Brett Favre has retired from the Green Bay Packers after 17 seasons, saying he could no longer play at the level he needed to be on. He'd been hinting at leaving for years, only to put on the pads and helmet and amaze us once again. This time, he made good on his threat.
Three times Favre was the National Football League's most valuable player, leading the Packers to the playoffs in 11 years, and two Super Bowl appearances.
As for the individual records:
- 253 consecutive games as a starting quarterback.
- 5,377 career completions.
- 160 wins by a starting quarterback.
- 442 touchdown passes
- 8,758 passing attempts
- 288 interceptions (the last pass Favre ever threw was into the arms of a New York Giants defender in the NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field)
- 61,655 passing yards
The records are all the more impressive, given the trials and tribulations Favre went through during his career that were worthy of Nashville: a wife with breast cancer, the death of his father, addictions of the pharmaceutical and liquid variety, a home in Mississippi destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and injuries that threatened to interrupt his rewriting the record book.
For 17 seasons, Favre had been not only the face of the Packers, but of the NFL as well. Sure, there's Tom Brady dating supermodels and the Manning brothers doing TV commercials, but they're not the folk hero Favre was. Whether you rooted for the Packers or not, he made the game into something Lambeau Field hasn't seen since the Vince Lombardi era.
All we can say is, Favre's longtime understudy Aaron Rodgers has a lot to live up to.
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