Growing up in Wisconsin and being a die-hard Green Bay Packer fan, it would be safe to assume that I watched Sunday’s NFC Championship Game with mixed emotions. "Our guy" Brett Favre was out there trying to get the much-hated Minnesota Vikings back into the Super Bowl after years of close calls. Ever since their nasty public "divorce", the debate surrounding "Favre or the Packers" has raged on. For two football seasons now! I’ve always been on the side of the organization, but that did not stop a part of me from wanting to see the old man do it just one more time as the game came to a close.

 
Last Sunday night, Brett Favre took a ferocious beating and stood strong in the face of a borderline "Chicken $hit" assault by the Saints on his 40 year old body. In typical Brett Favre fashion, a physical beating would most certainly not deter him from being Brett Favre. Much like two seasons ago in his last game as a Packer, he made the only throw that he couldn’t make and threw an interception that would eventually seal his team’s fate. And now all of those purple #4 shirt wearing Vikings fans know exactly what it is that we Packer fans went through for years.

 
You see, loving Brett Favre is like loving an old care-free uncle. He’s great to have around. He can make your kitchen come alive with laughter, and sometimes you wonder how come you don’t spend more time with him because of his amazing insight on life. But once it's said and done and the old man has gone home, you realize that your whiskey supply is destroyed, there are pee stains on your wife’s best bathroom rug, and you know it will be six weeks before you get the funky smell out of your couch. Vikings fans, you can take comfort in the fact that (so far) you have only had "Uncle Brett" staying with you for a weekend. We Packer Backers had him for an entire summer! And trust me when I say that we were ready for another member of the family to take their turn with him.


Aaron Rodgers would have tucked that ball and ran for five yards, or he would have thrown the ball to the receiver in the flats and took those five yards and lived to fight another day. Brett Favre would never do that. Can Aaron Rodgers make the plays that Favre made to even get his team in that position in the first place? The jury is still out on that one, but he is 15 years younger and is inherently better at taking care of the football and taking fewer risks. And as a Packer fan, I can live with that. That is not to say that my heart didn’t break when Favre made that throw because it did.


In closing, let me say to Favre's loyal followers; how can you possibly blame the organization for ushering out an old warrior who was still able break your heart while playing on a team you’ve spent your entire life hating? And to the true Vikings fans out there, I have five words for you. Twelve men in the huddle. You had the quarterback and the talent to win it all; you simply don’t have the coach and the organization to win it all. And now that organization has awarded that coach with a contract extension and you know that it's probably all going to end badly. I predict that you will have to endure two or three horrible seasons before they root him out of there.


So to Brett I say.....happy off-season to you great warrior. You never fail to turn an NFL playoff game into a life-changing experience, and this past effort was one for the ages. Thank you for some of the most amazing football we have ever seen. Thank you for giving the Viking faithful a taste of what it takes to love you. Thank you for being a quarterback that our game RapidDraft can embrace. And mostly, thank you for just being yourself and letting the rest of us decide how much we can take.  Let the speculation begin!