Throughout his almost 30-year career in the National Football League, retired quarterback Brett Favre demonstrated an impressive and enduring aptitude at the game.
Inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2016, Favre can say that his performance either broke or matched 11 records before his final season in 2010. Although some of these records aren’t necessarily a cause for celebration — he’s had the most intercepted passes, fumbles, and times sacked of any player’s career — the fact that he’s thrown the most touchdown passes, the most completed passes, and earned “ironman” status by playing 299 consecutive games undoubtedly is.
But while you could say his longevity demonstrates a die hard love for football, his recent statements seem to indicate that politics make it harder for him to watch it now.
During an appearance on *The Andrew Klavan Show*, produced by right-wing media company The Daily Wire, Favre expressed what he and fans he’s encountered feel about the state of football today.
According to USA Today , he said , “I know when I turn on a game, I want to watch a game. I want to watch players play and teams win, lose, come from behind.
“I want to watch all the important parts of the game, not what’s going on outside of the game, and I think the general fan feels the same way. I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, ‘I don’t watch anymore; it’s not about the game anymore.’ And I tend to agree.”
Favre’s comments came days after Major League Baseball decided to move this year’s All-Star Game from Truist Park near Atlanta to Coors Field in Denver.
As The Chicago Sun-Times reported , this was a response to a Georgia bill that was signed into law on March 25 and imposes new limits on voting by mail and increases state control over county election boards.
As we’ve previously discussed , this law goes as far as to criminalize providing food and water to people waiting in line at polling places.
Favre also stated that he thought the enduring decisions by athletes to kneel during the national anthem in protest of systemic racism and police brutality “created more turmoil than good.”
According to USA Today , he was also prompted to discuss what he felt was a “lopsided controversy” between his support of former president Donald Trump last year and public reception towards the kneeling athletes.
As for what was “lopsided” about it, the host framed the matter as Favre’s voting decision being more controversial than their kneeling.
He seemed to close his thoughts on the matter by saying, “It’s really a shame that we’ve come to this.”
As he put it, “Something has to unify us, and I felt like the flag, standing patriotically — because Blacks and whites and Hispanics have fought for this country and died for this country. It’s too bad.”
However, Favre’s statements don’t seem to jibe with how he perceived Colin Kaepernick’s pioneering decision to kneel during the national anthem.
As we discussed last year, he compared the heroic legacy he envisions in Kaepernick’s future to fallen Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman, who was killed in a friendly fire incident after leaving the NFL to join the U.S. Army in the wake of 9/11.
As he said at the time, “It’s not easy for a guy his age — Black or White, Hispanic, whatever — to stop something that you’ve always dreamed of doing, and put it on hold, maybe forever, for something that you believe in.”
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That understanding of the risk of Kaepernick took in his protests seems to demonstrate an awareness that the controversy he discussed on The Andrew Klavan Show wasn’t as lopsided as he suggested.
h/t: USA Today
