A Packer fan eating at Fat Lorenzo's told me that it's never been hard to be a Packer fan living in MN until this year. I'm going to agree with that, and yet I still invited 14 Vikings fans into our living room to watch the Vikings/Saints game yesterday. Luckily the game turned out in my favor, but something happened that I wasn't expecting during this Viking/Packer fan interaction; I actually started to feel bad for them. Never in my life have I felt remorse for a Viking fan and their cursed team. I've dated two Vikings fans in life and now am marrying one of them, but I have never even considered feeling sad when the Vikings lose.
Although, when all is said and done, all the respect I lost for Brett Favre is now restored. He looked like the only Viking that WANTED to win last night.
As a Packer fan in this foreign land, many people have taunted me, mocked me and questioned me about Favre leaving the Holy Land for Minnesota. I tell them I am a Packer fan, not a Favre fan. I am loyal to the decision made by my team and now my quarterback is Rogers. I'm proud to say that. As far as Favre goes, I've grown up watching him love the game of football and that is what I most respected about him. For him, it was always about the love of the game, not about the money or breaking records. However, watching his drama play out through the media and skipping out of training camp with the Vikes, I was so disheartened as I realized, "This might be just for the show." I watched him this year bitter as ever, feeling betrayed not because he started playing for the Vikings, but that the very thing I've loved and respected him for my whole life was gone; his heart for football.
Although Brett, as a loyal Packer fan to a former Packer, after last night I saw your passion come back. I watched you carry a team that didn't want it bad enough, that didn't have enough motivation or who just questioned themselves too much, but I watched you still almost carry them to a victory single handedly. Thank you Brett for great display of football last night...even if it's for the rivaled team.
As for the rest of you Vikings players and for the MN fans, you will never make it to a Super Bowl if you don't believe that you can. It's not about the $11 million dollar quarterback or the loudest stadium in the NFL, it's about the passion for the game.
