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Brett Favre: Not your average NFL Hall of Famer
Three-time NFL MVP Brett Favre will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame Saturday. USA TODAY Sports

Brett Favre: Not your average NFL Hall of Famer

This weekend, Brett Favre takes his place among the greatest quarterbacks who ever lived when he is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. When Favre retired in 2010, he was the NFL's all-time leader in passing yards, touchdown passes, completions and attempts while winning three consecutive MVP awards and a Super Bowl title.

So how did some kid with the weird last name from Kiln, Miss., do all of this? By simply being Brett Favre.

Unlike Peyton Manning, Favre wasn't a can't-miss prospect coming into the NFL. He didn't come from a history-rich program like Tom Brady did at Michigan. No, Favre attended Southern Mississippi and turned a spot deep on the depth chart into being selected in the second round of the 1991 NFL Draft. He famously got his first shot at Southern Miss as a freshman by entering a game hung over and vomiting, yet still leading the Golden Eagles to a comeback victory over Tulane. Perhaps it was there that he legend began to form.

Before his senior season, Favre was involved in a serious car accident that caused the removal of 2.5 feet of his small intestine. Two months later, he led Southern Miss to an improbable victory over a ranked Alabama team.

The Atlanta Falcons selected Favre with their second-round pick in 1991 (quarterbacks Dan McGwire — brother of MLB slugger Mark McGwire — and Todd Marinovich went ahead of him). Then Falcons head coach Jerry Glanville, running the fun-and-gun, didn't really care for Favre and kept him at third string behind Chris Miller and Billy Joe Tolliver. Favre's first career pass attempt was intercepted for a pick-six. His other four snaps resulted in zero completions, another interception and a sack for an 11-yard loss.

Destined for the pine in Atlanta, Favre was dealt to the Green Bay Packers for a first-round pick that offseason, and the real legend was born. When incumbent starter Don Majkowski was benched against the Buccaneers, Favre's first pass as a Packer was completed… to himself. The next week, an injury to Majkowski forced Favre into a game against the Bengals. Despite bumbling around for most of the game, he drove the Packers 92 yards in the closing minutes to beat Cincinnati, 24-23. With Majkowski out, the next week Favre made the first of an NFL-record 297 consecutive starts.

You must understand that the Green Bay Packers were pretty much a bad franchise when Favre arrived. While we all are aware of the great history of the franchise, the team had fallen on hard times since Vince Lombardi left after the 1967 season. In the 24 years before Favre arrived, the Packers had just five winning seasons and two playoff appearances. Beginning in Favre's second season in Green Bay, the Packers would go on to six consecutive playoff appearances, winning two NFC Championships along with Super Bowl XXXI. Green Bay also played in 11 postseasons during Favre's 16 years there.

There were endorsements, commercials and the image of the gunslingin' quarterback who was willing to do anything to win. He was one of the most popular players in sports, which led to that awkward cameo in 1998's There's Something About Mary, in which he played himself.

It wasn't all sunny, though. During his Super Bowl run, Favre developed an addiction to painkillers. The Super Bowl championship season of 1996 saw the famed quarterback enter himself into rehab. He even had a life-threatening seizure due to his addictions, something we've come to learn many football players deal with to handle the physical toll the game takes on the body. Favre also admits to suffering multiple concussions over the years forcing some memory loss. There were plays he couldn't even remember making just after games.

However, the MVP wouldn't let his addiction or injuries hold him back nor prevent him from expanding on his memorable moments, many of which came amid trying times in his personal life.

There was the epic Monday Night Football game in which Favre, just one day after his father died of a heart attack, threw four first-half touchdowns and 399 yards against the Oakland Raiders. In 2004, his wife developed breast cancer. The year after that, Hurricane Katrina damaged his house and destroyed his family's home in southern Mississippi.

While his greatness is unquestioned, his gunslinging nature also cost his teams some important games, including ill-timed picks in two separate NFC Championship Games, and he ended up as the all-time leader in interceptions thrown. And with that negative aspect of his game also came other controversies in the twilight of his career.

There was, of course, the seemingly never-ending retirement talk and his exit from Green Bay. What went from a tearful press conference and the usual good-bye of a player turned into an awkward situation where one party had moved on but the other seemingly hadn't. While the Packers franchise was all-in on Aaron Rodgers as the future of the team, Favre wanted to come back, and the fans wanted him as well. The Packers moved on, yet wouldn't release Favre, and it turned into a nasty battle. Eventually, he was traded to New York Jets.

His lone season with the Jets started well, but poor play by Favre in the final month of the season knocked New York out of the playoff race. The Jets were fined for not revealing that Favre apparently had a torn tendon in his throwing shoulder, which was at least partially the cause for his poor play.

He also was involved in a sexting scandal while in New York with Jets reporter Jenn Sterger, an embarrassing moment for the married quarterback. After that, Favre decided to retire after the season, with the Jets releasing him. Or at least we thought he retired. As we all know, Favre unretired and signed with the Minnesota Vikings, the team Favre was trying to get to when he originally "retired" from Green Bay.

In Minnesota, he had a throwback season in 2009, leading the Vikings to the NFC title game. In true-Favre like fashion, however, he threw a key interception in overtime in the loss to the Saints. A sprained shoulder in 2010 ended Favre's consecutive starts streak. A concussion suffered in Week 16 caused him to miss the final game of his career.

Favre's legacy is messy. He will be beloved for the way he played the game. His willingness to sacrifice his body and the consequences of failure in order to make a play are paramount. He helped resurrect a sad-sacked franchise and place it back among the greatest in sports, and he reached a level of popularity few can even dream of. Even in retirement, he is seen on commercials rocking Wranglers and trimming his nose hair or tossing the ball around with local high school players.

He also was a flawed man whose final years were as ungraceful as possible and made him come off as selfish and wishy-washy. He won. A lot. He did so with the bravado and swagger of a diva and the look and toughness of the everyman. He was Kobe Bryant mixed with Cal Ripken Jr. with a dash of Super Dave Osborne and a smidgen of the Marlboro Man for good measure.

You can decide for yourself which traits you'll remember most, lover or hater. But one thing you'll always know about Brett Favre is that he is a Hall of Famer.

Can you name every NFL player to win the MVP and a Super Bowl in the same season?
SCORE:
0/10
TIME:
3:00
SB I
Bart Starr
SB XIII
Terry Bradshaw
SB XVII
Mark Moseley
SB XXI
Lawrence Taylor
SB XXIV
Joe Montana
SB XXVIII
Emmitt Smith
SB XXIX
Steve Young
SB XXXI
Brett Favre
SB XXXIII
Terrell Davis
SB XXXIV
Kurt Warner

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