by Zach Bigalke

Created on: March 28, 2008

It is now official. Number Four is riding off into the Mississippi sunset, to the land of retirement. As a Packer fan who was ten years old when Brett Favre first took the field in relief of Don Majkowski in 1992, I grew into adulthood as Favre grew into his stature as one of the preeminent quarterbacks of his generation. I rode the incredible crests and sank into the terrible troughs with Favre and his rotating cast of Lambeau warriors throughout the seasons and the games... one after another, steady as a rock. I always KNEW Favre would be on the field come Sunday. And usually, win or lose, I would have several life-changing moments which altered my perception as a sports fan - be they the game-winning bomb down the sideline to a streaking receiver, or the heart-wrenching interception to seal the other team's victory...

I was sitting at the resort's annual Super Bowl party at the general manager's house, waiting for kickoff from New Orleans of Super Bowl XXXI, when the power blinked out. Several from the maintenance and engineering crew went back to the lodge to get a generator. The rest of us watched out the windows as an odd moonlit glow cast shadows and illuminated the fat falling snowflakes. A panic welled up inside me as the minutes ticked away. This could be the one chance in my lifetime I might get to watch the franchise from the smallest market in the National Football League make the Super Bowl. Then the guys returned with a beast of a generator, and a frantic stringing of cords into the house from the generator outside and the firing of diesel fuel commenced. As the television blinked on, casting an eerie glow on the open eyes throughout the room, the ball sailed through the air. I had not missed a minute of the game, catching every minute of the Packers' 35-21 victory over New England.

It was moments like that, where you actually seemed as much in struggle as Favre on the field, which define for me the legacy of the quarterback from Kiln. It might have been the mental hurdles he had to leap the day after his father's death, playing in Oakland on Monday Night Football and leading his Packers to victory with a 399-yard, four touchdown performance; it might have been the game back in November 2003 against Minnesota where, with a broken right (throwing-hand) thumb, he guided Green Bay to a 30-27 victory in the Metrodome by lobbing three touchdowns; or it might have even been his last play, an overtime interception against the New York Giants in the NFC

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