"We" Should Be Pretty Good

It’s like walking into a bar and seeing your former girlfriend of long-standing with her arms around a guy you absolutely cannot stand.

Pick your own analogy, for how you will feel when you first see Brett Favre in the uniform of the Minnesota Vikings. But it’s apparently gonna happen.

If you watched any of the horrible new HBO Joe Buck show Monday night, you saw not only the worst announcer in the history of sports broadcasting attempt and fail to be a comedian - you saw Brett give the biggest clue yet as to what’s really going to happen.

The national news and sports press picked up immediately on the same phrase I did….when Brett was philosophizing about the Vikes and their prospects this coming season, and then in summation said “we should be pretty good”.

We.

Not “they should be pretty good”. “We should be pretty good”. As the lawyers would say, that statement goes to state-of-mind. He’s already on the team, and he’s got his sights set on Lambeau Field for that November 1st meeting. Months ago, his family booked a couple dozen rooms at the nearby MidWay Motor Lodge for that weekend.

He’ll get his revenge against Ted Thompson, no matter what the cost, including the very real possibility that his 19th season will be ended by injury long before the Vikes and the Pack meet at Lambeau. And the very real possibility that the shoulder surgery he had a few weeks ago won’t “take” and his magic arm will be a rag arm.

I like my “girlfriend in the arms of your worst enemy” analogy because so many of us feel “jilted” by the certain Hall-of-Fame quarterback. And, like the girlfriend who’s left you and is NOT coming back, we’re - well, maybe just a bit jealous. One thing seems clear in all the Mississippi mud Favre has deliberately stirred up about his intentions: he’s NOT coming back to the Packers. Not now, not ever.

On that horrible Joe Buck HBO show Monday night, Favre also said, regarding his shredding of the loyalty his Packers fans had for him, “well, Vince Lombardi went to the Redskins and nobody hated him”….blah, blah, blah. Yah, but Vince didn’t hold a single disgustingly embarrassing nationally-televised news conferences where he cried for an hour about the agony of his decision to head east for a new challenge.

That sort of difference is apparently lost on Favre. We loved him for his child-like enthusiasm for the game, and hate him for his child-like behavior in dealing with his diminishing skills.

As the Arabs say, “the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on”. Bret has gone to Minnesota in his mind, and he’s not coming back to Green Bay. We must learn to deal with it.