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Friday, August 8, 2008
Who has the bigger ego: Favre or New York?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There before us, we see it happening. The strangest transition since that long-forgotten tennis player switched sexes, from Richard to Renee. Brett Favre from Packer to Jet. From Kiln, Miss., to Gotham, the center of the universe, in its own eyes. From blue jeans to Broadway.
One national publication had presumptuously positioned him back in Packer green, with this daring conclusion: “In the end, the Packers made the best decision. If Favre was going to play again, he was going to play for them.”
That would have been the popular evolvement, but off target. Mike McCarthy, the Packers coach, said, that in their final long, drawn-out visitation, Favre “never once said he wanted to play for Green Bay.” We must presume this is straightforward stuff, not the whine of a jilted suitor.
Then, there was the other emotional moment, when Favre was quoted as saying, “I’ll always be a Packer.” He’ll be wearing green, but it will be the Jets green. What kind of hell did he lead the Packers through during this emergence from his tearful retirement oath? Oh, it was poignant, sorrow etched under that scruffy beard. I don’t know that any of us out here doubted him for a moment. By gad, it just shows you: Never trust one of these “retiring” guys while his bruises are still fresh and the teardrops are falling.
Ego is ego, whether in Green Bay or New York. Or Kiln, Miss. (pop. 2,040). After all these years most of us had bought into Favre as the total Packer. He looked it, seemed to mean it, fell right in with these modest Midwesterners whose football team began in a meat-packing plant. Long way from the towers of Manhattan. A press conference in New York draws a thundering, blustering, elbowing herd. In Green Bay, it’s more like the weekly Rotary Club luncheon. A few cameras and a few Wisconsin reporters show up.
Maybe Favre exposed his inner self when he was told that the new “Favre 4” Jets game jersies were out and that 3,000 had already been sold, and he said, “Is that all?” I choose to believe that he was making a small joke.
Forgiveness in Green Bay will be a long time coming, if ever. Had Favre made his “retirement” from the Packers without a bucketful of tears, and all the typical sob stuff that goes with such fake farewells, most of the cheese-head nation might soften up to him. Not now. Favre has become the enemy. Go get the traitorous redneck. All the while, Aaron Rodgers has been twirling in the wind. Packers quarterback, or back to the clipboard and baseball cap one more year? All this precious time spent in suspense while Favre dallied with his old team. Even turned down a $20 million offer to do nothing but be Brett Favre, Packers ambassador to the world.
Well, now that he has made his bed with these erudite New Yorkers, maybe they’ll finally get his name properly pronounced. It doesn’t take a Cajun to to know it’s “Fov,” not “Farve,” but it should help. Anyone can see that the “v” comes before the “r.” A learned Cajun friend named Favre, who grew up in Bay St. Louis, has gone to great lengths to convert broadcasters to the “Fov” pronounciation, with corrective missles, both taped and written, and has come away discouraged. At this turn of affairs, he may have dismissed him as a misguided hick.
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