Favre’s complicated legacy and covering a game at Lambeau Field
My first real memory of pro football is watching Brett Favre on TV run around the Superdome without his helmet — smiling, screaming, leaping — to celebrate a deep touchdown pass in Super Bowl XXXI.
The year was 1997. I was 6 years old. And it was one helluva time to be raised in a family of Packer backers.
I spent most of the next decade sleeping beneath a Reggie White poster with the Minister of Defense in a three-point stance below the word CHARACTER and a definition; 1. The combination of qualities or traits that distinguishes an individual. 2. Moral force, integrity.
Sundays were reserved for football with a No. 80 Donald Driver jersey as the good luck charm. In 2007, in the heart of Broncos Country, my dad, brother and I led “GO PACK GO” chants out of Mile High after Favre threw an 82-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime.
Pure joy got replaced by pure sadness when a few years later Favre came out of retirement in another jersey. An important personal lesson that transcended sports. We don’t always get that storybook ending.
Back in September, though, it all added up to a surreal experience from Green Bay and the Lambeau Field press box as my part of The Post’s Broncos coverage team.
My fandom evolved plenty through years in sports media with rooting interests narrowed to the most compelling story to write. But even with a lens of objectivity, I couldn’t help but remember 6year-old me watching Favre run wild, falling in love with sports, then eventually writing, and how it all led me back to the Packers.
So, thanks for the memories, Brett. They’re why I’m still hooked on sports.