Favre's twilight wasn't the right story for me
Saturday, August 13, 2005 at 5:59AM ■"As crowds adore him, Favre yearns for quiet: fishbowl life, publicized tragedies push Packers' iconic quarterback toward quest for solitude," by Larry Weisman, USA Today, 12 August 2005, p. 2A.
Brett on page one of the sports section today, in a story that reveals both his reticence on talking to the press and the difficulty of doing a profile on him. It's clear that the reporter got an interview with him, although it's not clear it was an exclusive or whether he was just pulling quotes from the mandatory weekly press appearance. Wife Deanna spoke by phone in the piece. That's about all you're going to get this year from the man: discussions of the end and not the you-are-there capture I was hoping for in the piece.
The piece ended up being pretty melancholy, with Favre describing how he tints the windows of his pickup and never pulls up evenly with anyone at a stoplight, lest he be recognized. References to Garbo and seclusion abound in the piece, as does the inevitable mention of first-round-draft-pick-and-heir-apparent Aaron Rodgers.
In the end, I simply wouldn't want to feel like I was imposing on that quest for quiet as the man tries to enjoy his final season peacefully, ending on a note that doesn't involve a member of his family dying or coming close to it-like his wife's cancer of last year.
I remember my profound sense of burnout after our long battle with our first-born's cancer roughly a decade ago. I remember wanting boredom and slowness and a sense of nothing happening so I could simply reconnect to what I had previously enjoyed in life. I hope Brett gets that this year, and then I hope he retires and does what makes him feel best in coming years.
And then I hope Aaron Rodgers is a good pick.
Hmmm, maybe a week-in-the-life-of-the-first-round-pick-replacing-the-irreplaceable-legend-at-Lambeau piece would make sense next year.
Hmmm, hard to say what I'll be up to next year. Warren's next grand scheme for me at Esquire is the most fantastic yet (after we finish the China piece we keep nurturing). But my hide should be plenty thick following BFA's release, so I look forward to making his next improbable piece spring into life.
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