In an off-the-cuff speech, just as he’d predicted, Favre spoke just over 36 minutes and devoted almost nine minutes to honor his father, Irv, who died in 2003 on the eve of one of his greatest performances: a 399-yard, four-touchdown game against the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football.
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“I could be the only inductee of this great hall who didn’t make his high school football team”, he said.
“And I never let him know that I heard that”. Favre said, “I spent the rest of my career trying to redeem myself and make him proud”.
“I mean, the excitement for me is being a part of the environment to watch Brett and Kevin go in”, said Rodgers, a two-time MVP, one fewer than Favre won.
There was a thank you to his wife, Deanna, which started with Favre telling a story about going to a New Orleans Saints game when he was 14.
Favre talked about the December 22, 2003, game when he played the Oakland Raiders the day after his father’s death.
“So then and there in that moment on that plane I was determined for selfish reasons to get to this point to acknowledge how important he was”.
And, not surprisingly, the newly minted Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback didn’t care at all.
“This is tougher than any third-and-15”, he said.
And then Favre took the podium for an extemporaneous speech that lasted for 36½ minutes – the longest of the night – and that was at turns amusing and bittersweet. “But I never had a auto growing up”.
Until his Hall of Fame speech, Favre never told anyone he overheard Irv’s comments.
Favre’s jokes included his family members.
“I am so humbled and honored to be standing here today”, the 1964 Cardinal Mooney High School graduate said at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
“Pretty wonderful”, the record-setting quarterback said Friday.
A second-round pick of the Atlanta Falcons in the 1991 NFL Draft, the former Southern Miss quarterback was traded to the Packers a year later.
In Green Bay, Favre flourished under head coach Mike Holmgren, who mentored the young gunslinger with exceptional patience.
“Three other coaches, and there were so many other coaches”. Those guys could not have been more important at that time in my career.
Of course, Favre didn’t change the course of Packers history by himself.
The first black coach to win an National Football League championship, Dungy has been a mentor to dozens of players and fellow coaches.
At the Hall of Fame (which operates independently of, yet still in close cooperation with the NFL), it’s easy to see the message they want to present.
With time, the bad blood between Favre, the Packers and fans of the team subsided, and last summer, he was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame.
“Whatever the thing was, that focus, concentration, competitiveness, he could just step up a notch when you needed it”, Madden said. Then I found out.
Always a showman who also spent some time as a professional wrestler, Greene’s 160 sacks are third most in National Football League history. When he learned this after his father’s passing, that became Favre’s new goal.
A first-ballot selection, Favre, 46, retired – finally – in 2010 after 20 seasons.
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Harrison, who made 1,102 catches, third on the career list, thought about how he got started in football in Philadelphia. “Play a game that I love so much for 20 years, to have all the wonderful things happen.to share in that joy with you guys here tonight”. “Being real, authentic and spontaneous and having fun is what it was all about”.
