Best Game I Ever Saw

A highly respected play by play announcer, Al Michael’s was quoted during the game saying, “You bring this script to the studio, and they throw it out, I mean this is like fantasy”.  On December 21^st, 2003 Brett Favre’s father, mentor, and closest friend in life died of a heart attack.  His Packers had a game on one of the biggest stages in football, which is Monday Night, the very next day.  Nobody thought Brett would be able to play, but Brett said it took him only 5 minutes to decide he wanted to play.

Coming into the game nobody knew what to expect.  The only thing people could imagine was that Brett would have a hard time running an NFL offense under these circumstances.  The thing I will never forget as a fan watching from my couch was Brett running through the tunnel as he was announced, slapping all of his teammate’s hands.  Every hair on my body was standing up.  The fact that he was there for his teammates in a time like this was amazing to me.

Favre started the game 6 for 6 with two touchdowns against the Oakland Raiders that night.  Touchdown pass after touchdown pass, it just seemed like tonight was going to be his night.  The score was 31-7 at the end of the half.  Favre was 22/30 with 399 yards passing, four touchdowns and zero interceptions.  In a game where the Packers needed a win to keep its playoff hopes alive, Favre had a perfect night.  The final score was 41-7.  People involved with the game felt that if it was a close game Brett would have had a couple more touchdown throws.  A side story in all of this was the Oakland crowd.  Oakland fans are known to be the most brutal, in your face fans in all of football.  On this night they were clapping and cheering for Favre after every score.  Something that I don’t think will happen for an opposing player ever again.  Nobody would have thought that only a day after his father passing away, he would be able to have one of his greatest games, in Oakland, on Monday Night Football.  

Sometimes a game is much more than just a game.  For Brett, who knows how much he was thinking about the actual game.  He just wanted to make his father proud of the way he played, and I think he did that.  It was almost like he wasn’t upset at all during the game, like those three hours kept him from grieving about his loss. After the game was final, he was hunched over at his locker with both palms on his forehead, crying his eyes out.  This was the best game I ever saw.