Treason in the first degree

I’m about to commit a crime that is one of the worst you could ever commit. Treason. What am I planning to do this weekend?

I’m going to root for the Green Bay Packers.

I know, I know. Say it isn’t so! Blasphemy! Sacrilege! My twin brother would deny being related, my friends would disown me, my mother…I think my mother would cry. And my father, if he ever got wind of this, it would all be over. He’d force me to drop out of Rose by refusing to co-sign any of my loans until I went back home for an exorcism.

I’d be on the fast track to exile and embarrassment, all because I decided to root for a football team that made the playoffs this year.

By now, you may be wondering “why is it so wrong to root for a football team?” Well, I’m from northwest Indiana, essentially Chicago, meaning I root for the Chicago Cubs (the only baseball team in Chicago), the Chicago Blackhawks, and of course, Da Bears: The Monsters of the Midway. The pride and joy of Illinois. The basis of the best SNL sketch since Samurai Deli. And when it comes to rivalries in sports, the Bears and the Packers have few equals. We’re like the Montagues and the Capulets. If a Bears fan sees a Packers fan in public, he’s legally obligated to harass said fan with some insulting remark. Bonus points if said remark involves the fan’s mother. And us true Bears fans have all practiced remarks like this. I know roughly 17 different names for the Green Bay Packers, none of which are appropriate at this time…or any time, for that matter. Clearly, rooting for the Packers in northwest Indiana is not socially acceptable. It’s like rooting for Saddam Hussein. You don’t it. Period. Then why? Why am I rooting for the Packers? Who or what could make a die-hard Bears fan actually want to root for the most hated person in Chicago since Steve Bartman?

One man: Brett Favre.

The QB of all QB’s. Forget Tom Brady, he has nothing on Brett Favre. Favre would easily break all the single season records like Brady has if he was also throwing to a receiving core commonly mistaken for the Pro Bowl team. Instead, he decided to break all the career records held by Marino and company. Except he got a ring in the process - two, actually. He’s having one of the best seasons of his career at the age of 38. Most quarterbacks are limping by the age of 38. Not Favre. “Iron Man” is pretty much invincible, playing an inhuman 253 regular season games straight as the Packer’s quarterback/human target. The guy takes more hits than Rocky’s punching bag and still gets up to play, week after week after week, since September 27, 1992. His back-ups get less action than a Tibetan monastery in a snowstorm. In comparison, the Bears have had 19 different quarterbacks in that same span. Why haven’t we traded for this guy yet?

Throw deep, scramble, take a hit-Favre can do it all at any time. He even dominates in the frigid cold of winter when all the other teams try to run more. People criticizing Favre for playing poorly in Chicago two weeks ago because of cold clearly have no clue who Brett Favre is. He’s 40-5 at Lambeau field when the temperature is below 34 degrees at kickoff. 40-5. He gets better when it’s cold out. Saying Favre can’t play in the cold is like telling Einstein he can’t do physics.

Yeah, Mr. Einstein, your theories on relativity are great and all, but I think you’d do much better cross-breeding these bean plants…

Seriously people, try finding another reason to make Favre look bad, not that you could. While other NFL players are out partying, womanizing, and trying creative new ways to go to jail, Favre continues to be one of the positive role models in the NFL. He started the Brett Favre Fourward Foundation, which has donated over $2 million to charities in Mississippi. He won the Chris Greicius Celebrity Award from the Make-A-Wish Foundation for his outstanding work with the organization. Perhaps most surprisingly, he’s been married for 11 years now, with two daughters that are urging him to play yet another year in the NFL. He’s probably going to, he’s said. How about for an AFC team?

Except on Sundays against Da Bears, I can’t not like Brett Favre. Determined, victorious, a positive role model - the man’s more American than Uncle Sam. Perhaps the reason Packers fans like him so much is what he’s done against the Bears. Favre is 13-3 against Chicago in Chicago. Here’s to hoping he doesn’t teach that to Aaron Rodgers, his back-up since 2005. I also find it kind of funny that 13-3 happens to be the record Favre led the Packers to this year.

But Packers fans, which team gave you two of those losses?