Sure, Favre crossed the line with some infuriating decisions at times, but ultimately it was his fun-loving personality and insatiable will to win that put the title back in Titletown.
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At the end of that chain was a local kid named after Brett Favre from Cleveland, Wisconsin, both Brett and his father Matt experienced a once in a lifetime moment. Instead, Deanna performed the honor.
We all know where we were that night, and we all cried. She told him how Irv said to her that he couldn’t wait for the day Brett would be enshrined at Canton so he could introduce his son.
“As I move forward post-Hall of Fame, post-football, my goal and promise is to be as caring to my four children … as my grandmother was to me”, Pace said. Favre got to see the finished product from Hall of Fame lead sculptor Blair Buswell for the first time during the induction ceremony. They found a way to make the situation better.
Favre’s father died of a heart attack in 2003.
At that point, Favre had to stop talking for several seconds because he couldn’t get out any words.
Although the enshrinement speech was being watched and heard by countless fans, it felt as if Favre was confiding to us individually in the back of a tavern somewhere in the back woods of his native Mississippi.
“I am going to ask Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson to let me play the first series tomorrow night”, Favre joked. How he met Deanna (it was the night of that Saints game), and how she continues to inspire him. How proud he is of his two daughters, son-in-law and grandkids. “But the most important thing is you taught us about fatherhood”. “There’s no doubt whatsoever”.
When Favre left the Packers following the 2007 season to play three more years with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings, Aaron Rodgers became just the latest Favre backup to start games in the NFL. Holmgren coached in one more, losing with the Seahawks. How awesome is Brett Favre’s games streak? Eli Manning, the active leader among quarterbacks and 35 years old, would need to start every game for eight more seasons to break it.
Favre spent 20 years in the National Football League and completed 6,300 passes for 71,838 yards and 508 touchdowns, he threw an NFL-high 336 interceptions – Fave was a three-time All-Pro and also made 11 Pro Bowls. “I have never thrown an interception that was my fault according to my mother-in-law”, Favre said.
Joining Favre in the class of 2016 were former University of Minnesota standout Tony Dungy, a trail-blazing coach and Super Bowl victor; one of his stars, Marvin Harrison; Kevin Greene; Orlando Pace; Ken Stabler; Dick Stanfel; and Ed DeBartolo Jr.
There were Packer jerseys as far as the eye could see, nearly all of them with his No. 4 on the back. Just listen to this [chant of “Go, Pack, go”]. “I would not be here today without my father”. He was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame last summer and his retired No. 4 was unveiled on the Lambeau Field façade on Thanksgiving night past year, with one his idols, Bart Starr, in the house.
That event served as the final mend between the Packers, their fans and Favre, who originally retired in 2008 only to change his mind later that summer.
“I believed that every game he played in, his team had an opportunity to win because of Brett Favre”, Wolf said this week.
Not that even at this moment Favre could not find a way to make light of the way he struggled with his retirement.
Favre said that on the plane ride to MS for his father’s funeral after the Oakland game, Deanna told him: “Your dad had said to me that he had hoped or could not wait for the day you’re inducted into the Hall of Fame so he could introduce you”.
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Noting that enshrinee Brett Favre is No. 298 in the Hall pecking order, “and I’m No. 299, so isn’t that cool that I am side by side with Brett Favre for eternity?”
