Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Would I Brett Favre you? (Or assuring immortality, not by your talent, but by becoming a part of speech.)

Today Dada indulges his secret sportswriter ambitions.

Brett Favre
- v., -vred, -vr·ing, -vres.
To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another, often causing consternation in others; to waver endlessly; to outright lie. "I know I've quit before, but I'm not Brett Favring you, tomorrow I stop smoking for good."

Brett Favre was a talented quarterback willing to take chances, often with spectacular game altering results more often positive than not. As the record books attest, he's one of the greatest to play the game. But even off the field, Favre is setting records. As sports writer Jim Litke notes in today's paper, who else in one year's time has retired twice from football, come out of retirement twice, all without missing a game?! This may be where Favre's real talent lies.

Today there are fewer than two dozen people alive who remember "Slingin' Sammy" Baugh. He, too, was a great quarterback. But memories are fleeting. Just ask Baugh. Oh, you can't, he's dead. But that's okay, because most folks who knew of him are dead with him.

In time, Favre's fame as one of the greatest QB's to play the game will fade just as memories of other greats have. Just like Baugh's. But I'm beginning to suspect Brett Favre's inability to retire from football may ultimately assure his immortality. Not because of his skills on the football field.

So what's better than being a gridiron legend? Becoming a part of speech! Parts of speech embed in the language, lasting decades, even centuries beyond one's lifetime. Just ask Jules Léotard, Rev. William Archibald Spooner, or Gaius Julius Caesar. The language is full of dead people who became nouns and adjectives.

Favre's inability to quit the game presents him with a really unique opportunity -- to become a verb! (And I'm not favring you either.)

1 comment:

Billie Greenwood said...

Well, this post strikes a chord at our house (as I'm sure you're not surprised). I'm not a football fan, but I have to keep a little cognizant on "all things Packers" to survive in the family I married into. I'd say the respect level for Favre is rapidly diminishing around here.