Thursday, September 14, 2006

Brett Favre can't hurt you anymore.

It's all over. Nothing more to fear. The worst nemesis in Chicago Sports history is done. Brett Favre shouldn't be feared any longer.

All sports teams need rivals. It happens naturally. One team plays another. You cheer for your team, boo their opponents. Loyalties are based, mainly, on location. If you are from Chicago, or the area, the Bears become your team. If you play a team every year, competing for a Divisional Championship, the rivalry grows.

Sports have been in Chicago a long time. We have two baseball teams, a hockey team, basketball and football. In all that time, none of those teams has had an enemy like Brett Favre.

Isiah and the Pistons were tough, but the Bulls broke them over their legs and went on to much greater heights. We even adopted Dennis Rodman as our own for awhile. Reggis Miller? Maybe, but only for one year, in one series. The Knicks? Please.

The Cubs have the Cards, and previously the Mets, but the Cubs have never been serious contenders for anything. No single team, or man, has ever stood between them and glory. Usually, it's just themselves.

The Sox biggest rival is the Cubs, a team that's not even in their league.
Also, divisional realignment has changed their yearly rivalries. The winning of The World Series last year washed away so many bad memories. On their way to the top they didn't have to face anyone or any team that had historically bested them. There is no Yankees to their Red Sox. Go White Sox!

Hockey, well, no one
really pays attention to the Blackhawks. If they do, then I assume their public enemy #1 is the owner himself.

The Bears greatest rival is the Packers. We play them twice a year and have been for nearly a hundred years. And, we are a Bears town. Even when the Bulls were collecting championships they had to fight for headlines with Dave Wanndstedt. Kevin Butler of the '85 Superbowl Championship team still does commercials here. You ever hear a Judd Buchler commercial? Nope, it's all about the Bears here.

And the Bears hate the Packers.

Brett Favre is Green Bays quarterback. He has been for 211 straight games.

We hate Brett Favre. Here's some number to illustrate why.

Brett Favre first start was on Sept. 20, 1992. He hasn't missed one since.

Games versus Bears, by season.
'92 1-1 CH W in GB.
'93 0-2
'94 0-2 CH beaten in season series by a total score of, 73-9.
'95 0-2
'96 0-2
'97 0-2
'98 0-2
'99 1-1 CH W in GB by blocked FG. Nov. 1, Payton passes
'00 1-1 CH W in GB.
'01 0-2 CH swept by GB despite going 13-3 and winning division.
'02 0-2
'03 0-2
'04 1-1 CH W in GB.
'05 2-0 CH first season sweep of Packer since '91, the freakin' year I graduated high school.
'06 1-0
Total 32 games played, 9 Bears wins, 22 Bears losses.

We didn't win in Green bay from 10/25/92 till 11/7/99. That streak was broken just days after Walter Payton had passed away. Emotionally, the greatest game I've ever watched.

Brett Favre had a 13 game winning streak in Soldier Field. I went through my twenties never seeing the Bears beat the Packers in Chicago. This guy made it a yearly ritual to come to Chicago and beat our butts in. Virtually every Packers game during my six years in college was misery. Highlighted by a Halloween smack down in '94 that still haunts me.

This past Sunday, the Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers, in Green Bay, 26-0. That's right!! 26 to Nothing!

It is the first time Brett Favre has ever been shutout in his NFl career. It is the ONLY time Brett Favre has been shutout in his life. Brett Favre has played in more straight games at the quarterback position then anyone else in the history of the NFL. He had our number like no one ever has. But we beat him in his last home opener, cause this year is it for him.

Yeah, he was a great QB. First ballot Hall-of-Famer. I always thought he was a bit of a frontrunner. Sure, he won a Superbowl, but when he ran into a team that punched back the next year, he blew it.
He should have retired two years ago when everyone loved him. Now, everyone is just sick of him. He's proving to be a bad teammate, selfish and unwilling to change. Unwilling to help a bad team move on without him.

Enjoy the next 16 weeks, Brett.