If you're able to read this - that is to say, if there is, in fact, life after Brett - we're forced to accept today that we've officially entered a new era.
Great athletes come and great athletes go. Even when they rewrite record books or redefine positions, most are able to fade into the sunset. But with the departure of Brett Favre - who was everything to everyone, who won Super Bowls and healed sick children, who saved the NFL and invented the forward pass - we're forced to admit that an era is over.
Hyperbole aside, by all accounts, Favre was the last of a breed.
I'm not talking about the three Most Valuable Player awards or the 442 touchdown passes. And I'm not talking about the 61,655 passing yards or the 275 consecutive starts.
Favre will go down as the last professional athlete who consistently received the benefit of the doubt. The last one your grandfather would have liked just as much as your son might have. The last one who could do no wrong ... or who could do wrong and still receive clemency quicker than a senator's son.
Before this detestable age of cynicism, Favre was appreciated by fans of all teams, a rarity in a sports world usually eager to spew hate and bile from the nearest barstool or computer keyboard. If your team lost to Favre, it was somehow acceptable. In an ESPN.com poll yesterday, 80 percent of respondents said they rooted for Favre. In this country, you can't get 80 percent of the population to agree on liking oxygen, let alone any one person.
"He played with a certain passion," former Green Bay Packers general manager Ron Wolf said yesterday, "a passion that you just don`t see every day."
Wolf is the one who traded for Favre in 1992. He saw something special then, and it was just a matter of time before everyone else saw it, too.
"I thought I was going to get a franchise-caliber quarterback, a guy who would be the face of the entire franchise," said Wolf, now retired to Annapolis. "I had high expectations for him, and he didn't disappoint."
A certain first-ballot Hall of Famer, Favre is one of those rare athletes who marked time for a generation of fans. His longevity and his success provided a shared timeline. When Favre won his first MVP award, maybe you were finishing college. When he hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy, maybe you were at the same Super Bowl party as your future wife. Or maybe you remember watching that Monday Night Football game with your dad shortly after Favre had lost his.
