GREEN BAY, Wis. — It doesn’t take but five minutes to get from Lambeau Field to this city’s second-biggest tourist destination. A stadium security guard quickly ticks off the directions, as if it’s something he believes everyone should already know.
“Take Lombardi Avenue to Holmgren Way,” he says. “Make a right, then a left on Brett Favre Pass. Can’t miss it.”
He isn’t kidding. Brett Favre’s Steakhouse really should be called Brett Favre’s Steak Hangar, with its almost 20,000 square feet of space devoted to all things Favre.
Though there’s room for tour buses during the week, the place doesn’t take reservations on football weekends. A host at the restaurant tells a guest that if she wants to avoid a long line, she should get there by 4:30 Saturday evening, the night before the Packers’ NFC Championship Game against the Giants.
But you don’t have to sit down to a big plate of beef to immerse yourself in all things Favre. The Green Bay quarterback is everywhere in this part of Wisconsin: Gift shops sell Brett Favre Christmas ornaments, sporting good stores have an entire department for his apparel and one resident of nearby Appleton even has a lawn ornament of Favre dropping back to pass in his front yard.
“Brett’s basically the president of the state of Wisconsin because everybody here loves him so much,” said wide receiver Donald Driver, who has caught Favre’s passes for nine seasons. “You always think what happens if anything ever happened to this guy. The town would shut down. Nothing would move.”
Life without Favre was something Packers fans had to contemplate before this season, which is a large part of what is making this year’s run to the NFC Championship Game so sweet for them.
When the 38-year-old Favre decided once again not to retire during the summer, not all Packers fans were rejoicing. More than a few thought it might be time for the team to take the painful step and move on. Many thought the best they could hope for would be that he would have a good enough year not to tarnish his record.
Instead, in his 17th season, he is polishing his legend in a way that no one thought possible.
After two seasons of struggles, Favre is closer to the Super Bowl than he’s been in 11 years. He’s thrown for 28 touchdowns and 4,155 yards. He’s gotten big support from his young teammates, including former Giants running back Ryan Grant.
Yes, Favre’s knees creak when he gets up in the morning and yes, there is a hint of gray in his ever-present two-day stubble, but on the field, he looks younger than he has in years. And perhaps that’s because he is as surprised as anyone that the team has come together this season, come together in time for him to enjoy what could be one last ride.
“I’m not going to say that I never thought it would happen … I knew it could happen,” Favre said of the team’s rebuilding process. “The question is whether I could last.”
That’s not a question Favre’s younger teammates — many of whom grew up watching him — ever contemplated. “I’ll probably be done before Brett is,” says cornerback Jarrett Bush, who is 15 years younger than Favre.
Indeed, it’s difficult to come up with a big-time player who has been around longer and who has meant more to a city and its identity than Favre has to Green Bay. Sure, Michael Jordan won six championships for Chicago, but the Windy City isn’t quite the one-show town that Green Bay is.
Driver says it’s impossible to escape the Favre legend anywhere in town.
“Every time you go places, you see people and they say, Is Brett your friend?’ and Do you know Brett?’ ” Driver said. “Everybody loves him.”
When he first came to Green Bay, no one could pronounce his last name. Now it rolls off most people’s tongues so frequently that you might think there’s nothing else to talk about. Part of Favre’s appeal in this small town is that he seems like a close friend or a brother. He seems so accessible, so human.
On the field he may be Superman, but off it, he is a walking People magazine story, a guy with more ups and downs than the rest of the NFL’s starting quarterbacks combined.
Favre had his first child out of wedlock, went to rehab for an addiction to Vicodin, had a cameo in a very cool movie, went to rehab again for drinking too much, played one of the finest games of his career the day after his father died, had his brother-in-law die in an ATV accident on property he owned, and had a house destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. Oh, and did we mention that his wife, Deanna, wrote a best-selling book about surviving breast cancer?
Some of Favre’s younger teammates admit they were a little intimidated by his larger-than-life persona when they first met him.
“When you first find out you’re going to be playing with Brett Favre, you think it’s going to be impossible to talk to him,” Packers guard Daryn Colledge says. “You think he’s going to be such a superstar, but he’s really not. If you didn’t know who he was, you would never think he was this legend.”
Grant, who was traded to the Packers by the Giants this season, said it is an incredible feeling to be in the huddle with a player who is destined for the Hall of Fame.”
“After a game, maybe after a pass, I am thinking, ‘Wow, I am playing with Brett Favre,’ and that’s really special,” Grant said.
There’s not much that Favre hasn’t done. He owns records for wins (160), touchdown passes (442), passing yards (61,655) and completions (5,377).
But there is one thing left. Favre has a chance to join John Elway as the only quarterback older than 37 to play in a Super Bowl. Elway was 38 years and seven months when the Broncos defeated the Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII. Favre, whose birthday is Oct. 10, would be 38 and nearly four months.
Said Favre: “Before my career is over, I want to experience success one more time.”
The Green Bay fans wouldn’t mind it, either.
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