The end of an Era

September of 1992, it was the fall before I graduated high school
1992 it was the year I got my drivers liscense
1992 it was the infamous "senior trip" where I won the 300+ in a poker game with other high schoolers, bought the Indiana Jones hat and showed some of my more extroverted nature.

It was also the first game Brett Favre started at QB for Green bay. it wasn't the first I had ever seen of Brett no I remember him sitting on Atlanta's side line one of many Qb's the Falcons tried out. I think of running backs no longer doing it started AFTER 92, I think of some of the QB greats no longer doing it. 19 years I mean there have been old QB's who you keep on the roster just in case your main guy goes down, journeymen like Vinny Testaverde, Jeff George, Gino Torretta you know guys who's arms are still strong but you aren't gonna turn the game over to them if your regular starter is healthy.

To say the old gunslinger was one of a kind is an understatement, he has passing records galore(as a matter of fact thanks to him continuously playing it's gonna take years for Peyton manning to get the all time passing yards record) I mean the next closest guy has 204 consecutive starts. There are only 16 games in an NFL season that means to catch up the remaning 93 games Peyton manning has to finish out this season and keep starting for 6 more, yes like the movie 300 if he could have done that in football, made it a full 19 seasons(and maybe a few more next year, I mean he's 41 years old his body has to be a series of cracks, but you already know if you got him to come back this year you could probably have rung up 16 more games on that record, 20 seasons total) this is football 10 years is thought of as a long career in football, Jerry Rice played 20 seasons and yet even he didn't start every game for his 20 years. His first 5 seasons he didn't start(which actually isn't that odd for some positions you may be a vital player but not in on every down) yet still posted high numbers of yards, receptions and td's(if ever anybody told you jerry rice played a full season and wasn't productive laugh in their face). Two positions you are pretty much guaranteed to get hit every game QB and RB, even if you don't get sacked as a QB players can still hit you RIGHT after you release the ball(it's like a step and a half or something), they even tally that stat during the game sacks, hits, hurries, batted(for passes batted down if the defensive player didn't get the qb but got to the ball), and fumbles. And Brett Favre played in an age BEFORE they were all protect the QB, the whole no going for a qb's knee's "pffft his knee was a part of his body he needed to stop being a sissy". No shots to the head, "his head is a part of his body he needs to learn to duck", no spiking the QB into the ground, "oh please this is football stop treating them like girls".

In the age of Brady and Manning yes they have decided to protect their star players a lot more, but before that concussions please as long as you could stand up they would put you back in there now if you started throwing nothing but int's(interceptions) yeah then maybe they would sit you if you got your bell rung. Hell we've all had our bells rung once or twice, until recently a rung bell just meant you sat out a quarter or two. I mean until 5:50 eastern time came and Brett didn't take a single warm up stat it was almost a foregone conclusion Brett Favre was gonna start last night, it's BRETT FREAKING FAVRE before last night there were like 3 givens in football:The packers hate the vikings, The Steelers hate the Ravens and if it's a Sunday or Monday night Brett Favre is gonna start a football game. For 19 years 297 consecutive starts thats just how it was, Brett Favre was breathing he was going out to start a football game, broken angles, broken thumbs, calcified feet, Sprained this, bruised that

So it's a game today and my team needs me. I can't say I wonder how many times we counted him out, because I know every year at least 4 times a year it looked like yup brett favre is done for blank(the season, 3 weeks, 2 games whatever) and sunday rolled around and first the green and yellow, then the green and white and now the purple and gold had ol' number 4 under center. To call him football's iron man is almost an understatement every game for the better part of 19 seasons, damn it doesn't even feel right saying "the better part of". I just wrote an "all good things must come to an end" blog about us and peyton manning(he hadn't lost to the philadelphia eagles in his entire career until this year) so I guess I should have realized that even that "streak" (to hell with streak STANDARD) could come to an end.

Brett, I thank you for making me shake my head all those years with those amazing plays both good and bad. I thank you for showing me there is no such thing as you can't keep going if your heart is in it. Yes I'm mad I'm not gonna see you get to 20 season 316 games, another 2-4000 yards passing, who knows how many more touchdowns and amazing plays, but honestly you can't blame me or any other football fan. You have made it look so effortless over the majority of our adult lives that it's common place, we have come to expect it, it's like Micheal Jordan and beating the cleveland cavaliers in the play offs it isn't a wow anymore it's an "okay thats supposed to happen".  So Brett thank you for being that clock work for the entirety of my adult point up to now, I tip my hat to you