Brett Favre is SI's Sportsman of the Year

[Patler]

ya, I get that it is for a guy from the world of sports. IT sounds like a popularity contest. That's OK.

What did you think it was all these years that S.I has been giving it out?

[MadtownPacker]

ya, I get that it is for a guy from the world of sports. IT sounds like a popularity contest. That's OK.

What did you think it was all these years that S.I has been giving it out?

What that punkbitch Harlan seems to ignore is that just about every damn thing besides the Superbowl is a "popularity contest".

[BF4MVP]

S.I. explained why Favre this year:

It is for his perseverance and his passion that SI honors Favre with the 54th Sportsman of the Year award. But there is more to his story than on-field heroics. On game day the whole of Green Bay may live and die on Favre's rocket right arm, but his greatest legacy lies in how many people he has touched between Sundays.

The article then explains it in detail.

There it is. THANK YOU PATLER

[Harlan Huckleby]

I never head of this award before. I think the criteria is who's picture on the cover will sell the most magazines.

1954 Roger Bannister track and field
1955 Johnny Podres baseball
1956 Bobby Morrow track and field
1957 Stan Musial baseball
1958 Rafer Johnson track and field
1959 Ingemar Johansson boxing
1960 Arnold Palmer golf
1961 Jerry Lucas basketball
1962 Terry Baker football
1963 Pete Rozelle football
1964 Ken Venturi golf
1965 Sandy Koufax baseball
1966 Jim Ryun track and field
1967 Carl Yastrzemski baseball
1968 Bill Russell basketball
1969 Tom Seaver baseball
1970 Bobby Orr hockey
1971 Lee Trevino golf
1972 Billie Jean King and tennis (shared) John Wooden basketball
1973 Jackie Stewart auto racing
1974 Muhammad Ali boxing
1975 Pete Rose baseball
1976 Chris Evert tennis
1977 Steve Cauthen horse racing
1978 Jack Nicklaus golf
1979 Terry Bradshaw and football (shared) Willie Stargell baseball
1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team hockey
1981 Sugar Ray Leonard boxing
1982 Wayne Gretzky hockey
1983 Mary Decker track and field
1984 Ed Moses and track and field (shared) Mary Lou Retton gymnastics
1985 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar basketball
1986 Joe Paterno football
1987 (shared) 'Eight Athletes Who Care'
Bob Bourne hockey
Kip Keino track and field
Judi Brown King track and field
Dale Murphy baseball
Chip Rives football
Patty Sheehan golf
Rory Sparrow basketball
Reggie Williams football
1988 Orel Hershiser baseball
1989 Greg LeMond cycling
1990 Joe Montana football
1991 Michael Jordan basketball
1992 Arthur Ashe tennis
1993 Don Shula football
1994 Bonnie Blair and speed skating (shared) John Olav Koss speed skating
1995 Cal Ripken, Jr. baseball
1996 Tiger Woods golf
1997 Dean Smith basketball
1998 Mark McGwire and baseball (shared) Sammy Sosa baseball
1999 U.S. Women's Soccer Team soccer
2000 Tiger Woods golf
2001 Randy Johnson and baseball (shared) Curt Schilling baseball
2002 Lance Armstrong cycling
2003 Tim Duncan and basketball (shared) David Robinson basketball
2004 Boston Red Sox baseball
2005 Tom Brady football
2006 Dwyane Wade basketball

[Patler]

I never head of this award before.

Well that pretty much explains your confusion about Favre and the award.

The two most anticipated issues of S.I. every year are this one and the swimsuit issue. Have you heard of the second one???

[packinpatland]

Geez..............in 1987 SI could't make up it's mind?
Eight-way tie

[mraynrand]

I never head of this award before.

Well that pretty much explains your confusion about Favre and the award.

The two most anticipated issues of S.I. every year are this one and the swimsuit issue. Have you heard of the second one???

And every year 'snuggle' comes out with a new floral pattern on their toilet paper. It' the most anticipated event in the toilet paper year. That doesn't make it exciting.

[Patler]

I never head of this award before.

Well that pretty much explains your confusion about Favre and the award.

The two most anticipated issues of S.I. every year are this one and the swimsuit issue. Have you heard of the second one???

And every year 'snuggle' comes out with a new floral pattern on their toilet paper. It' the most anticipated event in the toilet paper year. That doesn't make it exciting.

Who said it was exciting?

[GrnBay007]

When is the magazine coming out??? I'm going to go to the store and get it...

I normally get mine in the mail on Wednesdays. I think it comes out a day or 2 after that, not sure though.

Did it hit the stands today? I stopped at 2 stores on the way home from work and didn't see it.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Patler, you are awfully argumentative/defensive about this SI award. ARe you affiliated with Publisher's Clearinghouse?

[packinpatland]

When is the magazine coming out??? I'm going to go to the store and get it...

I normally get mine in the mail on Wednesdays. I think it comes out a day or 2 after that, not sure though.

Did it hit the stands today? I stopped at 2 stores on the way home from work and didn't see it.

It was supposed to come out on the 5th. I got mine today.
Make sure you read the last page in the magazine...........Peter King wrote a very, very good piece on Brett.

[packinpatland]

Back to Tom Brady receiving the award............
With Brett, they write 7 pages, not counting photo pages. Brady........one page, pretty shallow stuff.

[MJZiggy]

When is the magazine coming out??? I'm going to go to the store and get it...

I normally get mine in the mail on Wednesdays. I think it comes out a day or 2 after that, not sure though.

Did it hit the stands today? I stopped at 2 stores on the way home from work and didn't see it.

It was supposed to come out on the 5th. I got mine today.
Make sure you read the last page in the magazine...........Peter King wrote a very, very good piece on Brett.

You mean this piece?

By Peter King

I've covered Brett Favre throughout his pro career, and when people ask, "What's Favre really like?" I might tell a story about his dead-on imitation of Billy Bob Thornton's character in Sling Blade, or about the time on a hunting trip that I heard him tracking his prey by cooing, "Here grousy-grousy-grousy." Or I might tell this story.

Ten years ago Green Bay was preparing to play Denver in Super Bowl XXXII in San Diego, and the seven previous times that I had covered the Packers, I had either dined or visited with Favre the Friday before each game -- and Green Bay had won every time. On the Monday before the big game, I reminded him of this. "Well then, we've got to go out Friday night," he said. "Find a good place." Then he thought for a second. "Do me a favor. Can you find a girl you might know, around Brittany's age? She'd hate it, being the only kid at a dinner with all the adults." Brittany Favre, his daughter, was almost nine.

It just so happened that my best friend from college, Dan Squiller, lived in San Diego and had a nine-year-old daughter, Brooke, and the Super Bowl was the biggest thing ever to hit town in her young life. Would she like to go to dinner with Brett Favre and his family? "Yeaaahhh!!!" she said, and even skipped a friend's birthday party to go. When the Favre party of 20 assembled at a La Jolla restaurant, Brooke and Brittany started chatting like new best friends, and Brett couldn't have been more pleased.

"Hey, Brooke," Brett said, "what'd you do in school today?"

"Studied Spanish, I guess. Lots of Spanish," said Brooke, who attended a bilingual magnet school. "Everybody's talking about the Super Bowl, though."

"What do you want to do with your life?" he said.

"Be a marine biologist, I think."

"You have a boyfriend?" he said.

No reply. Just a lot of blushing.

And so Brooke, who'd arrived very nervous, was part of the extended family now. She and Brittany giggled a lot, talked about how they'd redecorate their rooms if their lame parents would only let them. They got a kick out of Brett's ordering the sliced ostrich, along with tenderloin of Texas antelope. "I can just hear the announcers on Sunday," Brett said. "Favre's a little under the weather today. Must be antelope poisoning."

As we got up to leave, Brooke got a mischievous look in her eye and asked me for a penny. "Hey, Brett," she said, "here's your lucky penny for Sunday. You know, 'Find a penny, pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck.' Carry this with you, and you'll win." He thanked her and put the penny in his pocket. Brooke asked for only one thing: to have her picture taken with Brett and me.

Fast-forward 48 hours. Denver 31, Green Bay 24. In the postgame interview area, Favre, still in uniform, spotted me, and when he was done answering questions, he reached inside his high right sock. He pulled out a very sweaty penny. "Tell Brooke sorry," he said with a wry smile. "I guess it wasn't very lucky for me today."

"You're kidding!" I said. "You had that penny in your sock all game?"

"Of course," he said. "She said it'd be lucky."

Don't ask me how I could forget, but I never told Brooke what happened to the penny -- until I phoned her last week.

"No way! Oh my God, that's insane!" said Brooke, now a sophomore at Cardiff University in Wales. I asked Brooke (double majoring in Spanish and philosophy, by the way) if she remembered much about that night. "Are you kidding? I was sooooo stoked! One of my 10 most memorable nights ever! Do you know what I have on my bulletin board here? That photo of me, you and Brett! I look so tiny!"

Then she turned serious. "Before that night, I thought famous people were different from regular people. I thought they were a level above us," Brooke said. "But Brett was so normal. How many times can you say you were accepted into a family you'd never met before in a matter of minutes, and such a famous family? It may sound corny, but that night changed the way I look at people forever."

I told Brooke, who doesn't follow the NFL much in Wales, that SPORTS ILLUSTRATED would be naming Favre its Sportsman of the Year. And I told her I was watching him on TV at that moment, against Dallas, and he was running around just like he did that day 10 years ago in her hometown.

"He is amazing!" she said. And then she paused.

"If he ever retired, how would the NFL replace him?"

[packinpatland]

Yes. Does this sum up Brett or what!

[Joemailman]

When is the magazine coming out??? I'm going to go to the store and get it...

I normally get mine in the mail on Wednesdays. I think it comes out a day or 2 after that, not sure though.

Did it hit the stands today? I stopped at 2 stores on the way home from work and didn't see it.

Call your friend's kid who got you the wii. Just don't drive so damn slow this time!.