>> Some things change, some things change the same: Sal Paolantonio is still a brating fool (we eagerly await your paean to Donovan McNabb, greatest QB evah!), and Aaron Schatz is brilliant and accurate.  What really comes into perspective with Favre’s retirement is the poor choices the Packers made as a franchise over the past few years - GM Ted Thompson has drafted well, for the most part, but consider what the Packers offense would’ve looked like this year with underperforming rookie RB Brandon Jackson as the central contributor (Thompson’s second round choice), as opposed to the diamond-in-the-rough Ryan Grant, who they got purely for depth.  For a team that has the money to spend and a QB with the juice to get them to the playoffs consistently, their Free Agent choices are just batty at points: in 2001, 2002, and 2004, they signed one free agent or less, all while letting Favre’s all-pro line walk with less than adequate replacements (Favre lost three out of five linemen, the entire center of his line, to free agency in his last three years in the league). Don’t get me wrong - they have a good young team in Green Bay, and the potential to be successful this year (Aaron Rodgers walks in as the second best starting QB in the division compared to Grossman and Jackson, maybe the best if Kitna comes back to earth), but with a great like Favre, a dominant o-line, and cap room to make some moves, you’d have thought they’d choose to load up for a run before #4 retired.  Making a run doesn’t mean you have to break the bank, but it does mean you should invest in a bit more (and more wisely) on defense than DE Joe Johnson and S Mark Roman over the course of three years, neither of whom is still with the team. If they’d made moves like they did in 2006 to get CB Charles Woodson and DT Ryan Pickett a few years earlier, the Packers might’ve made it to a few more NFC championship games in that time.

They are lies, I tell you. Those words you heard ten thousand times from ESPN and Peter King and the NFL Network and everyone else over the past two days, I’m here to tell you it’s just not true.

Brett Favre did not play the game like a kid.

It’s hard to believe he’s gone. Some part of me believed he’d be in Green Bay forever, that he’d throw those passes that could make you shriek in joy or curse in frustration. I felt kinship with him, being from Mississippi, coming from SMU. I whooped with joy when he won his Super Bowl, and I wasn’t even a Packer fan. I know I wasn’t alone.

As I got older, I came to appreciate Favre for the figure he was in the larger sense: an underrated (yes, underrated) quarterback who matured as a player, rebuilt one of the greatest franchises in American history, and beat the odds over and over again to achieve incredible success. You’ve heard the truth-become-legend by now: he received only one scholarship offer after high school; he wrecked his car and almost died; he failed the physical for his trade to the Packers - doctors said he had the same degenerative hip condition that ended Bo Jackson’s career, that he would only play 2 or 3 years. Ron Wolf thought 2 or 3 years was worth it, and got 14 more bonus years on top of it. And now, his number itself is iconic.

The effect Favre had on people was powerful. We’ve all heard about the kid who’s worn his jersey every day since 2003. My heart sank when I heard on the radio that he was leaving, when I should be glad that there’s one less team in the NFC with a lock on a playoff berth (yeah, good luck with that, Aaron Rodgers). You can’t say that about every athlete. You can’t really say that about almost any athlete any more, not really - where the guy came to symbolize something that was a lot greater than the humble roots, rabble-rousing beer-swilling redneck days of his youth, and a father who drove him like an old school SOB (”So you had three feet of intestine pulled out of ya - I still think you can play”), something that spoke to young Americans across the country as real and authentic in an area focused on entertainment and glitz. Forget the supermodels and the New York City lifestyle - forget asking for a trade away from the smallest town with an NFL team to a place that had a bigger nightlife or an owner who’d spend millions on free agents.

He beat alcoholism and addiction. He had a kid out of wedlock with his high school sweetheart when she was just 19 - she was a year older than him. She kept the baby - she was Catholic. And instead of chasing after the pretty young things or heading out to California, Favre got married to her, bought a house back home for her, and loved her, and had another daughter with her, and now is helping her, as best he can, beat the disease that threatens her. We all know what Brett Favre did when this happened. And we know what Tom Brady does when life happens.

Brett Favre did not play the game like a kid. A kid plays a game without understanding; they think the game matters, and assume it matters to everyone else. They don’t care what goes on outside the game. They don’t think it costs anything to play the game. They take the game for granted. A guy like Reggie Bush plays the game like a kid - blessed with amazing talents, he squanders his time, his money and his days with trashy TV stars and hangers on. Someday he’ll look back and say, “I wish I knew what I had then. I wish I’d shared it with people who loved me, not my money or fame or ending up on internet sites with me.” Or maybe he’ll never reach that day, never grow up … never know that life is hard, that it only gets harder, but that if you’re tough, and ready, you stay cool under fire and roll with the punches - you can still win through, and do it smiling.

No - Brett Favre played the game like a man. He played it like other men should play it, and so few do. He played it like someone who came through the dark days of life knowing the value of every moment, knowing that the end would come someday, and he wasn’t going to miss enjoying a moment of it along the way. He played like he was grateful to be there, knowing what a blessing it is to be one of the fortunate ones, fortunate to don this silly modern armor, the colors of a town, and run through a tunnel into a snowy night to the raucous cheers of young and old.

Today, the football world seems smaller. One of the last larger-than-life figures of the game I grew up with and watched every Sunday afternoon strides out the door, reluctant but proud, victorious. His choice, because he knew it was time. I can’t help but think of John Wayne at the end of The Searchers, striding off into the wilderness, tears in his eyes, leaving behind those he loved, but knowing that this part of his life was over, truly over, and no power in the world could bring it back.

I saw him play once, in person. I will never lose that, and I count myself lucky. I’d seen Jordan too, and Gretzky, and Ripken. But this one was more special than that. The Redskins needed the game, and I was rooting against Favre, and doing it loudly. It was a tight game, and it swayed back and forth. And sure enough, he pulled out a victory at the end - making one more play, rolling away from one more tackle, arm cocked back as his eyes focused downfield, looking for his open man, finding him one more time, and winning.

I swear to you, he smiled while he was doing it. He smiled til the end.

We’ll miss you, gunslinger.

It sounds ludicrous, I know. How can a quarterback as lauded as Brett Favre - ESPN darling, king of the endorsement scene (well, til Manning came along), John Madden’s numero uno mancrush - actually be an underrated quarterback?

Well, that’s easy. With Favre about to set the all-time touchdown passing record, every talking head is getting into the ranking game, and other than the eloquent piece by Len Pasquarelli, few are giving Favre the credit he deserves for his career. The other day, Ron Jaworski stopped stroking Donovan McNabb’s ego long enough to tell ESPN viewers that Brett Favre isn’t even in his top six, and Dan Marino isn’t in his top eight. And even those experts at Yahoo and Fox Sports who rank Favre highly put him barely in their top five, if at all.

As if their bias toward the present - instead of ranking a career - could be any clearer, many are putting Favre below Tom Brady. Let’s nip this in the bud: Brady has won three Super Bowls, each time on a team with a fantastic defense (Favre hasn’t had a top five defense since 1998), each time with a lead achieved by a Hall of Fame clutch kicker, each time under a coach who - cheater or not - is certainly in the top tier of NFL coaches, something which can’t be said of Favre’s signal callers (let’s be honest: together, Rhodes, Sherman, and McCarthy couldn’t hold Belichick’s jock). Brady has the rings, yes - but are you really going to say Trent Dilfer, Mark Rypien, and Brad Johnson are better quarterbacks than Marino? Or if the number of rings matter, that Aikman and Bradshaw are better than Favre or Elway? That’s just not an argument you can make with a straight face, or unless you’re a total homer for your team of choice.

Placing Favre out of the top five quarterbacks of all time club ignores his consistent statistical success when compared to others. I’m fed up with it. So maybe it’s time for a little refresher course, culled from the wonderful folks at Pro Football Reference.

Brett Favre: Top Five Quarterback

• Favre is the all time leader in wins, with 150, despite playing one fewer year than Elway and two fewer than Marino. The only active QB with a shot to catch him is Peyton Manning, with 94 regular season wins, which should allow him to pass Favre when Manning is 37. Adding postseason wins allows Tom Brady (82 regular and postseason wins) a hope of catching Favre, but as it also increases Favre’s total to 161 wins, Brady would likely have to play until he is 38 or 39 to match it.
• Favre is the all time leader in completions, and the only QB in NFL history to pass the 5,000 completion mark. The only active QB with a shot to catch him is Peyton Manning. If Favre retired tomorrow, and Manning’s average completions per season doesn’t dip at all, Peyton would still have to play until he was 38 to catch Favre, and 37 to match his consecutive 300+ completion seasons (Favre has 15).
• Eight of Favre’s single season completion totals rank in the top 50 all time in terms of completions per season, higher than any other QB and stretching from 1994 to 2005.
• Favre is second in the all time list of passing yards, exactly 3,000 yards behind Dan Marino. If Favre returns for a 17th season - remembering that Marino played 18 - he will pass Marino. Again, the only active QB with a shot to catch him is Peyton Manning. If Favre retired tomorrow, and Manning maintains his average for yards per season with no drop off, he’d still have to play until he was 37 to catch Favre.
• Favre has scored more points than any other Quarterback in NFL history (2,598 at the start of the season). While Manning will almost certainly catch this, he will almost certainly not match Favre in consecutive seasons with 30 or more touchdown passes - Favre has five, while only 5 Quarterbacks in NFL history have even managed two. Manning has never had back to back seasons with 30 or more touchdowns.
• As an iron-man quarterback, Favre is unmatched, with 241 consecutive starts this Sunday (261 including the postseason). Only one player in NFL history, defensive end Jim Marshall, has more - and it’s much easier to get that record at a position other than QB. Favre will pass Marshall’s total later this year, assuming he stays healthy. He will also pass Fran Tarkenton (244) for most career games as a quarterback.
• Finally, as we all know, Favre is one touchdown away from passing Dan Marino on the all time list for touchdown passes. But in terms of total touchdowns, he’s already four ahead of Marino - including rushing touchdowns and quarterback sneaks.

For what it’s worth, here’s my personal list:

1. Johnny Unitas
2. Joe Montana
3. Brett Favre
4. Dan Marino
5. John Elway

I feel pretty confident about this, as it dovetails well with the Sporting News list from a few years back that was Unitas, Montana, Elway, Favre. And yes, Manning will move up this list, and deserves to. But he isn’t yet in this tier statistically, and while we all know how consistent he is, we can’t put him there yet.

Assuming Manning has as long a career as these fellows had, he will eventually pass Elway, Marino, and Favre, though the top two will be hard to break through - Unitas because he accomplished so much in an era when the forward pass was a newfangled invention, and even moreso because he played in the era of shortened seasons, and has fewer games played than any others on this list, Montana because he has come to symbolize the ideal clutch QB in NFL history. Brady will have to keep up the pace of the first three games of the 2007 season from here on out if he’s ever going to have the statistics to be considered in this company.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this: As this season began, since the moment when Brett Favre took the field replacing Don Majkowski on September 20, 1992, no NFL team has won more games than the Green Bay Packers. Considering the era we’re in, when franchises rise and fall quickly, and the talent pool Favre has had to work with for the past several years, that’s simply astounding, and it’s the mark of a truly exceptional leader.