Before getting to the main event, a quick administrative note. I have two events in San Diego today. At 11:30am I will have a booth at an event put on by Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. Hugh Hewitt will be there as well. At 8pm at night, I will be speaking to the UCSD College Republicans. After 4 cities in 4 days, I get to relax for a bit. A little bit anyway.
Speaking of 4, the main event today is about # 4. Some know him as the Iron Man. His real name is Brett Favre, the Minnesota Vikings Quarterback.
Yet today is not about football. My Sunday NFL Recap was updated to reflect the Vikings defeating the Packers 30-23 on Monday Night Football.
Today is a celebration of the human spirit. Football is just the backdrop.
Brett Favre began playing football in 1991. He joined a losing Green Bay Packers Franchise, won a Super Bowl in 1996, and reached another one in 1997. From 1995-1997 he was the NFL MVP three straight years, the only player to have ever achieved this. He holds the all time NFL record for touchdown passes and yardage thrown. As of October 5, 2009, he became the only player in NFL history to defeat all 32 NFL teams.
Yet in his later years as a player, he became known for offseason drama. He did not get in trouble with the law, disgrace his family, or disrespect football. He simply took forever every offseason to decide whether or not to retire. Every year his body was one year older, had more wear and tear, and his mind and heart would battle it out with his body to see if he could still play.
In 2005, he was introduced with the song “Forever Man” by Eric Clapton playing in the background. The television screen showed his image with the caption “4-Ever Man” after his jersey number. Yet that year the team went 4-12. What made this amazing was that it was his first losing season, and he had been in the league 15 years! He decided not to retire, saying he could not leave the team in shambles.
In 2006, after a 4-8 start, he willed a team light on talent to 4 straight wins and an 8-8 season. Then the annual Favre retirement watch reached a fever pitched matched only by Punxatawney Phil on Groundhog Day.
He went to his farm in Kiln, Mississippi, which had been devastated a few months earlier by Hurricane Katrina, and sat on his tractor. He mulled, and pontificated. He kept the entire team and Green bay management waiting. Finally, in June, 4 months after the Super Bowl ended, and just before the start of preparation for the following year, he announced that he was coming back.
All he did in 2007 was lead the Packers to a 13-3 record, and one game short of the Super Bowl when they lost at home in overtime to the eventual champion New York Giants. Yet despite the success on the field, management was tired of the annual guessing game. Coach Mike McCarthy and President Ted Thompson were relatively new to the organization, and they wanted to put their own stamp on a franchise that was doing just fine without them. They pressured Favre to make a quick decision on his future after the 2007 season ended. In March, Favre announced his retirement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kACbVGsWN74
Within days, he already regretted his decision.
He tried to unretire, but the Packers no longer wanted him. 16 years, and they wanted to move on. Yes, football is a business, but he as a player had accomplished success. Management had not. He was told he could compete for the starting job, but would not automatically have it handed to him. He left and went to play for the New york Jets.
In 2008, the Jets began 8-3, but faded down the stretch, finishing 9-7 and finishing the playoffs. Favre received much of the blame, as his arm wore down as the team did. He again retired. Again, he could not stay retired. From the moment he announced his retirement, he agonized. Not even a presidential race could lead the news in Green Bay, where Favre was tossed aside, and archrival Minnesota, which wanted him to play. After announcing on July 26th that his retirement was “final,” 4 days later on July 30th, he unretired and came back AGAIN.
On October 5th, 2009, on Monday Nigh5t Football, the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Green Bay Packers 30-23. Favre was magnificent. This was only one week after Favre threw a miracle touchdown to win a game on the final play. The Vikings are 4-0.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un3B7Og-FS0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBDOxvYHgxI
So for those who do not care about football, why does this matter? Why should a plumber, a carpenter, or a homemaker care about Brett Favre?
Because, again, this is not about football. It is about something that will affect every human being at some time in their lives, if they are lucky. It is about being considered “too old,” in a nation that puts people out to pasture as if they were horses going to the glue factory.
America is a beautiful nation on so many levels, but it is also a nation obsessed with youth and beauty and sexiness. Old people are targeted the least by advertisers, despite the fact that they have most of the money.
While Brett Favre, at age 40, is hardly old enough for an AARP card, in the world of professional sports he is old. Yet old cannot, and should not, be seen as uselessness. Old people should be revered, not passed over. Outside of giving them the front seat on buses, old people are relegated to the back of the bus in most aspect of life. In business they get a gold watch, and if they are truly lucky, a golden parachute. What they do not get is to keep working.
Some people like my parents wanted to retire early, and at 55 and 52, they did. Yet this was voluntary. My Grandfather, while “retired,” ran a Synagogue until his health at 91 forced him into the hospital. He still lived another 6 years, constantly telling me in our weekly phone call that he had things to do. EVery day spent in the hospital was a day he could not attend a meeting.
My other grandfather may have been less ambitious in his later years, but he enjoyed sitting outside with his friends. At age 100, a brutally cold New York winter forced him to stay inside. He rapidly declined due to dementia. Yes, he was 100, but the decline was mainly due to the fact that he went “stir crazy.” He had nothing to do.
My grandmother also lived to 100, and she cooked for me until she was 94. The day before her death, her appointment book had her “to do” list. She was busy.; I am sure she had a hair appointment.She had financial matters to handle with her CPA.
People need dignity. Taking away dignity is like taking away oxygen.
Who are we to tell corporate CEOs to take mandatory retirement? If Sumner Redstone can still run a company at 90, then let him. Don Pardo is 91, and he flies every Thursday from Phoenix to New York to be the opening introductory voice of Saturday Night Live.
Bob Dole and John McCain were told that they were too old to be President. They were younger than Nelson Mandela.
While America is a charitable nation of charitable people, we should not confuse respect for the elderly with charity. Most reasonable people would agree that if a heart surgeon is 90 years old and shaking from arthritis, he should no longer be holding the scalpel. Yet as long as somebody can continue to do their job, we should let them. More importantly, we should encourage them.
Youth is overrated and experience is underrated.
I take the Favre situation personally because I am in a very similar situation.
I am 37 years old. I play in a coed touch football league. Even though it is not tackle, it is still strenuous. I am one of the older players (the league caps out at 40), and while I am certainly not the star of the team, I am a role player. I am productive. I contribute.
I played this season with an injured foot. Yet I toughed it out, and after we won the championship, I retired after the season. A few days later, I was already waffling.
Just before the deadline to finalize my decision, I reversed myself. The season starts October 10th, and I am playing. I love football.
Whether it is Michael Jordan in basketball, Wayne Gretzky in hockey, or a corporate CEO that does not want a parachute of any kind, people should be able to contribute to society, not be sent to the glue factory.
The youth can wait their turn. The experienced people deserve their due.
Because I refused to retire from the game I love, I now have as many championships as Brett Favre.
When I walk away, it will be on my terms. My body may not be fully intact, but my mind and heart will be.
Keep playing Brett.
Well done # 4.
eric
Its really bad in the restaurant business.
Just to kill some of the spare time I have and bring in a little supplement I tried applying as a simple waiter at a few mediocre steak houses. With age comes experience. Once they see my background and education the excuse they give me is that I’m over qualified and should be shooting for managment instead. They dont get it. I dont want all that hassle anymore. Besides, a good waiter can work half the hours and make just as much as any manager on a salary.
When you look at the staff they hire these days they’re all a bunch of mindless kids who dont have the social graces to make a truly good waiter. They’re just little robots programed to tell you what the specials are and be able to operate a terminal. In my experiences hiring this bracket (because human resources dictates it) has always been a nightmare for various reasons that come with youth, but for the sake of atmosphere these restaurants these days think the trade off is worth it.
I’ll take a well seasoned old Italian fart serving me my Ciopino anyday over the automated franchised college buffoons we see today.
I think alot of it also has to do with liabilities.
Old people get hurt more easely, come with more disbilities, were a sue happy society today that puts a level of fear on any company with an insurance policy
Ah, good ol’ CALA, Phillip Morris’ little plaything. Talk about “astroturf”: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_Against_Lawsuit_Abuse
If there’s one thing conservatives will always fight against with every fiber of their beings – and that’s our civil rights.
Actually, Favre did have his share of turmoil early in his career. Back in ’96 it came out that he’d been addicted to painkillers for a couple of years when he suffered a seizure. There were also stories of heavy drinking. But he managed to turn it all around to still have a great Hall of Fame career. Good for him.
JMJ
“If there’s one thing conservatives will always fight against with every fiber of their beings – and that’s our civil rights.”
As we fight this administration for trying to tell us via healthcare what to do with our bodies, rampant taxation of our private property and monies, as we are fighting liberal environmentlism that dictates what we eat, where we live, what we live in, our thermostats,what we drive, how we maintain our own property, how many children we can have etc…
Its a crock of sht to say we dont fight for civil rights
LOL! Oh no! The government wants to offer me afforadable healthcare!!! Oh what, oh what shall I do??? And they want to keep the environment clean! AAAAAAA!!!!! Oh, the horror!!!
Meanwhile, it is BECAUSE we have such regressive national and state taxation that your LOCAL governments have to raise revenues with your property. I think it’s DISGUSTING. But that’s what you guys wanted, and that’s what we all now have.
There’s not a conservative alive who fights for any civil right other than the right to sell guns to criminals.
JMJ
“Oh no! The government wants to offer me afforadable healthcare!!! ”
The only problem is that you cant use “affordable” and “government” in the same sentence and be taken seriously.
Besides, the point is that government mandated insurance will dictate that all pay for something the majority has clearly stated it doesnt want.
It will be the largest unvoluntary transference of wealth ever in our history.
All for 37 illion, most of whom dont qualify, are illegal, or dont want it by choice.
“Meanwhile, it is BECAUSE we have such regressive national and state taxation that your LOCAL governments have to raise revenues with your property.”
Nice try but I was talking about environmental regulations.
“There’s not a conservative alive who fights for any civil right other than the right to sell guns to criminals. ”
read the previous post.
Those are factual examples.
Your blubbery bluster means nothing just because you “say so”
“And they want to keep the environment clean! ”
At the expense of our rights just so they can advance a socialist agenda. It has little to do with a clean earth and more to do with collectivism and socialist dictates that will create your little eutopia
Eric
I am getting machine language when I try to click on your blog from my bookmark? It’s weird I can only click on your last Blog entry?
tephen Colbert Mr President The Taliban Just Isn’t That Into You.
http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/10/stephen-colbert-mr-president-talibans.html
Incredibly Lara Logan- who appeared on the Colbert Report, click on the link to watch the videos. Logan who is in the know, has a different take on Afghanistan than Bob Scheiffer CBS News. Imus interviewed Schieffer this morning and discussed The Presidents decision making per the Afghanistan War.
Imus improved on “Money For Breakfast” numbers he is in their old time slot he improved numbers by 15 hundred percent.
“There’s not a conservative alive who fights for any civil right other than the right to sell guns to criminals.”
I beg to differ, sir. Luara Bush very clearly endorsed the opening of the Texas Regional Office of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is tied to the Amber Alert program.
Now, if you’re saying that conservatives are into refusing “… our civil rights.”, are you including Mrs. Bush’s views on kidnapping of children? Because I never thought that was a bad thing. But then again, who are we to “infringe” upon the rights of murderers and child rapists?
It kinda sounds like the right to life. Or has that been taken of the civil rights list?