QUOTE (LMG @ May 2 2009, 08:53 AM)

You and the couple of others talking about 'you hope Brett gets injured if he comes back' is really uncalled for.
Very immature!!

LMG,
Let me preface first by saying that for what it's worth, I have and always will respect you. I am truly grateful for your work in keeping this site running as well as keeping it respectful and respectable. The last thing I ever would intentionally wish to do is sully that. I don't have the time to post much any more like I used to. But when I do, I will occasionally use a preachy, evocative rhetorical style depending on the topic simply in order that the reader might feel compelled to take a clear, convinced position of agreement or disagreement, and is based on OBJECTIVE grounds as much as possible.
And the issue of Favre is one where I can't but use such rhetoric. (Sorry, blame it on the Lutheran minister in me!)
In being objective I realize LMG that unlike another poster I won't mention, you have not literally written anything in this post of yours I quote above which literally names me, or is lumping me together with whomever you are referring to who have posted comments which state their "hope that Brett gets injured if he comes back". I assume it was not directed at me, since, after all, you are an intelligent guy who as a moderator must read/judge the actual content of the posts on here. Not only did I never literally suggest a hope of seeing Brett get injured, I never even indirectly ever meant to imply that. I challenge anybody who can read critically (an increasing challenge for some in our "cellphone texting", "computer spell checking" age), which I know you can, to point out anywhere in my two posts on this topic where even by inference I am implying a hope to see Favre get injured, that is, PHYSICALLY and IRREPARABLY!!! My writing never suggest that even by indirect implication.
But if I'm wrong to objectively take you at your literal words LMG, and thus if by chance your comment was directed at me in addition to whomever else you were referring to, then let me give an explanation:
Is it my hope to see Favre playing for the Vikings so that I can see what in my opinion is Favre's current egocentric PRIDE get injured? Oh yes, yes I do!!! Do I hope to see his current, Me-first attitude and own actual
hatred for Ted" be exorcised? Yes, yes I do!!! So yes, that is precisely WHY I hope he ends up playing for the Vikings. And if so, yes, to see his self-centered PRIDE gets injured, I do hope to see him get sacked a bunch of times by such blitzers as Clay Matthews, Jr., or whichever Packer it is who will play OLB and/or DE in this season's hybrid 4-3/3-4 defense when they play the Vikings. Yes, I do hope to see him get pass rush pressure like never before so that he throws a bunch of ints and ends up either benched or simply contributing to an enormous lob-sided victory by the Packers.
Let the reader understand. My own expressed opinions on this topic of "Favre to the Vikings" does NOT arise out of hate for him AT ALL! Quite the opposite is true: It arises precisely out of LOVE for the guy, not to mention out of appreciation for the public image he had established as an honest and earnest person, and the legacy as a team-first football player he had built up over the years. Up until the past year, he had been someone I was glad to see my son look up to, not because he was always perfect, whether it was in public on the field, let alone in private in his actual real persona (especially in his younger years of heavy drinking, pill popping, and womanizing). Rather, because he had the integrity and courage to admit to his own imperfections and errors, as well as seeking to overcome them. I was glad to see my son root for that "public Favre", because that Favre had emulated the truth that what matters in the end is not if we fail/fall down, but if and how we get back up. Up until last year, he had emulated that spirit of neither being afraid to lose nor afraid to win which made him so admirable to root for, and so forgiveable when he messed up. And such a spirit was contagious for us fans: We were willing not just to live with the Favre, but also die with the Favre! For sure, many times we may have been disappointed with him for his untimely and inexplicably-boneheaded interceptions which, although not totally, yet still significantly, contributed to the team's defeat (e.g., in EACH and EVERY one of the playoff games he played in after the Holmgren-era, namely, the playoff games against St. Louis, Atlanta, Philly, and New York). BUT we never ever hated him for that. If anything, we felt sorry him, like the sorrow we felt for him seeing the agony on his face after throwing that last interception as a Packer against New York.
...But somehow, someway, Favre has lost it, and I don't mean physically, I mean as a person...I don't hate Favre at all as I keep saying. I actually love the guy, always will. And THAT is why precisely because I care about Favre the person and not just Favre the Packer QB that I want to see that current demon spirit of egocentric, selfish pride and spiteful, unforgiving resentment of Ted Thompson be injured, if not completely dispelled...Because it is utterly self-destructive...Whether he realizes it or not, he is only hurting himself and all those around him who truly do care about him not just as a Packer football player but as a person. (Such a great valued principle which I'd like to think that the Green Bay Packers and its fans emulate more than any other team and fans in the league. Call me old-fashioned, but such is much of what makes the Green Bay Packers so great...That was emulated by Ted in not being willing to bench Rodgers after having promoted him to starter, even if Favre would've been the better qb, which itself is very debatable.)
The more Favre keeps harboring this current attitude, which is causing him to keep making such "stick it to Ted" comments in the public media, the more he will have irreparably tarnished, if not destroyed, both the public image he spent years building up, not to mention the legacy he built as a former Green Bay Packer, a legacy which we could much more easily embrace despite all the playoff ints he threw precisely because of the upstanding public behavior and attiitude he had shown, that is, up until last year and on into the present. Finally, I also fear for him, because after he does finally retire, as he continues to age and more and more look back on his past with more distance and perspective, the more I think he will come to a spirit of regret, of loss, of shame. I care about Favre the person, not just the football player. And if it will take no less than a convincing loss to the Packers to help dispell him of his current self-destructive spirit, then I hope it happens for his sake...so that 20 years from now he isn't left in a heap of depressing regret over how he had so quickly tarnished, if not destroyed, what took 17 years to build up.
I hope his pride is crushed, so that he gets over himself, that destructive "self" he's currently trapped in...(If I may be permitted, in my own particular church speak my hope for him is it "repentance", which I define in terms of contrition over sin and then faith in the forgiveness of sins)...I want to see him defeated so that it leads him to face up to his behavior, to forgive as he's been forgiven, unshackled from such a self-destructive spirit, even if born out of perceived hurt from another, of unforgiving hate and resentment which eats away at a person more and more.....So that by such a change he would be led to again be the old Favre who could honestly and earnestly confess his faults and seek to improve for the better. A simple "I was wrong in my behavior. I'm sorry for it. Please forgive me." is what I hope for Favre's sake. And no doubt, knowing the special breed we Packer fans are, all would be forgiven. All would be IMMEDIATELY forgotten, with nothing but all the positive memories of Favre's career with the Packers remembered and cherished.
And then I can finally put up that Fathead of Favre I bought for my son's room the day after he retired...lol.