March 05, 2008
Brett Farve Retiring From Football After 17 Seasons
Brett Farve is finally retiring after 17 seasons, 16 of the them with the Green Bay Packers.
“It’s somber here,” Mayor Jim Schmitt said in a phone interview. “Even though we all knew Brett Favre was going to retire some day, I don’t think the majority of people thought it was going to be this year. . . . You know how you go through the stages of grief? The denial stage was there for a while.”
Such is the impact Favre had not only on the Packers, but on a country of NFL fans. Though spectacularly talented, with an arm as strong as any in the game, he was football’s everyman, an accessible sports hero who played through pain — physical and emotional — and never bothered to disguise his feelings…
I don’t think he should have retired just to retire considering this was one of his best years in a real long time. However, he would be going out with a nice record.
…Already, Green Bay has named streets after Packers greats such as Vince Lombardi, Mike Holmgren and Bart Starr.
For Favre, the city might do more.
“If we do something with a street, it would have to be a major thoroughfare,” the mayor said. “We can look at some of our great parks, our buildings. We’re going to have to come up with something pretty neat.”
