EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — As he waited for coach Brad Childress to yield so he could take his turn with the media, Brett Favre managed to get in two bites of a sandwich.
The bites were man-sized. The sandwich was kid-like. White bread. Peanut butter caked thick. Grape jelly oozing from the side.
What’s good enough for kindergartners across the country is good enough for the most prolific passer in NFL history.
Will Brett Favre ever grow up, at least to where his bread of choice is wheat?
The Minnesota Vikings hope not. What they’d love to witness today in the NFC championship game at the New Orleans Superdome is Favre taking off on one of his boyish celebrations, bounding and leaping, shouting and slapping butts, rapping “Pants on the Ground” if he insists. And generally acting like someone half his 40 years of age.
If he can somehow outduel Drew Brees today, Favre can return to play in the Super Bowl for the first time in 12 years, when his Green Bay Packers were upset by John Elway and the Broncos.
“I remember after that game talking to John as we were leaving the San Diego stadium,” Favre said. “We were in street clothes. I was probably looking down. I wasn’t feeling so hot but I remember telling him, ‘You know, John, I really wanted this one bad. But if I couldn’t win it, I am happy for you.’
“And John steps back like this . . . “
Favre theatrically delivers a look of disdain.
“And he flicks his arm at me and says, ‘Hey, you won it last year.’ Like, because we won it the year before, losing this one was no big deal.”
Nothing’s guaranteed
Little did anyone know. Super Bowl XXXII became Elway’s sentimental journey. He finally had won the big one. This one’s for John. Elway won it again the next year, and then called it a career.
“I remember thinking about John coming back after winning his first one,” Favre said. “I was thinking, ‘Why doesn’t he go out now?’ Because no matter how good a team you think you have, a season could work out that ends up 10-6. There’s no guarantee you’re going to win another one.”
Imagine that. Favre once wondered why a certain Hall of Fame quarterback opted not to retire.
Favre was 27 when he won his first Super Bowl the season before, in 1996. He lost his second Super Bowl to the Broncos, and kept on playing, but hasn’t been back. All this time later, all those passing yards, all those touchdowns passes, all those fourth-quarter comebacks — and, yes, all those comebacks from retirement speeches — and yet what he hasn’t done is play in a third Super Bowl.
“After the game in San Diego, I remember thinking we’ve got Brett on offense, we’ve got Reggie (White) on defense, we’re going to be back next year and the year after and we’ll keep coming back,” said Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell, who was a rookie kicking for Favre’s Packers in Super Bowl XXXII.
Elway was 38 when he retired. Favre was too. But then he came back, played for the Jets last season and retired again at age 39. The Vikings lured him out of retirement last summer to take another run at the Super Bowl.
And he has had an extraordinary renaissance season, with 37 touchdowns against seven interceptions — counting his playoff game last week against Dallas — by far the best good-to-bad ratio of his career.
Putting off the inevitable
All the greats now talk about Elway’s back-to-back Super Bowls as the ideal way to finish off an athletic career. Not that this perfect football ending brought Elway happily ever after in his post-NFL life. He’s been through a divorce and has remarried. He’s had some business successes and some failures. He’s had his knee replaced.
Just another middle-aged American, in other words. Think of all the NFL players who were Favre’s former teammates and opponents who have gone to experience the next phase of life’s challenges. The phase Favre keeps putting off.
“I remember Jim Kelly giving me a coaching tip after a game in my (third year),” Favre said. “We played them and we lost by a touchdown, I think. And he comes up to me after the game and says, ‘Hey, kid. You know you’ve got a chance to be a good quarterback if you stop throwing off your back foot.’ Here I’ve been playing for 19 years, and I’m still throwing off my back foot. Every time we see each other, we laugh about that tip he gave me.”
Kelly has been retired so long, it’s been eight years since he was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It’s been six years since sculptors went to work on Elway’s bust.
Favre has been in the NFL so long, the day in 1991 he was drafted in the second round by the Atlanta Falcons, Broncos safety Brian Dawkins was a junior in high school.
“I remember my rookie year in Atlanta, I was in a bar with Mike Kenn,” Favre said, referring to the 17-year offensive tackle who retired 15 years ago. “I was saying, ‘Dang, I was in (second grade) when you first got in the league.’ And now I look in there at all those kids — of course I’m not sitting in a bar with them — but we figured out Percy Harvin was 2 when I was drafted.”
Boys will be boys
Favre has reached that point in his career where it’s only natural to become nostalgic. He was brought back, once again, to his last Super Bowl.
In that game, the Packers were 13-point favorites, Favre threw for 256 yards and three touchdowns, Elway threw for 123 yards and no scores. Yet, it was the Broncos’ turn.
Favre said he has never pointed out to Elway how he outplayed him.
“If I did, he’d say, ‘So?’ ” Favre said. “That just goes to show stats isn’t what it’s about. Yeah, the stats say I might have played better, but he made some plays when he had to and was a leader for his team.”
By the time Favre finished talking as long as he could about yesteryear, practice was about to begin. A stale crust had begun to form over his peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich. He had left it on a rolling platform ladder, where dust from so many sneakers had served as its place mat.
Without pause, Favre picked up the sandwich and gave it another big bite as he walked into the locker room to get ready.
Some people think of Favre and wonder if, how, or when will he really, truly and permanently retire. The answer will become obvious once somebody figures out why boys will forever be boys.
