Favre honors his father with spectacular effort

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Dec 23, 2003

OAKLAND -- It was a eulogy of beauty, a performance beyond imagination. What surely was Brett Favre's most difficult game was also his most astounding triumph. Honor thy father.

There was no question Favre would play. Not in his mind. Not in our minds.

Tears would be shed later. Athletes have been taught never to concede, always to fight. This is the world in which they have been raised, the world they always will inhabit.

Tough for Favre. So tough. Irvin Favre, Brett's father, Brett's high school coach, Brett's pal, died Sunday in Mississippi. And Monday night, the Green Bay Packers, Favre's team, and that is no overstatement, would face the Raiders at Network Associates Coliseum, with the playoffs at stake for the Pack.

It is too melodramatic, too trite, to say Irv Favre, who succumbed at age 58 to a heart attack, would have wanted his son to play. What he would have wanted was for Brett to play the way he did, in such bravura fashion it was as some higher power were at work.

Brett Favre completed his first nine passes, 12 of the first 13. By time the first half was over, with Favre 15-for-18 for 311 yards and four touchdowns, for all intents so was the game.

In the end, Favre threw for 399 yards on 22-of-30. In the end, the Packers thrashed the Raiders 41-7. In the end, our admiration of Brett Favre was greater than ever.

"I knew my dad would want me to play," said Favre, "and I love him so

much. He meant a great deal to me and my family. I didn't expect this type of performance, but I know he was watching."

We thought we knew what Favre could do. Three years in succession, 1995-96-97, he was the NFL's Most Valuable Player. He won a Super Bowl. He had thrown for more than 45,000 yards, for more than 430 touchdowns. He had started 187 consecutive regular-season games, 205 consecutive including playoff games.

But until Monday night, we really didn't know.

"It was totally his decision to play," said Packers coach Mike Sherman. "He expressed to me he had a lot invested in this season."

Life went on. Football went on. The Packers, the franchise of history, went on toward the postseason.

Irv Favre was the coach at Hancock North Central High in Kiln, Miss., and he ran the wishbone, despite a son who could throw deep. And short. And everywhere in between.

"I always told my dad that offense would never get me to pro football," Brett joked a few years ago.

It was Irv who had made the recent wisecracks. He shared the microphone on a postgame radio show after Packers home games, giving opinions about Brett and the other Packers. What kind of words might he have used about this night?

The words Favre's teammates used were those of high praise. Asked if he were amazed at the way Favre played, the man literally in front of him at the line of scrimmage, center Mike Flanagan, answered, "I'm more amazed at him as a man."

Flanagan said Favre addressed the team at its normal pregame meeting, around 8 p.m. Sunday night, and told them he would in the lineup.

"If he wasn't going to play it would have been fine with us," said Flanagan. "That he played was fine. I'm absolutely amazed at what he did. He just moves up on my hero list."

Packers receiver Anthony Freeman, through the years a frequent Favre target, shook his head and sighed, "He did it, but I don't know how he did it. You can't put a price on it. What can you say to him? You offer your condolences. You don't ask a lot of questions."

Perhaps the worst part for Favre was the wait. He heard about his father late in the afternoon Sunday. And then came the hours of memories and pain.

Carrying a terrible burden, Favre still managed to carry the Packers to a win.

"I have two brothers and a sister," said Favre. "We miss my father. I loved him dearly. He was my coach growing up. I don't wish this on anyone."

All the rest of us can wish is we handle it with the grace of Brett Favre.

typoes@aol.com .