have a better season than the Miami Dolphins. It turned out to be no-contest, as the Rams went on a run towards the end of the season to triple Miami’s win total.

Unfortunately, the future doesn’t look particularly bright for the Rams, and the quarterback situation in St. Louis is in a state of uncertainty as starter Mark Bulger has faced his share of injuries in recent months. While I was still waiting for the Rams to win a game halfway through the season, Favre was busy dominating the NFC North, all the while looking like his old self and pushing memories of a 29 interception season behind him.

While this resurgence after 17 seasons in the league was inspiring in the eyes of many, it may have hurt the eyes of fans of another Midwestern team: the Chicago Bears.
Living in the conveniently centrally located city of Champaign, one may find fans of any variety of teams, but by far the largest fan-base is that of the Chicago Bears. With so many fans of “Da Bears” around, a person doesn’t have to spend much time in Champaign to find some animosity towards Favre. After all, as Favre cleaned up the NFC North en-route to a playoff loss to the eventual NFL champion New York Giants, the Bears found themselves at the bottom of the division with some major quarterback questions.

With a love-hate relationship between fans and Bears starting quarterback Rex Grossman and the trade of Brian Griese for a draft pick, Bears fans are left with about as much certainty as the Packers with likely 2008 starter Aaron Rodgers.

This puts fans of local NFL teams in interesting spots, as each of them face a degree of uncertainty with their quarterbacks. The thing is, regardless of what will happen in the future and no matter how good any of these teams become, there will never truly be another Brett Favre.

Rex Grossman can’t be mentioned in the same sentence as Favre, but neither can the current most famous/infamous Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Favre’s appeal was on a much higher level than just skills. Despite his problems, which he had just like every other human being, Favre symbolized all the good things about the game.

Now he symbolizes a different era of football that has now officially ended.