I don't know if it will happen. Favre pulled himself away from the team and into his own rare-air slowly but surely over many years. He's painting himself in a corner I don't know that he'll ever have the courage to get out of. He's going to take some boos, some anger, some things he never had in 15 years in GB. But if he takes them with grace, they will go away and he'd be a better person for the experience. He'd be right back in with the fans and people would love him for who he is, for what he's been through, even though he can't play a lick of football anymore.
Nothing he's done is so awful, people can't connect to him. Everyone has said/done things out of hurt/anger they regret. If he stood up and talked about how hard it was to no longer be needed like he once was, to let go of the things that he had in Green Bay, he'd be accepted almost immediately. He doesn't see it that way though. He sees it like he was attacked, spit on, abandoned by the team he gave everything too. NFL teams have immense pressure to win. The Packers stayed with Favre because it benefited them. That's the cold, hard truth. If he wasn't a great player, he would have been gone a long time before he was. It had nothing to do with Favre the person, only Favre the player.
I imagine leaving football is a hard thing to do. So much of what these players have in their lives (especially the star players) is had only because they perform. Imagine the pressure. Imagine how it must feel when it all ends, when the money, fame, glory disappears and the NFL goes on without you, like you were never there. Imagine all you have are records, that are bound to fall some day. Imagine what it must be like to watch the team you believed needed you goes on and wins a SB while you're still barely hanging on in the league. Imagine enough people can't stand you that it fills a stadium with relentless boos when you step on the field. Imagine this was the same stadium that loved you, seemingly unconditionally, through drug addiction and affairs. They loved you no matter how big the interception or how uncommitted the offseason. Imagine what it must be like to realize you were only there because you were good at football and that it's gone now. Imagine what it must be like to be unable to do anything else well enough to ever have that kind of attention again. I suppose it's not as hard for us, we'll never have any of it. But if you had it, I'll bet losing it would be very hard.
Favre has a lot of things to come to grips with and you hope it happens. Who the hell knows though, he hasn't shown a sign (so far) that he can accept his place in the world. He hasn't shown the ability to move on from football and grow as a person. I wish him the best, but the rest of his life is looking like a big train-wreck of bitterness and isolation. I hope not, but fuck, as fun as it was to watch him play football, it's equally tragic to watch him move on from football.
I know he used to travel with his own personal priest. Hopefully he's still working with people like that to heal and grow. Back then, I think it was because the pressure he put on himself was so great, he needed it just to get by. Now, I think he's going to need help to adjust to life, and to get out of life everything he deserves. He deserves to let go of whatever he's hanging onto. He deserves to be with the teammates he won the SB with and played with for so many years. He deserves everything life has to offer still. I hope he sees what he's missing because he has a great life in front of him.
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