Clarkson Integrator

Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: MCT Brett Favre announced his retirement from the National Football League Tuesday March 4. Favre played sixteen seasons for the Packers and owns numerous records.

Here at Clarkson we defy convention. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, Brett Favre defied time. The ageless, long-time quarterback of the Green Bay Packers has hung his helmet in the locker for the final time after seventeen seasons in the NFL. Favre announced Tuesday, March 4 that he will not be returning for the 2008 season. He confirmed this two days later via press conference at Lambeau field. After flirting with retirement for the past few seasons it's clear that he's finally made his decision.
Favre leaves the NFL holding numerous records, including: most touchdown passes, most career passing yards, and, most victories by a starting quarterback. He is also the league's only three-time MVP. However, perhaps the most distinguishing record Favre possesses is the record for most consecutive starts by a quarterback. Favre went almost sixteen years without missing a start, adding up to 253 consecutive regular season starts.
Aside from being an extraordinary athlete, Favre was also a lot like the average person in that he suffered hardships at various points in his life. During December of the 2003, season Favre's father died of a heart attack. Favre still went out and played the next night in memory of his father and had one of the greatest games of his career. Shortly after the death of his father, his wife, Deanna Favre, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Favre played on, enduring the tragedies handed to him, his passion for the game always apparent. In the words of Lance Armstrong (after hearing of Favre's retirement); "If people say to me, 'Who are the athletes you respect the most?' I would tell you that I respect Andre Agassi and Brett Favre the most because they were guys that played through pain, played through misery."
Favre is eligible for induction into the football hall of fame in Canton, OH in 2013. It's expected that, after his seventeen season career, he is all but guaranteed a place among the NFL greats. There, as well as in the minds of fans, players, and coaches alike, his legendary accomplishments will live on for years to come.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools