Brett Favre's remarkable...hell, unbelievable...streak of consecutive regular season game starts game to an end tonight at 297. To play the most demanding, self-destructive team sport at its highest level for so long is unheard of. Players decades younger have started and ended careers in the National Football League during his 20 year span...and until tonight, the man simply seemed to go on-and-on.
Eternal.
I've been a Favre fan for years, though I've never set foot in Wisconsin. I haven't seen him play more than a few times over the years, and he's lost to the Seahawks (in Seattle anyway) more often than he's won. But after Aikman and his crew retired in the 90's and the Seahawks were still tepid and horribly coached (pre-Favre Mentor Holmgren coming to town), Green Bay was the team I'd be following in the post-season. And if anyone symbolized what it meant to be an iron man and a footballer in the last two decades, you'd be hard pressed to find a better poster boy than Brett Favre.
I've been playing and collecting Blood Bowl since 1994 or so, though I haven't purchased much since GW stopped publishing the 4th edition. I've amassed maybe 30 or so teams, more than half of which are fully painted, and another quarter of which are in various "work-in-progress" stages. During football season (this time of year) I usually get the itch to pull out the models and tinker with them for awhile, gradually building an NFL-sized league of fantasy figurines.
Having played since the 2nd edition, I have plenty of old lead figure teams in the collection and one of the oldest is my 2nd edition Elf team (now High Elf I suppose). They are, of course, painted in the colors of the Green Bay Packers, the preeminent passing team of the late-90s. And why wouldn't they be a passing team with Favre at the helm?
In hindsight, the choice of an elf team is even more appropriate when you consider the longevity of their star passer. Yes, yes, Favre now wears purple-and-white and Aaron Rogers is captaining the air attack, but everyone knows that Brett still owns the hearts and minds of Wisconsin football fans. Even should his career end in Minnesota this year (or next), I have little doubt that #4 will someday be retired at Lambeau Field with appropriate fanfare and many sniffles of emotion.
Besides, there's no way I could fit an Elf onto my purple-and-white Halfling team. Green and gold is really the only way to go.
Anyway, the streak is over, but that doesn't mean the career is (though I'm sure we are getting down to the nitty-gritty...finally!). Get well soon, Favre. It was a great run and it's a little sad to see it end, but it sure would be nice to watch you throw a couple more touchdown passes before leaving us for good!
: )
How many times has Favre retired now, anyway? I won't believe it until we actually see him in a wheelchair, and even then I'll suspect something's up.
ReplyDeleteAre your elves the mohawk chaps? If so, I think they're technically wood elves now, who just so happen to wear green and yellow in official photos. And I can't believe your purple-and-white team aren't norse! Shocking.
My elves are the "big hair" and "mullet" elves.
ReplyDeleteAt the time I was painting the halflings, the Vikes weren't a very good team (prone to injury that year and not very hard-hitting) so the 'flings seemed appropriate. Though personally I've never really understood the correlation between "purple" and "Viking;" what, are they supposed to be Swedish royalty or something? I'd figure Red and White (flame and snow) or Brown and Red (mud and blood) would be more appropriate team colors.
; )