A fan takes a photograph at training camp for the Green Bay Packers.

I know. This is an odd place to be proselytize about professional football. But given I have so many friends bitching about this topic over the last week, I thought I would use this forum to explain my opinion on the matter. If you are a photographer who really doesn’t care what happens to the Green Bay Packers and/or Brett Favre, please read no further and accept my apologies.

My father often waxed poetic about Vince Lombardi and the five world championship teams he coached in Green Bay. Until Favre achieved fame no one compared to the likes of his heroes; Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, Paul Hornung, Willie Wood, Herb Adderley, Willie Davis, and Jim Taylor. My generation instead was forced to endure Anthony Dilweg, Vince Ferragamo, Brent Fullwood, Charles Martin, Harlan Huckleby, and Tony Mandarich. Two-and-a-half decades passed after Lombardi’s teams brought joy to Titletown. And I had experienced none of it. In the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, it was tough being a Packers fan.

Then came Favre, one of the most exciting players to wear green and gold in a long time. Yes, he was prone to forcing passes. Yes, he occasionally threw interceptions. And yes, he was too emotional at times. Yet Favre, whom my brother and I dubbed “the best throwing linebacker in the league,” was obviously destined to become a great quarterback; our great quarterback. Finally, I could witness greatness on my home town team. It was a thrill.

I watched Super Bowl XXXI at home alone because I was too nervous. No way could I be seen in  public watching the most important sporting event of my life in my neurotic state. I was offered tickets to see the game in person, but turned them down. Until I was married, I never missed a single Brett Favre pass. I rejoiced every time Favre came from behind to lead the Packers to a victory, lamented every loss, cried when his father died, grew concerned when he publicly admitted his addictions, and felt horrible when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. Brett Favre’s life was so much like a Greek tragedy. If I only knew.

Hub Arkush, the Publisher and Editor of Pro Football Weekly and former announcer for the Chicago Bears once said Favre was the “greatest player in the history of the NFL.” That is very high praise. Arkush, a self-proclaimed Chicago Bears fan who didn’t waste many opportunities to make fun of the rival Packers, believed Favre was better than every quarterback before him (i.e. Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, Joe Montana, Dan Marino) and every other player, too (i.e. Don Hutson, Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Dick Butkus). While it is hard for me to believe anyone can compare Favre to Unitas in today’s pass-happy league, it was an impressive statement nonetheless.

Favre then began the annual ritual of publicly contemplating retirement. At first it seemed serious. Then it happened every year. Off-season after off-season he kept the Packers front office hanging and his fans wondering. It began to look like he was feeding his ego and only needing to feel relevant. Favre played like a child on the field, but he began acting like one off the field, too. Then, in a very tearful moment, he said goodbye. Sadly, the end of an era was over.

We all know what happened next. The Green Bay Packers and their fans moved on. Then out of nowhere Favre announced he would ‘unretire’. There is no need to rehash the painful drama that ensued and followed Favre from Hattiesburg to Green Bay to New York and ultimately to Minneapolis. Seeing Favre in a New York Jets uniform was odd, but seeing him in a Minnesota Vikings uniform was a tragedy.

Who was I supposed to side with in all of this? Teddy Thompson, an arrogant former NFL player himself who is paid to manage difficult personalities, and the Green Bay Packers? Or Brett Favre, the only legendary player I have ever seen play for the Green Bay Packers? First a brief history lesson.

According to the book The History of the Green Bay Packers by Larry Names, in 1932 George Halas and the Chicago Bears approached Curly Lambeau and the Green Bay Packers for a loan. If the Packers had not loaned that money to the Bears it is entirely possible the Bears would not exist today. That’s right, the hay seeds from Green Bay are responsible for saving its arch rival to the south from extinction. If you doubt me, remember that the National Football League (NFL), like the rest of the nation, was then in the midst of The Great Depression. Franchises all over the country in the upstart professional football league were folding like cheap chairs.

Then starting in the late 1940s and until 1960 the Packers played exhibition games in a sorry little cow town on the other side of the state in the hopes of keeping professional football “relevant” there. That same cow town had two previous NFL franchises, but each of them failed. The name of that cow town? Minneapolis. In fact Minnesota had four previous NFL franchises (i.e. Minneapolis Marines, Minneapolis Red Jackets, Duluth Kelleys, and Duluth Eskimos). Each of them failed. In the 1960s, when the NFL was planning its expansion, it was Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers front office who helped convince the NFL to locate an expansion franchise in Minnesota instead of sunny, southern California despite the state’s losing record with pro football teams. Without efforts to convince the league Minnesota deserved another chance it is entirely possible the Minnesota Vikings would have never existed. And without those early exhibition games they may have met the same fate as the Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars) and the Minneapolis Lakers (now the Los Angeles Lakers).

Fast forward to today. The Packers are consistently one of the most watched NFL teams on television, which is the lifeblood of NFL revenues. They have also sold out every home game dating back to 1957 and are today one of the more profitable franchises in the NFL. The Minnesota Vikings, on the other hand, are one of the poorest. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Minnesota Viking receive $15 million to $20 million in subsidies every year from profitable franchises such as the Green Bay Packers…without which money it is doubtful they would be as successful this season, especially if they didn’t have the money to sign Favre.

Over the years the Green Bay Packers have survived two ugly attempts by George Halas to kill the franchise, two mergers with other leagues (AAFC and AFL) that almost left the Packers the “odd man out,” someone who claimed to own the franchise and planned to move it to Los Angeles, several collective bargaining agreements, a couple of very nasty law suits, a 1-11-1 season, The Great Depression, a horrible coach who traded the team’s future away in the 1970s for a washed-up quarterback (which took decades to recover from), and now this…a very nasty divorce with an insolent cry baby who not once, not twice, not three times, BUT SIX TIMES threatened to retire.

The Green Bay Packers have won more NFL championships than any other team; 11 prior to the arrival of Favre and just one with Favre (which equals the likes of Trent Dilfer, Jim McMahon, and Jeff Hostetler). Also, 19 Packers were enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame before Favre, and one who played with Favre…Reggie White. He too was in part responsible for bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to Green Bay following the 1996 season; not to mention all of the other players and coaches who were part of that team and also responsible for that magical season.

So if you were a Green Bay Packers fan before Favre and now find yourself rooting for the Minnesota Vikings with Favre, remember this…you weren’t much of a Packers fan to begin with. Go ahead, root for the paid mercenary who makes tens millions of dollars every season playing for a franchise the Packers subsidize every season and a team that might not exist if it were not for the Packers. Me, I will stand tall with the franchise that survived through the years, despite all of the odds, and became the most successful and storied franchise in NFL history…in a city whose entire population would fit in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. And it all happened long before anyone even knew how to pronounce Brett Favre’s name.

Did you ever think the Packers, and its community of owners, and its legion of fans did more to help Favre than he ever did for the Green Bay Packers? They lined his pockets so he could pay for his mansion and platoon of lawn tractors. They plucked him from Atlanta where he was nothing more than a boozehound, womanizer, and third string quarterback (at best). They trained him, supported him, and stood by him despite all of his alcoholism, pill-popping, insubordination, and interceptions. Sure, he probably would have made it somewhere else, but would he have become a legend anywhere else? And to say the Packers would not have been successful without him is naive. You forget the Packers also once had Mark Brunnell, Matt Hassleback, and Kurt Warner, not to mention a crafty general manager who rebuilt the Green Bay Packers not because of Favre, but in spite of him.

So if you want to throw your allegiance behind a multimillionaire who once had his own private locker room in Green Bay, an ego the size of Mississippi, and as much loyalty as Benedict Arnold, by all means, root for Brett Favre and the purple and gold. But remember one thing, we know who you are, and getting back on our band wagon will not be as easy as it was stepping off.

Go Packers!