Brett Favre

Football Player

• Born: October 10, 1969
• Place of Birth: Gulfport, Mississippi

SPORT: Football

Early Life

Brett Lorenzo Favre was born in Gulfport, Mississippi on October 10, 1969. His father, Irvin, was a football and baseball coach and a driver’s education teacher at Hancock North Central High School, while his mother, Bonita, was a special education teacher. He also had two brothers, Scott and Jeff, and a sister, Brandi.

In high school, Favre played quarterback and safety, but because of the team’s weak offense, he was not recruited to play quarterback for any Division I-A college football programs. However, the University of Southern Mississippi offered him a scholarship to play defensive back, an offer that he accepted. Working his way up the depth chart, he eventually became the starting quarterback and led Southern Mississippi to two bowl appearances and twenty-nine victories over four years. Despite a major injury between his junior and senior seasons, he was drafted thirty-third overall in the 1991 National Football League (NFL) draft by the Atlanta Falcons. On draft day, he was so little known that he was announced as “quarterback, Brett Fay-verer.”

The Road to Excellence

In 1992, the Falcons traded Favre to the Green Bay Packers for a first-round draft pick. That same year, he brought the Packers within one game of the playoffs and made the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career. At twenty-three years old, he became the youngest quarterback at that time to receive that honor. During the season, he threw 471 passes and connected on 302, while passing for 3,227 yards and eighteen touchdowns. In 1993, the Packers acquired Pro Bowl defensive end Reggie White. He and Favre represented the resurgence of the Packers dynasty.

The Emerging Champion

Favre continued to play well. In 1995, he became only the third 4,000-yard passer in team history. He finished the season with an NFL best of 4,413 passing yards and became the first player in team history to post four 3,000-yard seasons. He led the National Football Conference (NFC) with a 99.5 passer rating and threw three or more touchdown passes in a game on seven occasions. He started in the Pro Bowl and was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). He led the Packers to the NFC Central Division championship with a record of 11–5.

After three straight losses in the NFC Championship game, Favre finally led the Packers to the Super Bowl. A 30–13 victory over the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Championship game brought Favre and the Packers to Super Bowl XXXI. At the Louisiana Superdome, Favre led the Packers to a 35–21 victory over the New England Patriots, giving him his first Super Bowl championship.

In 1996, when he threw thirty-nine touchdown passes, Favre set NFC and Green Bay records for most touchdown passes in a season for the second straight year; his total was the third highest in a single NFL season at that time. He also threw for an NFC-best 3,899 yards and ranked highest in fourth quarter passing, 96.2, and third-down passing, 93.6. He also rushed for 136 yards and two touchdowns. He was voted into the Pro Bowl as a starting quarterback and was voted the NFL’s Most Valuable Player for the second time.

Prior to the 1996 season, Favre revealed that he had become addicted to painkillers, which he had been using for his many injuries. He spent forty-six days in the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, for drug and alcohol treatment. Through sheer will and determination, as well as the help of medical professionals, he was able to overcome this problem.

Continuing the Story

After that, Favre signed a $47.25 million, seven-year contract with the Packers. His 108 touchdowns from 1997 to 2000 led all NFL quarterbacks during that time span. He threw for 3,000 or more yards in eighteen consecutive seasons. He started 297 consecutive regular-season games, the longest streak for a quarterback in league history.

In 1997, Favre led the NFL with thirty-five touchdown passes and finished third in the NFL’s quarterback ratings with a mark of 92.6. He was named co-MVP of the NFL with running back Barry Sanders of the Detroit Lions. Once again, the Packers won the NFC Championship game, defeating the San Francisco 49ers 23–10. This led to a second straight Super Bowl appearance, but Favre could not lead the Packers to victory, and the team was defeated by the Denver Broncos, 31–24, in Super Bowl XXXII.

The Packers did not win another Super Bowl with Favre as quarterback. Some of his supporting cast retired or moved on, and his coach soon left for the Seattle Seahawks. It seemed as if everything was changing in Green Bay, except for Favre. Although the Packers did not win another Super Bowl under his guidance, Green Bay fans lived on the edge of their seats on Sundays. However, “America’s quarterback” was far from done when it came to winning football games.

In December 2003, Favre lost his father, who suffered a heart attack at the age of fifty-eight. The day after “Big Irv” died, Favre defeated the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football in a game that NFL fans will never forget.

Favre married his high school sweetheart, Deanna Tynes, and had two daughters, Brittany and Breleigh. In March 2008, he officially retired. He and his family adjourned to their 465-acre ranch in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. However, he was not ready to quit and returned to the NFL in the 2008 season, playing for the New York Jets. He led the Jets to a 9–7 record, but their failure to reach the playoffs was a disappointment. In February 2009, Favre again announced his retirement. Nevertheless, he returned for two additional seasons with the Minnesota Vikings. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016. In early 2021, he launched a podcast with Eric Bolling, a political commentator, titled Bolling with Favre through the network PodcastOne; in its first months, Favre discussed topics that included everything from sports, such as transgender athletes in the Olympics, to societal issues such as the trial of Derek Chauvin, who was convicted in April on murder charges in the case of the 2020 death of George Floyd in police custody.

Favre did not have a completely uneventful retirement. Favre became involved in an embezzlement and public corruption scandal tied to the Mississippi government following an audit of the state's Department of Human Resources that began in 2020. That year, it was reported that he had been required to return money when auditors determined that he had received a significant sum of misappropriated state welfare funds for speaking events that did not occur. After he had repaid $500,000 in 2020 and another $600,000 by 2021 while claiming that he had not been made aware of the source of the funds, he was then sued for almost $230,000 in interest. By 2022 it had been established that these and additional funds, totaling approximately $5 million, had been allocated accordingly following his request for financial support to construct a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi. That year, a civil court case regarding the overarching funds scandal included the presentation of text messages sent and received between Favre and both government and nonprofit officials. While some advocated for his removal from the Hall of Fame based on the case, and some of his podcasts and radio shows were subsequently suspended, Favre, who had not been criminally charged, continued to argue his innocence, stating that he would not have accepted funds had he known they were meant for state welfare.

Although Favre was caught up in controversy in the 2020s, he also continued his charitable work through his Brett Favre Forward Foundation, which raised money for children with disabilities in Mississippi and Wisconsin. He partnered with a concussion treatment startup to promote awareness of the dangers of football, although these companies would also be caught up in the welfare case. Favre also publicly urged parents not to let their children under the age of fourteen participate in full-tackle football. Although his reputation was slightly marred in the 2020s, Favre remained one of the most successful NFL quarterbacks and was popular in public opinion, often sharing his personal life on social media. 

Summary

Brett Favre stands among the greatest quarterbacks of all time. His accurate passing and powerful arm not only led him to personal greatness, with three MVP awards but also led the Green Bay Packers to team greatness in two Super Bowl appearances and one championship. He was an eleven-time Pro Bowler and set the NFL records for most touchdown passes, most career completions, most career attempts, most regular season wins by a quarterback and most consecutive 3,000-yard passing seasons.

Bibliography

Ahmed, Saeed. “Football Legend Brett Favre Says Kids Shouldn't Play Tackle Football Until They're 14.” NPR, 17 Aug. 2021, www.npr.org/2021/08/17/1028547803/brett-favre-kids-football-14-cte. Accessed 9 June 2024.

Cameron, Steve. Brett Favre: Huck Finn Grows Up. Kalamazoo: Masters, 1997.

Carlson, Chuck, and Vernon J. Biever. Brett Favre, QB. Kalamazoo: Masters, 1996.

Carlson, Chuck, and Vernon J. Biever. Celebrating the Legend of Brett Favre: America’s Quarterback. Chicago: Triumph, 2007.

Fainaru-Wada, Mark. “Review Shows Favre-Backed Drug Companies Overstated Benefits, Connections.” ESPN, 8 Nov. 2022, www.espn.com/nfl/story/‗/id/34971744/review-shows-favre-backed-drug-companies-overstated-benefits-connections. Accessed 9 June 2024.

Favre, Brett, and Chris Havel. Favre: For the Record. New York: Doubleday, 1997.

Kertscher, Tom. Brett Favre: A Packer Fan’s Tribute. Rev. ed. Nashville: Cumberland, 2007.

Levenson, Eric, and Dianne Gallagher. "What We Know about Brett Favre and the Mississippi Welfare Scandal." CNN, 22 Oct. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/10/22/us/favre-mississippi-welfare-explainer. Accessed 9 June 2024.

McHale, Mark. Ten to Four: Brett Favre’s Journey from Rotten Bayou to the Top of the NFL. Macon: Indigo, 2007.

Pearlman, Jeff. Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre. New York: Houghton, 2016.

Steinberg, Brian. "Eric Bolling, Brett Favre, Robert Horry Aim to Launch Podcasts via PodcastOne." Variety, 5 January 2021, variety.com/2021/digital/news/eric-bolling-brett-favre-robert-horry-postcast-one-1234879032. Accessed 9 June 2024.